I’m hoping for some advice on which light to buy, I’ve read tonnes of fantastic reviews on the site but I had a few concerns,
I’m using this light for on-road cycling in traffic, so something on the floody end of things would be great as I usually aim my light 3-5m in front of me,
I’d like to get at least 45 minutes on high mode from a 18650 battery on high without losing too much brightness
I’m budgeting $30-$40 delivered and while I can solder, I’d prefer not to have to add too many bits and pieces
I looked at the 980L, HD2010 and XinTD but the reviews said they were all on the floodier end of things.
I currently have a 500lm FandyFire HD2011 Cree XM-L T6 500LM but it’s not really bright enough on road.
I’m happy with getting a 2x18650 light if it will fit into my price range.
Welcome to BLF! I'm not much of a biker myself so I'm sure someone else can give you better advice than I can but I would suggest HD2010 with a 26650 cell for longer run time.
I use a Magicshine “1400 lumen” MJ816.
Not really 1400 lumen, but still very bright (i am going to replace the SSC-P7 led with an XML and the smaller leds already have other optics).
Compared to my MJ816 the newer bikelights are cheaper and even brighter.
First off, welcome to BLF! I'm confused too. That FandyFire HD2011 should be an extremely floody light. And the other ones you mention are not flooders at all, but throwers (albeit with bright spill). The HD2011 should be very bright too. What batteries are you using in it? Perhaps the batteries are not giving you enough current.
The HD2011 provides an excellent flood beam, probably the best floody beam I’ve come across for cycling in a single cell format. I’m wondering if you’re confusing flood with throw?
I’d recommend using 2 flashlights, one for throw and one for flood. The JM07 is about as good as it gets for a bike light, whilst it provides a good spill and an OP widish hot spot it works great as a thrower for a bike light, as it illuminates a good wide area at around 20m. Look it up for a review if you haven’t already.
I sometimes use the trustfire TR-3T6 in a 2 cell format. Provides a very bright wide spill and wide hotspot, pretty much a do it all in 1 flashlight. O.k if you’re roadbiking, although you need a very strong stable mount to keep it from slipping if you use it for offroad mountain biking due to the frontal head weight.
I've tested many of my small flashlights (single 18650 format) on my mountain bike, both on-trail and on-road, and I can tell you that 980L HD2010 and XinTD (C8?) are not ideal. They are thrower lights, mean they throw very far a small hotspot of light, and the surrounding only receive "some" spill light. Not good. Your eyes will hate this small bright hotspot dancing in front of you, and oncoming traffic will hate you too. So forget anything with a C8 reflector or similar.
You want a much more flooder light, which can evenly light a larger portion of what's in front of you.
I liked a lot the Lumapower D-mini VX with the XM-L pill and original OP shallow reflector. It has 4 levels of brightness (to not blind oncoming traffic you'll not go above lev.2 onroad)
It's not really budget but it's just to give you the idea.
