I've been given a bike by a friend. Hurray!
Idea is to cut back on the use of the Camaro over winter (wet salty roads are not my friend), save on fuel and get myself a little fitter.
However, I need lamps for it.
As usual, I've wandered into the world of internet reviews, and OMG you can spend how much on a set of lamps? £500+?!
Obviously, I don't need that. I need something bright enough to be seen, doesn't mind getting wet, doesn't cost the earth and won't fall apart after 5 minutes.
Oh, and I suppose some sort of lock for it would be a good idea as well.

Any suggestions?

As in pushbike? I like Cateye stuff.

http://www.cateye.com/uk/

I've got this one for the rear and they dont list my front light anymore. I think it's basically the same as this one.

If you want a bit more light on you could buy a bracket for not a lot that allows mounting of two (or more) lights.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/minoura-swing-g ... extension/

When in doubt, more LED's

+1 for cateye

+1 for LED light. Old fashioned bulb ones may light up the road better, but they eat batteries like there's no tomorrow and get dim very quickly. LED ones don't have that problem. Other people can easily see them and they last a lot longer.

Please, for the love of God, don't get the LEDs that are the equivalent of a 100w bulb and flashing as if they're trying to give you an epileptic fit

If you use LED lights, remember that the flashing ones are not legal as your primary lights. You must have a steady red light at the back, and a steady white light at the front. As far as I know, you can have flashing ones too provided you also have proper working legal lights.

On a dark country road the flashing ones just look like there's a light in the distance on the other side of the hedge or fence, flickering as it shines through the gaps.

I use these for both road and mountain bike use - Smart Lunar 25 Lux Lightset From £39.99

LEDs -

The RVLR (Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations) now allows a flashing light to be attached to a bike if it
(a) emits a minimum light output of four candela (i.e. the strength of four candles, queue the Two Ronnies); and,
(b) flashes at an equal and constant rate of between 60 and 240 flashes per minute.
To summarise: a not-too-bright steady pulsing LED is fine - out goes your Nightrider strobe.

Unfortunately the British Standard regulation for cycle lights has not as yet been updated. So you may have a light that complies with the RVLR which will not automatically comply with British Standard and visa versa.

The Law
You are riding legally if your front and rear lights meet either the RVLR and/or British Standard 6102-3. This means you can also mix standards between front and rear. For example:
Cycle 1: is legal because its front light in constant mode complies to British Standard and the rear complies to the RVLR in flashing mode.
Cycle 2: is legal because its front light complies to the RVLR in flashing mode and the rear complies to British Standard in constant mode.

Oh yeah, found it. It seems they updated in 2005. A long time after I did the test

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005 ... ion/6/made

"is capable, when emitting a flashing light, of emitting light to the front of the pedal cycle, trailer or sidecar (as the case may be) of an intensity of not less than 4 candelas"

I have to say, that's wholly inadequate as a regulatory specification. It says nothing about the duty cycle of the pulsing, nor whether the 4 candelas is intended as a peak or RMS measurement. These can easily change the perceived visibility by a factor of over 9000.

Think that's bad?
Try and find the minimum/maximum brightness of a car fog light.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989 ... ule/6/made

"Intensity: No requirement"

Well that's a bit rubbish. I guess brighter than a thousand suns is OK then?

As long as it can be seen and wasn't too distracting to others I wouldn't have a problem

Nearly hit a guy tonight, on his bike all in dark clothes, in the rain with pitiful LEDs flashing very dimly fromt and rear. On a small village road with minimum streetlighting

So many cyclists around me think that a tiny LED set to flash is enough to make them visible to the world. It's not.

i have a set of rechargeable LED lights on my cycle which i got from argos ...

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/p ... 419183.htm

and one of these locks

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/p ... 419161.htm