Cheap Bike Lights? How much is cheap?

When i ride my bike at night I have front and rear lights. Some days at this time of year I drive my car with the headlights on, because it looks a bit dingy. If I was riding my bike in the same conditions I'd like to think that if I turned my lights on I'd be seen better, but if you're on a restricted budget, are there lights out there that can fulfil this? By the way, if you want to see the output you could expect from a branded light, try this front lights guide and comparison engine (and the same for rear lights )
I've done a bit of research on the online bike stores, plus the dreaded (by some) Ebay, and I've found some lights that could burn your retinas if you get too close for next to no money.
 

Some Rear Lights

If you want  really cheap, then the best place to go is a Chinese importer on Ebay. The obvious downside to this is the long wait (average about 3-4 weeks, Hong Kong can be quicker but not by much) and the unknown quality; and while they happily offer a refund, it's normally the case that you have to ship them back at your own expense. That said, if you're not so keen on having one sent in from the Orient, then you can usually find a local seller for a bit more cost.

Front lights can be little "be seen" flashers, useful if you only ride in well-lit areas, or as a second light (I always like to have a flasher and a brighter light on at the same time), or bigger, brighter units which can throw some light onto the ground in front of you. There has been a tendency of late for road cyclists to join the "photon arms race" and plonk insanely bright mountain bike-style lights on. Apart from probably being illegal in some countries, they can also annoy other road users, especially if they're badly adjusted. Now I'm guessing that your average traffic cop probably isn't going to pull you over for having too much light on your bike, but there are always the occasional jobsworth PCSO's that might try their luck. And as for annoying others, the argument that they "might be annoyed but at least they've seen you" is probably a valid one!

The latest in high tech?

Rear lights need only to "be seen", but the further away a driver can spot you the better. In the UK the law states that you must have pedal reflectors: if you're out at night as a cyclist or a driver you might have noticed a rider by their moving pedals before seeing their dim, unblinking rear light, so my advice is: have reflective stuff on the backs of your shoes and on your lower legs, and have your rear light on flashing mode. Some people think that asymmetrical flashing patterns are best, but I think any flashing is better than none.

The other factors that need to be taken into account when buying lights is: 
what powers them, and how waterproof are they?
Lights are generally powered by either AA's/AAA's, removeable lithium's or fixed lithiums with a USB plug. Each have their good and bad points. For instance, if your light takes AA's then you can always carry a spare set in case of emergencies, and if you want to help save the planet then modern rechargeable NIMH batteries will hold at least 3/4 of their charge for months at a time. Rechargeable lithiums, while more expensive, do last longer, particularly if you have a fair few watts of power being consumed, and again you can carry spares. USB charging seems to be the preserve of more expensive lights at the moment, and while many reviewers like them, I've had other electronic products that have an internal battery and I invariably end up with a power failure at some point.
As for waterproofing (and general wear and tear), I willingly concede that usually, the more you pay, the longer the lights will last. However, a little maintenance will keep your lights dry and snug. I always spray the inside of my lights with a little switch cleaner (WD40/GT85 style water dispersants work too) then let it dry before putting in the batteries, and I also grease the seals for extra protection - petroleum jelly is excellent for this.

Here are a few suggestions for "cheap as chips" lights. Remember, even if you've spent the earth on a set of retina burners, a cheap spare set could someday be a godsend!

I bought this little number for £2.65 as an emergency back up for my son. The rear light is basically a throw away item (if you have room on your bike it would probably do as an extra flasher), but if it's all you can afford then it at least makes you legal, but the front is actually quite a nice bright little "be seen" light. Add to that a UK seller who offers a year's warranty and you can't go wrong!

A little more expensive set is this Smart Lunar 35 offering from High On Bikes on Ebay. They sell these for £23.95 buy it now, but I picked up one for auction for about £14. A well-built front light which is plenty bright enough for riding well-lit areas and the dinkiest little rear light which puts out a very respectable 1/2 a watt

Another offering from High On Bikes is this Raleigh-branded set consisting of a claimed 3 watt front light which should be plenty for the occasional darker route, and a 1/2 watt rear light. I've not tried this set out but the other Raleigh light (see below) I have is a very nice piece of kit. This set is currently only £11.95. Units can be bought separately from a company called On One

Talking of Raleigh, this is the light I have had on one of my bikes for a couple of months: two lights at a half watt each, set on alternating flash can be seen from space (okay slight exaggeration). This is so bright I happily use it during the day, safe in the knowledge that it can be seen from quite a distance. Available from High on Bikes (I'm not a rep, honest!) for £6.95 (I paid £12 for mine), but what looks like an identical version which goes by the wonderful moniker of "Phaart Bleep" can be bought for the princely sum of £4.99 from On One
although there is shipping on top of that unless you're buying some other stuff.

Similar to the above light and selling for £4.95 from an outfit called Absolute Cycles is the Etc Tailbright Duo. It's an altogether smaller unit than the raleigh, and if I'm honest a little cheaper feeling (just as bright though). However, I really like the fact that the whole front part lights up so you can see it if it isn't directly pointing at you, even from the side. It also has a very simple hook style attachment that makes it easy to swap from one bike to another. Along with its dinkiness, this makes it ideal as an emergency, carry with you sort of light.


