Knog Blinder Road 3 and other USB front lights

majormantra

Anyone got the Knog? I'm thinking of asking for one for Christmas. I had a bad experience with a Knog (Skink) a few years ago but I've been using a single LED Blinder rear for the last year or so and it's been excellent.

I have a Chinese uber light for proper darkness but it's overkill for town and general road riding, and the external battery pack is a bit of a faff. I'm curious to hear people's thoughts, or if anyone has other suggestions for good USB front lights.

bobs bikes

i have a few sets of serfas thunderbolts. awesome!
usb charge, will run for about 2.5 hours on high power/ 4 hours on med/ the flash lasts about 7 hours.

silicone casing
front is 90 lumens and the rear is 45.

i use them for most town and short journeys, only switching to the mega high 1000 lumen stuff when off road.

calumleach

I've recently bought a Knog BLinder Road twinpack. The rear is excellent, but I can't seem to get more than 5 minutes out of the front on high power. Pretty poor when the run time is meant to be an hour.

tilt

MajorMantra wrote:

or if anyone has other suggestions for good USB front lights.

Moon.

t4tomo

tilt wrote:

MajorMantra wrote:

or if anyone has other suggestions for good USB front lights.

Moon.

Yep I got a moon cresent front and rear. Very impressive little unit for sub £20 pop.

antonyfromoz

As my front light i have the lezyne macro drive - it cost about £54.00 and it puts out 350 lumens on its highest setting. my commute includes some bike path and some unlit roads and i tend to use it on the 200 lumen setting for the bike path and put it up to 300 lumens for one section of the road where it is especially dark. it has worked faultlessly and the charging time on its USB charger doesn't seem to be excessive either. I haven't measured how long it will run without charging as I tend to charge it each evening after getting home. Additionally, I have just bought a moon crescent as the back up rear light but I think it will actually become my main light as it just so bright - it's pretty amazing how much light it seems to put out for 25 lumens...

For the Macrodrive, run times according to Lezyne are 2 hours at 350 l, 2.15 at 300 and 4 hours at 200.

HTH

mattgeezer

Moon or Cateye volt.

majormantra

Good suggestions, thanks. How good is the mount on the Moon lights? I like unfussy ones that you can quickly swap between bikes, i.e. no mount left behind.

Mr.Duck

Cateye Volt 300 is rated 60hrs run time on flash mode. That's impressive, especially for 300 lumens. Most other USB rechargeable lights I've seen can only manage 6-12hrs on the longest setting. The Moon Meteor is rated for 7hrs runtime and 210 lumens output for comparison and it's no cheaper either. Battery life is really important because you can't change the integrated battery on these USB lights and it will lose capacity over time.

iPete

Asked a similar question a month ago, ended up with an Exposure Trace, basically the new Flare with USB, buttons, more modes and battery indicator.

viewtopic.php?f=40012&t=12941764

majormantra

Thanks, that's useful.

Re Cateye, I'm not a great fan of their mounts. Mind you it seems a lot of people have issues with the Knog rubber straps too. My little rear Blinder has been fine but I can imagine the bigger lights having problems.

Mr.Duck

I saw the Volt 300 for £37 here if that's of interest? I don't know how much delivery costs though.

ChuckFH

Mr.Duck wrote:

Cateye Volt 300 is rated 60hrs run time on flash mode. That's impressive, especially for 300 lumens. Most other USB rechargeable lights I've seen can only manage 6-12hrs on the longest setting. The Moon Meteor is rated for 7hrs runtime and 210 lumens output for comparison and it's no cheaper either. Battery life is really important because you can't change the integrated battery on these USB lights and it will lose capacity over time.

My Moon XP500 has a replaceable battery - they seem to run about £15 on amazon at the moment.

Mr.Duck

ChuckFH wrote:

My Moon XP500 has a replaceable battery - they seem to run about £15 on amazon at the moment.

I didn't know that. It would be good if that was the norm for all lights, but I doubt this. Are there any other lights that have replacement batteries?

mattgeezer

Don't get an exposure trace to see with you need at least a joystick ,

Moon 300/400/500 or volt

bobs bikes

here is the front light from serfas thunderbolt. just taken the pics in a fully dark room, the vid shows the modes.
**** vid has flashing images******

majormantra

The Serfas looks interesting, I take it you need to plug in a cable to charge it?

