[Notthatbryan]

I've gotten back into my this year and am now in the search for lights for the winter. I'm lucky and have nice trails right behind the house, but am starting to quickly run out of daylight during the week.
What should I start looking at for a set of lights? One light on the bars, one on the helmet. I'd like a 2 hour or better run time. Budget under $500ish total.

Thanks.

 

[MRMOLE]

I've gotten back into my this year and am now in the search for lights for the winter. I'm lucky and have nice trails right behind the house, but am starting to quickly run out of daylight during the week.
What should I start looking at for a set of lights? One light on the bars, one on the helmet. I'd like a 2 hour or better run time. Budget under $500ish total.

Thanks.

A good description of your riding style (casual or aggressive or ?), good description of your typical trail conditions (open flowy/long lines of sight or overgrown forest/short lines of sight or ?) would be helpful. Do you want self-contained or is separate lighthead and battery acceptable? Your budget will afford you very good options so are you interested in the best value for your needs or just the absolute best lights that fit your budget?
Mole

 

[Notthatbryan]

A good description of your riding style (casual or aggressive or ?), good description of your typical trail conditions (open flowy/long lines of sight or overgrown forest/short lines of sight or ?) would be helpful. Do you want self-contained or is separate lighthead and battery acceptable? Your budget will afford you very good options so are you interested in the best value for your needs or just the absolute best lights that fit your budget?
Mole

I'm a moderate rider. Fairly aggressive but not doing big drops or big jumps.
Primary trails are rooty technical singletrack that cuts back on itself often. Sight lines are pretty good for the most part except for the switchbacks.
I'm open to either self contained or separate battery pack options.
I'm interested primary in performance, and am not afraid to spend what's necessary, but spending less is always good.

Thanks

 

[Outbound]

Might I suggest the Evo Downhill Package?

Evo Downhill Package (Evo & Hangover)

The ultimate mountain bike lighting setup. Trail Evo on the handlebars and Hangover on your helmet to create a seamless wall of light.

www.outboundlighting.com

 

[Notthatbryan]

Might I suggest the Evo Downhill Package?

Evo Downhill Package (Evo & Hangover)

The ultimate mountain bike lighting setup. Trail Evo on the handlebars and Hangover on your helmet to create a seamless wall of light.

www.outboundlighting.com

I'm leaning that way already.

 

[CTMTB17]

I have the Outbound Downhill set (with the Trail handlebar light, not the new Evo), and it's awesome. It all works as advertised, and everything looks and feels high-quality. I never need to set the lights any brighter than medium, which is great for battery run time. I tried running them on high just to test the battery capacity, and I still had juice left after my 2-hour ride.

 

[MRMOLE]

Outbound EVO is a very good bar light! It has a very wide smooth beam coverage, reasonable throw, enough output to provide very good intensity/brightness even in the med. mode, has been my favorite bar light in every off-road con\dition I've used it in and IMO is Outbound's most flexible light for varying trail conditions. The Hangover on the other hand is a much more narrow usage focused light. For it's output it has a very intense but narrow beam that's great for spotting upcoming points of reference but it wouldn't be my first choice for switchbacks. When I ride tight lower speed trails I prefer something with a bit wider beam (Gloworm X2 or XS) for helmet use. The Gloworms are more expensive but also have 2-3 times the lumen output, programmable preset output levels, changeable optics that allow beam shape modification and wireless remotes. You know your trails so up to you to choose what you think your best option is. Whatever you decide I'd wait for the upcoming Black Friday sales which are usually the best prices of the year.
Mole

 

[palmasi]

I got the Light and Motion Seca Enduro a couple of months ago and wear it on my helmet. 6 cell battery in the pack. It’s 2,500 lumens on high and is like riding in the daytime. I love it. It was $400. I also have a $30 Amazon light on the bars that works great. Vastfire. Only an hour of run on high though.

 

[cue003]

Some great recommendations already. Is there a better self contained light for the handlebars than the outbound trail Evo regardless of price?

 

[ibanda]

Bryan you are already ahead in that you understand you want 2 lights and have set aside a decent budget.

I got to the trailhead one time and one of my lights would not turn on. I took off fast with the group with 1 light and crashed 100 feet into the ride. I realized really quick why 2 were recommended.

I have the Outbound Lights package and am happy with it. I have also run 2 Lezynes in the 800 to 1,000 lumen range and they worked, but the Outbound are better.

 

[Notthatbryan]

Bryan you are already ahead in that you understand you want 2 lights and have set aside a decent budget.

I got to the trailhead one time and one of my lights would not turn on. I took off fast with the group with 1 light and crashed 100 feet into the ride. I realized really quick why 2 were recommended.

I have the Outbound Lights package and am happy with it. I have also run 2 Lezynes in the 800 to 1,000 lumen range and they worked, but the Outbound are better.