Finally, if you fancy a bit of a punt, I've got a couple of Chinese options that you might want to consider. there's this:

On sale on Ebay for £2.78. I've not received mine yet but going by the picture it looks identical to the Raleigh/ Phaart offering above. I don't think a saving of barely a couple of quid for the pleasure of waiting up to a month for something which could be crap is really worth it, but my next offering is a bit of a diamond in the rough:

This light has two Cree LED's I'm not sure which ones they are; it has a claimed output of 3 watts, I don't know if this is accurate, but the battery drain time on high should give me a clue. It's certainly significantly brighter than those Ebay Cree torches (I have one of those as well), and it looks a whole lot nicer on my bike.
It takes three AAA's and has three modes high, low and flash. On high power, the light is plenty bright enough to see the road in front of you and the beam appears to be shaped so that not too much light is scattered upwards. All in all it's quite a nice little unit for the £8.50 I shelled out for it, and I don't suppose it'll be long before someone decides to import them wholesale and sell them from the UK [watch this space!]


I'm sure there are many other bargains to be had out there in ebay land; this is just a taster. I can't deny that in most cases if you pay more you will get better quality and longevity, but unless you need a small sun on your bars or helmet (i.e. if you're a mountain biker, or just want to seriously piss off other road users), a cheaper light will get you noticed, you can run several lights cheaply, and, in the bike light arms race nothing stands still: your £150 light that you bought yesterday could be obsolete tomorrow!

On buying a shiny new bicycle

I could probably say I am not a follower of fashion. If anything, I embody the fashion of anti-fashion. This can have implications..... for instance: after an accident where I broke my elbow and a couple of ribs, I lost my confidence and threw my bike [a very nice but unfashionably steel Raleigh racer from the early eighties] into the skip; and then, about three years ago I decided I'd quite like to take up cycling again.

A quick check of my (then) current circumstances (ten years older, five stones heavier, very unfit etc.) led me to think that drop handlebars were no longer an option; and besides, I thought - and this is where my keen sense of anti-fashion kicks in - "nobody seems to ride racing bikes these days."

Despite thinking that drops were no longer an option, I did know that I didn't want a cart horse of a hybrid/mountain bike with big knobbly tyres that need you to pedal down hills as well as up.

So I took my list of requirements: a road bike (for that's what they call racing bikes these days dear reader) with flat bars and skinny-ish tyres, and trawled the local bike shops (or LBS as we, ahem, cyclists say). This wasn't as straightforward as you would think: one callow youth in Leisure Lakes, on hearing my requirements, took one look at me and then spent about ten minutes explaining that what I actually needed was a hybrid... without mentioning that he thought I was too fat for a racing bike!

Unperturbed I found a bike online that I wanted, at about a third of the price in another LBS. It was a Claud Butler Chinook with flat bars and 23mm tyres. I was a little worried that the wheels wouldn't be er, wheel enough for the job of carrying my 18 stone frame around but I could always buy a stiffer back wheel if necessary.

Apparently, Claud Butler's aren't fashionable any more - of course. But I liked it; although for the first couple of years of ownership it didn't get used much. However this summer I have ridden like the wind, we even took our bikes on holiday. Unfortunately we were at the highest point in quite a wide area, so wherever we went we had to cycle up hill to get home, leading to a complete hissy fit from me one day when we seemed to be going perpetually downhill on the way out, without even a pub at the end.

Despite loving my Chook (short for chinook - keep up), there are a couple of issues with it, not least the flat bars. As I previously mentioned, I thought I might be getting a little old for drop handlebars, but actually,  I've found that flat bars have only one position to hold them. After a few miles I was desperate for another position to relieve the pain in my hands, wrists and shoulders. Drop handlebars have several distinct holds which can alleviate the pressure on those areas. I find myself "holding" the bars by my fingertips to stretch my back and shoulders out, especially going up hill. By the way, did I mention I don't like going up hills? Yes? Okay then. Also, for a cheapish commuter, it was a surprisingly stiff set-up, with the combination of all aluminium frame and cheap 23mm tyres making every bump on the road feel like I was riding over cobbles. There's a pedestrian crossing on the way to my mum's which has one of those ultra grippy surfaces on it; the surface is largely destroyed, but in strips so it feels like your fillings are going to be rattled out as you ride over -  a bit like driving over a cattle grid. I should point out that the bike's ability to transmit every road blemish through its frame has been largely offset by buying some 25mm tyres.
And then there's the issue of its gearing: it's got a triple chainset (three chain rings at the front).. Now I don't have much experience of modern gearing, my last bike had only12 gears, pretty techno for 1981! However, no matter how much I adjust, I can get the two extreme chain wheels to work flawlessly, but the middle one, which of course I use most of the time, only has about three gears which don't make a noise. You can move the "chatter" to the top or bottom few gears, but I can't seem to index it across the board.
So my wish list for a shiny new bike would be: drop handlebars for more hand positions, comfortable, non-jarring ride, compact double chainset instead of triple, and a "granny" gear to help me up the hills.With a new 18 months interest free credit card winging its way to me, a set limit of £500 and a list of last year's models at clearance prices, I've spent hours of fun, comparing one to another, reading reviews and specifications, and whittling down the shortlist until I had only 3 or 4 of the best value and well regarded bikes left.

My shortlist was,

Genesis Volant 20; at the top of my price range at £499, but stuffed full of good gear componentry; unfortunately the size I think I need was out of stock by the time the credit card came through,

Genesis Volant 10; same frame as the above but slightly cheaper components; same price as above,

Vitus Zenium; an own brand from Chain Reaction, but warmly reviewed by the cycling press,

Giant Defy 3: has the advantage of a massive company with a lifetime warranty on the frame. Probably a bit too popular [fashionable?] for my taste

Felt Z95; my personal favourite along with the Genesis bikes; some very grudgingly good reviews.

In the end I went for the Genesis Volant 10

A very handsome choice though I do say myself. Only problem now is I've fallen out of love with my Chinook (it's much harder to pedal up hills than the Genesis) a bit. Anyway, a string of viruses leading to breathing problems has made me lay off the bikes for a while; a real shame since my fitness was getting so much better!