Main thing that puts me off is I don't really know the brand, and hardly anyone seems to sell them. Also, how long are they? I don't know if I have enough bar space.

bobs bikes

ah yeah, size wise, its 90mm long, 25 wide and 25mm deep. the lead comes with the light and it can be charged using usb off the computer or with a mains adapter.

the brand is a USA brand. as i am a dealer i cannot give any prices as this breaks the rules on the site. i shall ring the suppliers and let you know where the local stockist is to you.

majormantra

Hmmm, that is rather long. It would overlap my bar tape, which isn't ideal.

t4tomo

MajorMantra wrote:

Good suggestions, thanks. How good is the mount on the Moon lights? I like unfussy ones that you can quickly swap between bikes, i.e. no mount left behind.

Adjustable rubber strap holds the mount. You can remove just the light from the mount or the whole thing so diddle to swap between bikes

bigmonka

I had a similar query over which front light to get - I've got a Cateye Volt 300 being delivered in the next few days. I'll let you know if it's any good.

friedpizzainbatter

BigMonka wrote:

I had a similar query over which front light to get - I've got a Cateye Volt 300 being delivered in the next few days. I'll let you know if it's any good.

Similarly I've got a niterider lumina 700 arriving soon, will do the same.

iPete

Had the Exposure Trace for a month now & as a secondary light it's ace, as a main lights its also pretty damn good. Takes about 10 seconds to swap between bikes too.

Can get around Richmond Park on solid/low setting. It also saved my ass when I didn't charge it as it goes into emergency mode instead of cutting out.

andrewc3142

For the front I think it's worth investing in a proper light. I went for the Exposure Race Maxx. This has been replaced by newer models, but they're basically the same as far as I can tell.

A light you can actually see by as well as being seen, lasts ages on the flashing setting, no external battery, robust, etc, etc. Hard to fault, other than not being especially cheap.

I always take some back-up lights. Used to use the little Cat-Eye loops, which are convenient and OKish, but a bit feeble.

This season got a set of the Lezyne Zecto USB ones and they are a massive improvement over the Cat-Eye. Clip on and off easily, really quite bright, well made and charge up quick. Need charging every day, though.

I use the rear one as an additional light on my bag (with a Cat-Eye TD-L1100 mounted to the seat stay).

Mr.Duck

andrewc3142 wrote:

This season got a set of the Lezyne Zecto USB ones

I looked at those and apart from the tiny battery, I was not very impressed by the little rubber plug for the USB cover. I can imagine it either breaking off or not keeping the water out. I saw some people reporting the wheel spray causing the rear light to fail too. I like the look of lights with a threaded barrel design and a rubber gasket a lot more.

mabbo

Just bought a HOPE vision 1 Led. Runs on rechargeable AA batteries. It's a blindingly good light, with excellent beam. I only need full beam on the unlit tree canopied roads I use here in E.Sussex. The flashing mode is great in traffic or daytime, and it'll run on the low or flash for over 16 hours.
The advantages of the AA batteries are;

1.......It will last up to 3 hours on full beam. (Full beam is not required on normal roads, meduium is more than enough).

2........They re-charge in 3 - 4 hours.

3.........You can easily carry a spare set of rechargeables, or normal AA's to extend your runtime if you are doing any serious night events.

On a really good deal at Halfords currently, depending on your budget.

bigmonka

BigMonka wrote:

I had a similar query over which front light to get - I've got a Cateye Volt 300 being delivered in the next few days. I'll let you know if it's any good.

I've tried my new Cateye Volt300 over the last few days and have to say that I'm very impressed with it. I paid just under £38 on Amazon.
It feels very well made of nice metal. It weighs 120g which the packaging describes as light but is probably quite heavy
The beam seams to spread out to the sides very well and lights roadsigns in the distance up with ease. Cars also seem quick to dip their main beams.
Around town I've been usng the 'hyperconstant' mode which is a steady low beam and a flashing beam at the same time. I think this is best of both worlds and it should last for 11hours in this mode. Under street light in this mode it can be a bit tricky to tell if it's on or not if there aren't any roadsigns to reflect the light back.
Out on the unlit country lanes I can get away with low power mode up to about 16mph, then medium probably up to 20mph. High beam is very powerful but I think it only last 3 hours in that mode.
USB recharge is stated as taking 6hours from flat. I'm hoping that my use of hyperconstant and low beams mean that I'll only need to recharge once a week, probably at weekends, after a 75mile weekly commute. Although it's easy enough to do at my desk thanks to being USB.
I don't yet know how long it lasts once the red low battery light comes on.

All in all I would highly recommend it, especially for the price I paid.