Thanks,
I used to do ride a ton including night riding and some 24 hour racing, but that was 20 years ago. Lights have changed a ton since, the last ones I used had a NiCad battery the size of a water bottle.

 

[Outbound]

Some great recommendations already. Is there a better self contained light for the handlebars than the outbound trail Evo regardless of price?

If there is, I wanna know so we can beat it handily.

 

[slapheadmofo]

I'm just a normal mountain biker from New England who's been riding mainly in the dark4-5 months out of the year since I bought my first clunky Niterider set up back in 93 or 94.

Obviously some people love to geek out about lights, but I IMHO, there is no need for anything beyond a sub- $100 dollar Niterider Lumina (or something very similar) mounted on your helmet for regular trail riding. Handlebar mounted lights are practically useless IME, probably 1 out of 10 people I know even bother running them, and they're typically the ones who tend to overspend on bike stuff to begin with.
No, they won't impress anyone on the internet forums, but on the trail they're perfectly fine.
Grab one and see if you actually feel you need more IRL before blowing a bunch of money.

 

[wayold]

Obviously some people love to geek out about lights, but I IMHO, there is no need for anything beyond a sub- $100 dollar Niterider Lumina (or something very similar) mounted on your helmet for regular trail riding.

We've had Niterider Luminas in the family for years that were fine for the relatively brief and relatively tame after dark rides I did with my wife. Then I decided I wanted to go for longer night rides and made the mistake of seeing the runtime graphs of some of the Luminas posted in this forum. The output goes WAY down in the first half hour or so. As an old guy my night vision already kinda sucks and I didn't feel like seeing how far I could push my dark adaptation. I like the form factor of the Luminas, but you can find lights with a lot better runtime and more stable power delivery without having to spend a lot (though I admit I admire the very nice, powerful and full featured Gloworm and Outbound Lighting systems). Among the less expensive lights that folks around here seem to like are the Ceco F1000 and F1200 (best prices on Amazon) and some of the lights from Magicshine (ranging from an inexpensive moderate-output set up I picked up recently to systems comparable to the Gloworms and Outbounds in both output and price).

 

[slapheadmofo]

We've had Niterider Luminas in the family for years that were fine for the relatively brief and relatively tame after dark rides I did with my wife. Then I decided I wanted to go for longer night rides and made the mistake of seeing the runtime graphs of some of the Luminas posted in this forum. The output goes WAY down in the first half hour or so. As an old guy my night vision already kinda sucks and I didn't feel like seeing how far I could push my dark adaptation.

Prices seem very reasonable on those lights you linked.
If they are as reliable and well-backed as Niteriders, I would consider those for sure.

How many hours do you consider 'relatively brief"?
I regularly do 2.5-3 hour rides with no issues.

As far as output dropping, did you ever actually notice this IRL? Sounds like didn't know there was a 'problem' until the internet told you there was one.

 

[JDUBku]

I run 2 magicshine MJ 900's. One on the bar and one on the helmet. Never any issue. Work great. Cant beat the price.
magicshine MJ 900's

 

[mack_turtle]

there is no need for anything beyond a sub- $100 dollar Niterider Lumina (or something very similar) mounted on your helmet for regular trail riding.

fair, but that's only enough runtime if you're going to limit your rides to one hour. I can't remember the last time I went for a ride that lasted less than two hours. YMMV and all that, but that's not nearly enough battery.

 

[MRMOLE]

Prices seem very reasonable on those lights you linked.
If they are as reliable and well-backed as Niteriders, I would consider those for sure.

Reliability wise I don't think Nightrider is anything special compared to most other Manufacturers. Product support is outstanding though!!!

As far as output dropping, did you ever actually notice this IRL? Sounds like didn't know there was a 'problem' until the internet told you there was one.

True that your eyes/brain adjusts to the degrading light output (to a certain extent) but I've found it noticeable on the NR lights I've tested in the higher modes (Lower modes the output is more stable). Most of the Lumina owners I discussed this characteristic with reply that they thought all lights did this so not sure how much they even care. For those that do it's nice to know on the front end of the deal what your getting since in many cases your paying extra for a higher rated light that only exchanges the increased initial output for lower output at the end (where you need it more IMO) + that there are much better options available.
Mole

 

[slapheadmofo]

fair, but that's only enough runtime if you're going to limit your rides to one hour. I can't remember the last time I went for a ride that lasted less than two hours. YMMV and all that, but that's not nearly enough battery.

As I said, I have never had a problem with 2.5-3+ hour rides. Majority of people I ride with also run them and neither do they.
Not sure where you're getting this 1 hour thing.

 

[slapheadmofo]

Reliability wise I don't think Nightrider is anything special compared to most other Manufacturers. Product support is outstanding though!!!

Yeah, they've taken good care of me many times support wise.

I've tried a few other more 'no name' lights and as far as being able to just treat them like **** and have things keep working, they've been been solid.
I'm sure there are other solid lights out there, but I have yet to find a reason to change.