Lights: Part 3

In search of a replacement for the Blackburn Flea light that I had lost, I started looking on the Internet. I was looking for some thing that was in the $30 to $40 range, could be taken on and off the bike easily and used conventionally batteries. After a couple of random Google searches, I came up with mostly nothing. Amazon turned out to have a lot of user reviews so I went there for advice.

I really like the Planet Bike Blinky SuperFlash tail light that I have. It has worked flawlessly since I bought it at Cycle Works along with the Serfas SL-One last summer. I also have PB Freddy Hardcore Fenders and they donate 25% of their profits to bicycle advocacy. These factors led me to reviews of Planet Bike headlights and specifically to the Blaze 1 watt. This light has some great reviews and, combined with my experience with their other products, I was sold.

I did look at other products, specifically the Cat-Eye lights and the Topeak lights. Cat-Eye was the only name that I remember from 'back in the day' and I'm pretty happy with my Topeak Trunk Bag and Explorer Rack. The Topeak lights seemed a little expensive and the Cat-Eye reviews were all over the map. So I resolved to find the Planet Bike Blaze 1-Watt at one of the local bike shops.

I stopped by Sunflower and was pretty disappointed to find that they only carried Trek lights, the Blackburn Flea lights and the $100 to $300 HID lights that had separate battery packs. The Trek lights were in my price range, but I hadn't read anything about them and I'm a little leery of accessories made by bike manufacturers. I did look them over; they had one that was a cluster of 3 LEDs, which tend to not be as bright as the 1-Watt models. Without any more info on Trek lights, I left Sunflower.

A couple of days later I made it over to CycleWorks. They had the same high-end lights as Sunflower, but they also carried the CatEye brand and the Blackburn Fleas. (They no longer carry the SL-One that I bought there last summer.) One of they guys there recommended a small CatEye with three LEDs. They also had a bigger single LED model, the EL 320. I remembered reviews of that light from Amazon as being a mixed bag, but thought I'd try it out. So I bought the EL320.

From Bike Pics

When I got the light home, the first thing that I did was put batteries in it. The batter cover was a cheap plastic that was hard to remove. And I noticed that there was no gasket around the cover at all. None. How does this thing keep water out? I already had one light go south on me due to water seepage, so I was a little sensitive to that.

Mounting the light was relatively easy. It has strap that feeds through a plastic dial. Turn the dial to tighten the strap and cut off the excess. (Which I didn't do; I used my batteries and left the strap as is. I wanted to be able to return it with no questions...)

So I'm already not in love with this thing, but what kind of light did it put out? Well, as luck would have it, I was heading out to a friend's house across town to help him paint. I used the flashing mode on the way over there. Not much to say about that as it was still daylight out.

On the way home, I used the headlight to navigate and it was ok. Pretty comparable to the SL-One, I thought. The light is bigger than the SL-One, so I expected a bit more from it. The beam was bright at the center but it fell off pretty quickly to a dim illumination to the sides. Again, it was OK. However, given my other reservations about the light, there was no way that I was keeping it. I brought it back to CycleWorks the next day and they took it back no problem. I did point out that there was no gasket to battery compartment as my main complaint with the light.

So, back to square one. What was I going to get to replace the Flea?