Dark nights are here again and after using a Chinese made Solar Storm for the last few years I thought it was time to invest in something a bit better so what do folks recommend? Preferably under £150.

I use either a Revo on a dynamo powered bike or a toro. Either a Diablo or a joystick as a helmet light. All by exposure. Not cheap options but they have all been hammered and have worked well.

One cheaper option which I have used is the alpkit hadon. It’s very, very bright (2000lumens) and the head unit is tiny. £95 and backed by Alpkit’s 3 year no-nonsense guarantee.

On my bars I use a Nitefighter BT40s (with a proper panasonic batteries) or an Exposure Strada. Normally the former but sometimes use the latter as the remote is quite handy. The Strada is my commuting light

On my lid I normally use my Diablo. I have a Joystick for commuting on the road.

For summer trips where there will be very little night riding I'll pop the diablo onto the bars as it's so much lighter

My exposure diffuser for my diablo also fits on my BT40s which means I have a lantern with a long battery life!

I suppose it depends what you are doing, i.e. are you intending riding trail centre type stuff or some pootle off to a bivy? If the former then all the lumens you can buy for your budget. If the latter then just about any light from the decent manufacturers will do - Exposure, Hope, Lezyne.

I've a Hope Vision 2 that I've had for years and an Exposure Joystick that I've had about a year. I used the Joystick on the HT550, even on the low setting it was more than good enough to ride by. I used the low setting to eke out the battery life, it still had 50% charge after 3 nights of a couple of hours' riding and the final all nighter when I switched to the middle output setting for the West Highland Way.

Edit: There's also the integrated vs. separate battery approach. The Hope has a separate battery, the Joystick is integrated. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

I find my revo poor on group rides. The sort where you climb regroup and decend.

You spend the first few corners getting it charged up again before you get the lumens back.

But I find on long rides and commuting the lack of having to worry about battery preservation is priceless.

I'd look out for deals on a diablo.

Exposure really do build a product designed to last - and offer after sales repairs at a realistic price.... I dropped my 9year old maxx d from handlebar height into concrete and an emitter broke off the board internally.

Emailed use - was honest I dropped it.

Was a 15 quid repair Inc postage.

Lumicycle here. 'Explorer' version. Admittedly premium and UK, but massive daylight-power on 'full' for 3 hrs but get 24h out of 'low' setting. Intended for fast techy stuff but I just use it for everything. Have used their gear for over 10 years and service is second to none. Example similar to Trail-Rat & Diablo: I once had a couple of their halogens on my bars. They were housed in little aluminium pods. Riding along with only one connected and the other pinged off for some operator-error reason onto the road. Just about to step out and pick it up and a lorry ran over it - flat as a pancake bizarre shape on the tarmac! Eventually retrieved it and tongue-in-cheek posted it to them saying that I couldn't get it to power up for some reason . A few days later a (brand new) one arrives gratis with a note saying 'managed to repair after a lot of effort' .

Anyway that Alpkit job looks good.

USAGE - easy trails and bikepacking, 8 hours burn time but preferably more.
DYNAMO - no thanks.

Was thinking of a joystick but the alpkit one looks ok too at that price.

Now I'm home I've got some of the URIs to hand.

This comparison test http://road.cc/content/buyers-guide/212 ... n-plus-how is useful even if it doesn't have every single model. When comparing it's worth trying each light on both left and right of the test image as the scene isn't symmetrical so the left hand side appears to be brighter but this is just because objects are closer on that side.

Run time generally isn't a problem with LED light: the Hope Vision 2 has a 20hr run time on low and the Exposure Joystick can run for 36hrs if you choose the right program and keep it on the low setting. It's worth checking the beam shape as well, some lights are almost like a spotlight whereas others are more floodlight in their output.

had the cheap alpkit lights but then i bought a exposure 6 pack 4500 lumens and its like riding during the day,it might seem like a lot of money at first but i wish i had bought the exposure ages ago,if you get a high output light you can run it at half power for much longer,i use a joystick for helmet mounted in winter and in the summer i use it as my main light

Exposure Diablo Mk5. One for the head: one for the bar. Bright & light, but switches have been temperamental, making them difficult to turn off.

If it's for easy trails then you'd be amazed how few lumens you can get away. The only problem is for fast or techy descents or if you're riding with others with brighter lights than your own

"how few lumens you can get away with". Interesting point there Ben. Yonks ago I rode for quite a while with a Petzl Zoom on my head at fairly reckless speeds, no doubt others have the same memory. When we all moved "on" to WW2 searchlights, after a while someone made the thought-provoking comment that we'd basically now lost all the atmosphere of off-road night riding.

I use a Lumenator and a Lumen 800 from these guys..

https://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/mountain-bike-lights/

They're currently doing the combo for £155.

That gets you a bar light and a helmet light with the same connectors so you have a bit of flexibility.

I’ve got a Lumenator that has done about four years and is still going strong. I also have a Nitefighter BT40 on the bars, which has an excellent beam and can use the same batteries as the Lumenator.

I also have a ‘torch’ that takes 4 x 18650 rechargeables and claims to put out ten billion lumens or something. I’ve drilled it for a Hope bar mount, giving me a cheap (and vastly inferior) alternative to the USE self-contained lights. It’s actually pretty good.

I've an older exposure Too (900 lumens) which is plenty for New Forest Gravel and easy trails and a 1500L Lupine Piko which is fab - Bluetooth remote and tuneable via the app to push out runtime

SolarStorm jobby on the bars that I've had a few years with a quality 8cell battery and a recently acquired fluxient u2mini on the helmet that I'm very impressed with(3hrs on high),plus I can carry a spare 18650 if needed for multi-day stuff.. all cheap and cheerful compared to some stuff out there but I dont feel the need for and more lumens.

suggest either the bar/helmet combo from mtbbatteries or something from Torchy the Battery Boy on ebay with a spare of his batteries too

From looking at the bikes and helmets of BB members at events, Exposure seems to be the most popular brand by a long way - but that could be that their products are very recognisable

Just gaffertape one of these to your bars for £24 and be done with it I reckon. 3.5million candlepower should light up most of the county.

Yonks ago I rode for quite a while with a Petzl Zoom on my head at fairly reckless speeds, no doubt others have the same memory.

Yes, I've just searched out my very first Petzl headlight. Tiny little bulb with a massive 3LR12 4.5v battery strapped to the back. I recall it produced no more than a warm glow but it was fun

Tried a fluxient u2 mini on my lid but thought it was a bit heavy

Have some massive fluxient thing for the bars but never use it

I'm going back to my ancient ay-ups as I think it's a nicer light rather than blistering daylight...might even try and pick up another spotty light unit

I still have a couple of the earlier versions of the "original" petzl headtorches (had the rigid plastic battery case that was held together by a loop of the elasticated headband).

Happy days

Love my exposure diablo - it gets used regularly on the bars of my road bike for the winter country lane commute of around an hour each way and then as a helmet mount on the mountain bike in conjunction with a maxx d.

sigmasport have 30% off most exposure lights at the moment.

"massive 3LR12 4.5v battery strapped to the back" .... "no more than a warm glow but it was fun"...""original" petzl".

Yep them there things. I can feel a test run coming on, must go and dig it out, so that I can recall those halcyon days. The yellow warm glow made you feel part of the surroundings, left plenty of spooky darkness, and allowed a little frisson of fear into the proceedings; unlike these blasted bright white LEDs scything our way across the countryside. My Petzl doubled up as a caving lamp, taking me down such lunatic places as Little Neath River Cave, Swildons, Giants, and all the rest. Ah, the folly of youth and the simple pleasures of suicidal missions.