Originally Posted by
FBinNY
IMO the greatest bargain in bike lights isn't a bike light. It's the Duracell flashlights at places like Costco. My most recent set of 300 lumens lights cost less than $20.00 for 3. I mount a pair using an improvised block for stability, and a a long O-ring/ or rubber band to hold them in place. My usual arrangement is a pair of beams aimed one forward of the other. I keep the battery pack from the 3rd light with me as a backup.
The lights take 4 aaa, batteries, which need to be shopped hard to keep the cost down, or you can use NiMH rechargeables, but the light output will be lower, and life shorter. I run NiMH for the commute,and keep alkalines as my backups.
BTW- since these have a round cone beam, it's important to keep it down a bit, or aimed slightly to the right. That's never been a problem for me, but if an approaching car has their high beams on, I tap the forward light, and swing my bars a bit, and it never fails to get the desired response.
+1. Also, my Costco has a packaged set of 10 AA and 4 AAA batteries WITH a single cell charger on sale for $24. The batteries alone would normally cost $35.
I've bought numerous sets of these lights. If your commute is under an hour, they are ideal. Over an hour, they are more of a pain, but still doable.
Originally Posted by
fietsbob
These are well worth it too. You can get them for about $2 ea from Deal Extreme, if you have the patience to wait 3-6 wks for delivery.
Universal Adjustable Bicycle Mount for Flashlights (2cm~4cm Diameter) - Free Shipping - DealExtreme
The nice thing is, you can get built in redundancy, PLUS higher output when needed:
Edit: If you go this route, rechargeable ENELOOP batteries are the only way to go. Which I realize puts it outside of your specified price range. However, I use these flashlights around the house for everything - not just commuting - so they are worth it to me.
Alkaline batteries may give you more total light output over time than the NiMH eneloops, but for most of that output time, the light will be unacceptably dim. I would not run alkalines in these lights unless you are a very occasional commuter, no more than once a week.