I have neither of those lights, but several others that work great for cycling. But what type of riding do you do? Road, trail or MTB, country or city, commuting or fitness? Do you just need flashlights or also recommendations on batteries, mounts, etc.? This is a long thread, so sorry if the answer is buried in another post. You started the thread in July, 2011, what happened to the lights you got last time or did you ever buy any?
Specialized (as in "made for the purpose", not the American bike company) bike lights are way better than just using flashlights, IMO - due to really long runtimes, and no need to fiddle with shady mounts.
Just wondering what the thief is going to do with a 18650-powered light, considering that most thiefs are not smart people really and won’t figure out where to get charger for it.
One of "best bang for the buck" high-quality options would be $8 Solarforce L2 host + $16 MF drop-in.
Shadoww, is the Solarforce drop-in any good if he wants to get from the same source? I never hear anyone recommending that one, only the Manafont or IOS versions.
If you have one light, and it is fixed to the bars, it should probably be floody. A spot simply does not give a large enough field if view. A cheap option would be to use tir optics which offer a wide range of beam shapes and can be swapped for a spot when you are off the bike. A 15 deg beam will light the whole trail where a spot will only show you the rock on the left as you endo in the hole on the right. A spot is also good for looking ahead/around corners when mounted to a helmet but even then then next 50' is the primary concern so it need not be a tight spot. With only one light for offroad I would go for a 10deg spot and a helmet mount to see where you are looking, single cell xml light with spare cells. Greedbay for a cheap taillight Blackburn, vistalite old stock ~$5. A bar mount is insufficient as a stand alone unless you can afford a floody quad xpg or triple xml and lots of batteries. I ride trails with trees and rocks, logs and drops. If you only ride fire protection roads you can get by with less.
I tell you, that M10, and the KE-5 is going to light up the world. However, more knowlegeable posters are advising if you get one, get a floody. Well, I got this one too, and it is floody, and wide...
You're welcome. Just wanted some real world riding issues mentioned. Although I mod handlights I don't use them on the bike as I could not achieve high output and long runtime in a host that was practical to put on my head and I did not want to stop for battery changes. Also, I already had a halogen set but as I age I gound I needed more light. Now I'm greedy for more. You are getting plenty of advise from people who know about hosts and mounts. What you are doing is a compromise solution. I prefer a large spot/medium flood but any lightwill help as long as it works so the only really wrong choice you could make would be one that could not handle the abuse. Ask if anyone would be willing to test their favorite by wrapping it in bubble wrap and putting it in the dryer for 45 minutes. That's the one you should pick.