Extreme Lighting

Instead of paying a fortune for inadequate lights here in Europe this winter I amassed a collection of extremely bright LED lamps direct from China - with very high capacity batteries and chargers. The "18650" format batteries are not available in Europe but the red lithium ion ones here have a capacity of 5300mAh.

The small head torch is rated at 600 lumens (CREE Q5 LED), the larger headtorch at 1200 lumens (CREE XM-L T6 LED) and the bike lamp at 1600 lumens (CREE XM-L T6 LED) . Already the 1200 lumens torch seems brighter than the car headlights I'm confronted with when out running. The small rear LED for the bike is not as bright as as a "superbright" led lamp that I already have - but it does have the built in reflector that meets certain legal requirements. The bike lamp has a 4 battery pack of  "18650" type batteries and this should guarantee full power for quite some time. It can be used as a headtorch also - but the battery cable would have to be routed into a pocket. This might be useful in extreme cold so that batteries can be kept warm and so function much better and longer.

The small headtorch is extremely light and with an adjustable lens - but in this generation of technology the light is very white. The bigger lamps are the latest LED chips and the light is more natural and pleasant to look at. The small lamp doesn't need the center strap for stability but the larger ones do.  All the straps can be removed on the units so adjustment is very easy. All purchases were made direct from Honk Kong on Ebay and despite being very cheap everything came as advertised without issues. The small torch doesn't charge properly - it lights up when put on charge. They sent me another one free and the original LED eventually malfunctioned during charging - perhaps due to heat as I'd covered the light with a hat. The broken one still works as a charging unit. In the end I decided to avoid on board charging altogether and buy a separate charger with higher powered lithium ion batteries in another great deal.

The link to one of the Ebay sites is on the side of the blog (GoMarketStore). I can strongly recommend any of the above products for incredible function and value. Currently for under $10 the small lamp here is brighter than anything that can be bought here in France for under $500. The two dedicated headtorches have rear LEDS integrated. The small torch leaves the red LED flashing every several seconds all the time there is a battery in it. The larger torch only uses the red LED when switched on - and the red LED is constant when the main LED is constant. The larger torch is basically a better design all round. For me it delivers a very powerful light that gives real confidence when out on the mountains in the dark. For something very lightweight the small lamp is still excellent and ridiculously bright. Autumn is the time of year when this equipment is most needed - when the nights close in but the weather is still quite good. Later, during December, January and February it's often only possible to train at night and on the road - so bright lights make for good protection from bad drivers. It's been very frustrating having inadequate lighting for many years now and seeing the astronomical price of any alternatives. From now on that problem is history. Thank you China!