Cree lights on Ebay

PB Forum :: All Mountain, Enduro & Cross-Country

Cree lights on Ebay

Author	Message

pabloh1

Posted: Sep 10, 2012 at 12:19	Quote
Hi all,just wondering if anyone has bought any lights from China.On Ebay now you can buy a rechargeable 1800 lumen(or so they say) bike light for £20-£25,i know you get what you pay for but come on,this is cheap right? or are they shockingly bad a not worth a punt,feedback on their sites seems good but i would like to know from somebody in the know,cheers guys.P

Polar77

Posted: Sep 10, 2012 at 15:46	Quote
currently waiting on mine to arrive actually. Some of the people I ride with got them last year and they said they are working great. More closer to 900-1000 lumen though. Pretty much a direct knock off of the magicshine lights.

spol

Posted: Sep 10, 2012 at 20:32

Quote

All flashlights are made in China these days and most of them are actually pretty good for the price. The average user would love them, but I'm a flashaholic so I try to buy only quality budget lights. You just have to know what to buy and from which shop in China.

For biking you need something without "PWM" which is like a really really fast strobe (hard to see) which manufacturers use to give the flashlight more run time, it stands for "Pulse Width Modulation". You don't see the effect of PWM until you start moving so it's not desirable for riding. Any light with slow rate of PWM can be very annoying for riding and might even give you headache. Most budget flashlights from ebay, DX, etc have some sort of PWM so I would avoid buying from them unless it's a specific brand which I already know has no bad PWM.

For the LED itself you're going to want a "Cree XM-L" running on lithium battery, you also need a lithium battery charger. For the battery size "18650" is a good start, but you could go for the smaller 14500 or the bigger 26650

You also need to know if you want a more floody beam or more throw, which will depend on your style of riding and the environment you will be riding in. Flashlights with Orange Peel reflector (OP) will be more floody, while Smooth reflector will throw better. Flood and throw also depend on the size of the head of the flashlight and how deep the reflector is.

Here are some recommendations that are good value for money.
They are on the pricier side of budget lights but the quality is very high and there is no PWM with these.

http://www.intl-outdoor.com/edc-18650-xpg2-r5-xml-u2-850450lm-flashlight-p-522.html
http://www.intl-outdoor.com/roche-f12-xml-mini-18650-black-flashlight-p-399.html
http://www.intl-outdoor.com/shadow-bl21-xml-800lumens-bike-light-p-465.html (bike specific - comes with battery and charger) I don't own this one btw but I have other lights from the brand

Mount: http://fancyflashlights.com/goods.php?id=309

pabloh1

Posted: Sep 11, 2012 at 10:16	Quote
Thanks very much both of you for taking the time to give me some great feedback,happy biking.P

SWenduro

Posted: Sep 11, 2012 at 22:42	Quote
Check out niterider. They aren't bad....when they work. They don't cost £20 though....but a light costing that much is a POS. Also check out ayup lights.

spol

Posted: Sep 12, 2012 at 9:27	Quote
You have no clue what you're talking about SW! You can buy a great quality light for £20 (battery & charger not included).

welshspannermonkey

Posted: Sep 12, 2012 at 11:56

Quote

I have a Hope vision 4 and a cheep Cree from Ebay.

Although the hope is a lot more "refined" I have never had any issues with the cheep one. I run the Cree on my helmet and the hope on the bar and they have seen three winters of wet and freezing cold.

I only had one time when the cheep one failed and that was a freezing cold night and the hope failed about half an hour later it was too cold for the batteries.

for the sake of 30-40 quid buy one!!

pabloh1

Posted: Sep 12, 2012 at 12:38	Quote
Hey Americano,just ordered a POS,will let you know how good they are when i have tested them,if they are tosh then it can go on my lid.

SWenduro

Posted: Sep 12, 2012 at 14:23

Quote

pabloh1 wrote:

Hey Americano,just ordered a POS,will let you know how good they are when i have tested them,if they are tosh then it can go on my lid.

Let us know. Very interested to know how they hold up. I'm used to having to pay £100-300 for a good light.

SWenduro

Posted: Sep 12, 2012 at 14:25

Quote

spol wrote:

You have no clue what you're talking about SW!

You can buy a great quality light for £20 (battery & charger not included).

I just built a new light and the light module alone cost $100. That's a quality light.

dogboy1066

Posted: Sep 12, 2012 at 14:39	Quote
Nice, I hope your experience is as good as mine. I bought 2 £30 POS 1200 lumen (claimed) lights from deal xtreme last October. They are still working now nearly a year later with no problems. I've used them daily for my work commute, for many night rides, including the one I just got back from and have even got them wet in the rain. Possibly the best value for money spent on biking in a while.

spol

Posted: Sep 12, 2012 at 14:41	Quote
I'm sure you got something very high quality for that kind of price but what qualities do you find in a $100 drop-in that you think a $30 one would not have?

SWenduro

Posted: Sep 12, 2012 at 18:23

Quote

spol wrote:

I'm sure you got something very high quality for that kind of price but what qualities do you find in a $100 drop-in that you think a $30 one would not have?

It can survive 10s of thousands of rounds of .223, but I have to admit that that isn't really necessary. Ive also bought a $30 lumens factory drop-in that seems to be fairly reliable. I sort of get obsessed with reliability sometimes. I have also noticed that with cheaper drop-ins, the beam color temp and pattern can be a hit or miss. The expensive drop-ins however, have very consistent color temp and pattern.

edle

Posted: Sep 12, 2012 at 19:37	Quote
I bought one of those Cree light(uses 18650 rechargeable battery) from a Chinese dealer in Ebay and I'm very happy with it. It is 1400 lumen with adjustable beam/5 modes and is super bright. I bought an adapter for it to use on my bike.

pabloh1

Posted: Sep 13, 2012 at 11:33	Quote
Decided to go for this one in the end http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170908992859?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 should be with me in 10-14 days,even if its not the 2400 lu it claims it is still going to be bright enough for forest trails.Thanks for all the feed back,will report back when i have tested them

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