wyeast

Combination of the above. Plenty of experiences to go around with us over at Candlepowerforums. Whenever anyone brings up a bargain at KD/DX inevitably one (or both) of two things comes up.

1) It took a hella long time to get to them.

2) It's a great light for the money

It's not that they're universally suckage for lighting. Just the CPF guys are a tough crowd and there's usually something just a little off with the lights. The runtime is shorter than average, there's funny artifacts in the beam, the o-rings don't hold up past a brief dunking, whatever. Switches are sometimes temperamental (often repaired by disassembly and tinkering, but some just end up unrecoverable). Yeah, everybody has their share of problems, but some lights tend to be more hit n' miss than some of the others.

I mean, take me. I'm hard on my lights for work (building surveys). They don't last long in my kit when they let me down for one reason or another. Those differences tend to stick in your mind when you still carry an Inova for years when the Maglite LED gets tossed out after just a couple of months.

That's the same criteria I put on picking a bike light - considering the context is my wife's the commuter and I'm not gonna give her a light that I won't trust to work day in and day out in all weather conditions. I'm sure quality's getting better, but my past experiences haven't been good enough to sell me on putting them on her bike. Same reason I haven't put the Coleman on her bike, because it's yet to pass muster for me. (although it's getting there, and she'll probably still carry the Inova as backup)

But it's different strokes for different folks. If the $15 light means you can strap 3 on the bike, then more power to you! More light, and plenty of backup in case one goes glitchy on you. I can't convince my wife to clutter her ride with more than a couple of lights, so I gotta kick it up a notch. Same reason I pick two $30 lights with pretty good reliability over one $70 Fenix.

Go with what works for you.