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For the oncoming autumn commutes, Blackburn has two new lights to offer a wide range of illumination both on and off-road. The Central 300 is a 300-lumen lamp that’ll get you home safely on the street and still offer enough light to navigate off-road riding, while the 700-lumen Central 700 is a trail-capable head lamp. Both are USB rechargeable and hitting shelves at your local Blackburn dealers this fall.
See more specs below.
A few people have requested photos of the lighting setup on my Geekhouse Woodville tourer. My view on lighting is pretty simple: throw a big beam where you illuminate not just your bike but the road around you. The Portland Design Works Aether Demon USB light is mounting via the included seatpost clip, but I removed the ring and just attached the clip straight to the rack mount on my bike. Most all lights come with a seatpost mount. I’ve found this method to not only be more secure than a seat stay mount, but much more successful at lighting the surface of the road, increasing visibility.
This position puts the light low and to the inside of the road, assuming cars are driving on the right of the road. If I were in Australia or UK, the light would be on the reverse. The same goes for my Edelux front lamp, which is under my Wald basket.
Here’s an interesting competition from Knog:
“We’re looking for the best night-time videos from around the globe. Whether it’s midnight snowboarding, festival crowd surfing, or any weird wonderfulness we couldn’t even dream of, we want to see it.
Enter for your chance to win a range of prizes, plus a worldwide screening of your video at the global festival in June.”
Read more about this competition at Knog and see some of the initial video entries at their No Ordinary Night Gallery.
Blackburn’s Ranger program returns in 2015, with another call for entries. Head over to Blackburn for more information!
Yeah, the market is surely saturated by USB charging blink lights, but the Augur Wolf has a functionality that I’ve yet to see. If you’ve ever been in a paceline on a road ride, brevet, or group ride, the rider in front of you most likely has a red blink light that can be distracting.
The Augur Wolf has a system that detects front lights behind it and automatically dims the light from a 3-LED, 35 Lumens, to 1-LED. Now that’s innovative.
See more from the Augur Wolf at their Kickstarter.
Ever wonder what makes the crew at Portland Design Works tick? Well, check this out…
Portland Design Works introduces their new USB charging commuter lights, the Lars Rover™ in 650 and 450 lumens. Each light has five modes, depending on how you want to use them. For me, a 2 hour battery life on light like this seems pretty good, especially coming from a lamp without an external battery pack. That takes it out of the strictly commuter, blink light mode into some trail romping.
Looking good, PDW.
The team at Portland Design Works have been waiting all summer to unleash this deal. Right now, you can get the Full Metal Fenders and a Fenderbot for $125, that’s 15% off MSRP. I have a set of these fenders and they are great, but it never rains in Austin!
At any rate, I’m sure it rains where you live, so check out more at PDW.
Blackburn Central Smart Light Review
Words and photos by Kevin Sparrow
Tis the season for summer to come to an end and the days to become shorter. Having a good light is the key to riding all year round, especially if you are a commuter who ends your day at 5 or 6 pm. Over the last month or so, I’ve been testing out the Blackburn Central Front Smart Light. “What makes this light so smart?”, you may ask. Well, Blackburn has developed a light with a sensor that measures how much ambient light there is around you. The sensor then auto adjusts the brightness accordingly. This not only saves on battery power but is also really nice when you are riding through a city where light is constantly changing.
A couple of people asked about the lamp that’s on Erik’s AWOL x Poler tourer. Earlier this year, when we rode the Outback, it was his sole light source for when the sun set over eastern Oregon. It’s best described as a “super-wide and super-bright beam.”
The Flux uses a Cree LED with a patented reflector for bright and wide light, much like you’d find in the automotive industry.
Powering the Flux are internal rechargeable 5200mAhr Lithium Ion batteries and there are three nighttime modes with power resulting between 1,200 and 400 lumens. You’ll get 1.75 hours at 1,200 and 6 at 400 lumens and it’ll recharge from zero to full in just four hours.
The Flux will hit shelves at your local Specialized dealer shortly.
Knog has branched out from the world of cycling lights and lamps to the [qudos] action lighting system. In short, it’s a light for your GoPro, but it can do much more:
“The [qudos] action is designed with GoPro HERO® aesthetics in mind. But it also works with other action camera’s like Sony Action Cam and Garmin VIRB that have conversion mounts. And with a cold shoe adaptor you can use it with your DSLR and tripod. Even in the day, the [qudos] action provides a great fill light for all cameras.”
For you GoPro enthusiasts and professionals, head over to Knog for more!
I was using my Central lights for a few months now, on multiple bikes before I lost them in all my travels. I particularly liked the rear, because I run a generator lamp on my tourer and it wasn’t annoyingly bright for people riding behind me. I even found the front to be exceptionally bright for what many would consider a “blink light”.
The Central lights mark a new push for Blackburn as they will slowly be releasing new products over the next few months, most of which I’ve had hands-on experience with and all of which I’m anxiously awaiting more testing time.
See more on the Central 100 Front and Central 20 Rear below!
With the release of the new Blinder Arc 1.7 & 5.5 lights Knog put together a social media contest where fans have the chance to win a brand new Blinder Arc bike light.
All you have to do is submit a photo of you and your favorite place to ride with the hashtag #NoOrdinaryRide via Twitter or Instagram, or enter via Knog Facebook.
The best four entries will be chosen on March 10th and will win a Knog Blinder Arc 1.7 or 5.5 light.
Full details of the competition can be found here.
Ian Sutton of Icarus Frames is no stranger to uniquely-constructed bicycles. His Leviathan is still, to this day, one of my favorite concept bikes I’ve seen. When Josh from Sparse lights contacted Ian about doing a fillet steel and carbon tubed road bike, Ian took the challenge… and the result is amazing. After fillet brazing the sleeves and shaping the ends, he bonded ENVE carbon tubes to complete the frame.
The final result was painted by Brian Meyers at Fresh Frame, with Sparse branding and fit with Mad Fibre wheels. Personally, I think it’s one of the most unique frames to come from Ian since the Leviathan… See for yourself in the Gallery!
This is a pretty clever idea for simple, minimal, stick anywhere bicycle lights. Lucetta’s magnetic lights will stick to anything that’s steel on your bike (that seatpost in the video is steel). See more at Lucetta!
The latest from Knog is now available at your local shop. The Blinder Road 3 lights dance the line between your normal blink light and a lamp. 300 lumens of light, weights only 105g, 100% waterproof and is USB rechargeable. Oh and it comes in purple. Head to Knog for more information!
So what Portland Design Works is clearly stating is with each purchase of an Aether Demon light, you’ll receive a bearded, space helmet guy in a Mexican blanket (it better be wool) that charges your tail lights for free? At least, I think that’s what they’re saying.
I’ve been using my Knog Blinder Road exclusively for the past few months and I love it. Here’s a new video featuring this USB rechargeable light set from Knog.
