Light wars – Nukeproof or LUU
With the nights drawing in and our focus on lights (lights…focus…geddit?…oh never mind) I note that On-One (sans Brant Richards) and CRC/Hotlines (now avec Brant Richards) are currently locked into a battle with essentially the same light.
The story looks to be that the same light unit was spotted in a Chinese Trade show and with a small amount of reworking both companies have ended up with similar packages.
Chain Reaction have the Nukeproof Reactor light fresh on the market at a starting price of £199 while On-one have arrived with the LUU LED light that retails from an introductory price of £140.
Both lights utilise a SSC P7 LED which nominally produces 900 lumens of light or as our mega test—trust me, it’s coming soon—will show, more than enough lumens to ride with if managed well. I make that distinction because it is all about focus. 900 lumens of poorly focused light will be worse than 250 lumens of useful light.
Anyway I digress slightly and focus shouldn’t be an issue with either of these lights as you effectively have (at a cost in some cases) 3 options of lens. Singletrackworld have a thread that demonstrates the spot filter to give the most usable light according to one tester. Hopefully I’ll be able to tell you soon, as it looks like we’ll have to nip back into the woods to test the Nukeproof that’s on it’s way to me for test.
What is also interesting to look at is the two different marketing models of CRC and On-One. On-One represent the mini-Tesco model, pile it high, and sell it cheap although they might argue it’s more cut out the middleman and sell it direct, cheaply. CRC are a major e-tailer but selling here what is essentially an own brand item and probably their buying is considerably more bulk.
On-One seem to have adopted a weird marketing model to my mind as they are offering the basic light at a knock down price while selling all the lenses and optional AA battery pack separately (which is dedicated to their offering). I find that strange as it’s a recipe to end up with lots of accessories left over that hold a lot of profit that can’t be easily turned into cash.
Quite how either of these lights stack up to the Maxx D or the LEDSys4 remains to be seen and will be reported on this site.
We live in illuminated times.
Update Here’s the results of our tests with the Nukeproof Reactor Extreme with beam shots which we had in for review during September 2009.
About the author
Dave's been riding seriously since about 1997 and is one of the founding Molefathers — along with Matt and Mark — that came up with the idea of a MTB website for Mole Valley riders.
He's had several different bikes but it's now mainly 29ers in Dave's stable, apart from an Orange 5.
Current Bikes: Orange 5, Salsa Spearfish and Kona Big Unit
There are 10 comments on ‘Light wars – Nukeproof or LUU’
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stevo says:
The Luu light has the four cell battery pack and the Nukeproof is only two cell.
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Posted on September 15, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Dave says:
Hi Stevo,
Good point. The 4 cell battery is only in the £249 Nukeproof pack although you can buy it as an accessory.
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Posted on September 15, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Brant says:
Stevo is right – thanks for pointing that out.
The Eco model uses the much lighter 2 cell battery, so you’re not dragging as much weight around with you, yet still burns for 2hrs on full beam.
😉
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Posted on September 15, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Brant says:
Actually, scratch that. Stevo is quite right. Just got back in from a 2.5hr night epic in Calderdale – 4 cell batteries are cool 🙂
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Posted on September 15, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Stevo says:
The 900 lumen package is excellent. BUT the choice of lenses give the user ulitimate flexibility for Helmet Spot and Bar Wide… Lupine or the Chinese “torch” does not give you this. 😉
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Posted on September 16, 2009 at 9:31 am
kevin O'moore says:
Hi, I am interested in getting one of these Nuke Proof lights, I will be purchasing it through Chainreaction Cycles as
I live in South Africa, having read your comments I seem to think that it is a good light, would you recomend I buy one?
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Posted on March 5, 2010 at 11:09 am
Muddymoles says:
MTB LED Night Light Test and Beam Shots
A review of popular MTB LED night lights with beam shots including Ay-Up!, Exposure MaXx-D, Lumicycle LEDSys3 and LEDSys4, Four4th Lights, iBlaast and more.
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Posted on March 5, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Matt says:
Hi Kevin, they’re pretty good lights but in practice can be a bit of a faff to change lenses. I’d guess you’d find what works for you and stick to it generally.
We’ve quite a lot of beam shots and tests elsewhere on the site:
https://muddymoles.org.uk/2009/09/mtb_led_light_beam_shot_test.html
Basically, Nukeproof are good solid performers but as always you spend more money, you get more performance!
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Posted on March 5, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Brendan Currin says:
I have recently bought the Nukeproof Reactor light. I see your comment about changing the lenses being difficult. The instructions simply say “remove head lamp cover from head light”. I wish it was that easy. I have no idea what is going on with this light and I don’t want to break it. Can you help with this?
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Posted on July 2, 2010 at 6:39 pm
Dave says:
Hi Brendan,
A while since I tested this but form memory the front scews on. So based on the photo you unscrew the gold retaining ring and the “filter” should just fall away allowing you to replace it with one of the others. Hope that helps.
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Posted on July 2, 2010 at 10:47 pm