review - XM-L T6 LED +2x XPE R2 LED 8.4v Bicycle Light

thought this review might help out some of the cyclists i have used my ssc p7 5 mode as a comparison for this review

here we have XM-L T6 LED +2x XPE R2 LED 8.4v Bike Bicycle Light3 modes

mode 1 is main t6 light on, mode 2 is 2X xpe's on, mode 3 all on

the light was purchased from ebay for £47 for that i got the light head pictured, battery pack, charger with adapter suited to country or order, rubber o rings for mounting the unit, light switch, battery bag with velcro strap for mounting to frame

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160657830011?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

the main unit has a solid build quality (only slight nag here is there are no o rings fitted anywhere on the light head)

the threads are nice and clean upon opening the unit it was also very clean inside (i did apply a little bp jelly to the threads after i was done and cleaned the excess off to help make the unit as watter tight as i could)

a battery pack came in an aluminium cylinder case mine only had one o ring fitted to top section the bottom section didn't have one

the threads were nice and clean and the cable from the battery was nice and thick (i have had others that were a lot thinner)

the battery pack is a 18650 in 2p2s with a curcuit board that has over charging, short curcuit, Discharge cutoff voltage protection

this is the same type as the ones recalled by geoman some months ago (risk of fire,venting) this problem may put some ppl off

but since i have 2 of these packs already and know the cells used are cheap and nasty both of my original packs had atleast one cell fail before there 6 months old

i would highly recommend that you either replace the cells in the pack yourself ( get 4 quality 18650 tabbed cells) or find a quality replacement pack

the main light unit was supprisingly smaller than my ssc-p7 that this unit is going to replace

it has a smooth reflector instead of the op in the p7

the xpe lenses gives a nice flood

the light units them selfs three seperate unit held in place to the main body but small grub screws

making it easy to dissasemble should you wish to swap out any of the cree led's for your own choice

the main t6 was mounted to and alu pill

i covered the entire outside edge of the pill with a good coating of artic silver to help heat transfer to main body

as you can see from the picture above it just slots in (the p7 was threaded to the main body)

ok so thats the guts of this light unit

here are a few beam shot's to compare this to my trusty p7 (this it the beam at the top)

as you can see although it's not as bright they do cover a larger area

here is the p7 up against the xml-t6

as you can see my p7 just fails against the t6 here

and finnaly the p7 Vs the t6 + xpe's

it is hard to see the difference from the picture bellow and the one above

but there is a little bit more flood to it

whilst taking these beam shots i left the unit running all 3 leds for 20 min's so i could test the heat built up

and again compairing it to my p7 (also left on for the same time) i could hardly hold the p7 unit it was that hot

whilst the t6 combo felt slighly warm (could it be that the p7 had better heat transfer ? no)

i also put my hand in front of the lights whilst they were still on and the p7 was generating a lot more heat out the front as well

so my thoughts on this light unit it's claimed 2400lm (no way to test but i doubt it) still brighter than my claimed 900lm p7

great little package however if i were to buy this again i would try and find a seller for the light's only

the battery is a known fire risk, the charger was for the us with a cheap adapter (buy a quality one meant for the uk instead)

i liked the fact that the light switch goes from green 100% charge to blue 75% to orange 50% then red 25%

i haven't tested the run time as i will not be using the supplied battery pack but using one i made myself from swapping out the cells for better quality ones

my old p7 would run for about 3hr on full charge before the red led warning of low battery

i expect this units run time to be about the same if there is anything else you would like to know just ask and i will try to answer

this last picture was taken at 17:20the top left with no light, top right t6 only, bottom left xpe's, bottom right all 3 on

distance to back fence (in between sheds is 12m)

I got this one from aliexpress to replace my MF C8, but it produces surprisingly almost the same flood, throw and hotspot on Hi as my MF C8.

XPE R2 leds are getting very hot. Is there a mod available to replace XPE R2 with more efficient leds?

Also could you suggest cells or a quality pack to replaces the pack?

Welcome to the cool kids' club, vd!

Aloha and vd!