What A Hoot!

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!

Yesterday I told you about how Robins make me nostalgic for Trans Iowa, but Robins were not the only birds which moved me in such a way. There was another bird associated strongly with Trans Iowa, in my opinion, and it may surprise you to learn it is not a hawk, or the eagle, but the owl.

The full moon as seen during Trans Iowa v9

Ironically there is not a long history of owl soundings or sightings connected with Trans Iowa for myself. No, it was on towards the end of this event's run which is where the owl influence comes in. Two specific times, actually.

One was at the end of Trans Iowa v13 as I sat in my truck in the parking lot of the finish line space in the park. There is a small lake or pond there, and around about 4:00am a right proper hootenanny started. Owls all around the lake went bananas with constant, loud hooting for at least a half an hour straight. It was amusing, to say the least! 

But the last Trans Iowa was when this bird cemented its place in my memories as something special. It was around 1:00am, MG and I were parked just West of HWY 146 near Montezuma, Iowa, and MG was fast asleep in his Subaru.  This was on an East-West gravel road. I was standing outside in the cold, waiting for DNF calls and trying not to wake Matt up. There was a tall stand of evergreen trees just to the Southeast of me. The moon was up, and suddenly the lusty hoot of a barred owl went up, breaking the stillness of the night air. A few seconds later, an answering call came across the prairies.

Time stood still and I was at once filled with wonder and awe at the situation I was in at the time. Many feelings were felt which I have not the words to aptly communicate to you, the reader. 

It is a moment fixed in my mind so securely now I can see the image of the backlit pine tress in my mind. Now whenever I hear a barred owl's call I think about this moment in time again.

A T.I.v14 rider navigates down a gravel road in his "bubble of light". Image by Jon Duke

 The moment on the road during T.I.v14 makes me think about night riding as well. This night riding thing, both for Trans Iowas and for other events and fun, has sure come a long, long way since this blog started. I look at the image above and marvel at how bright the light is on the bike and I know how well one can see to ride these days with current lighting systems available in 2025. It is insane to consider riding at night with what we used to use at the speeds we were riding at back then.

I think about the Moonlight Metric event I rode in back in 2011 or 12 where I had this homemade light that put out like 150 Lumens at maximum power. Ha! I'd consider something like that light as a toy now! I wrote a post a few years ago now about the evolution of lighting for gravel bikes. You can check that post out HERE.  

Now I use a light far brighter than the light I used for the Moonlight Metric which would last most of the night, and costs less than 100 dollars. Rechargeable battery tech inside which would have made my head spin in 2011. Yeah..... There is just no comparison.

We live in some pretty awesome times, when you stop and think about it. Yes, there is a lot of bad stuff, but don't forget about the good stuff as well. 

Friday News And Views

 Job Anniversary: 

This past week I observed my third anniversary of starting work at the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective. In case you are unfamiliar with this organization, they are a non-profit organization which benefits the community by recycling used bicycles either back into service or by being responsibly recycled via a local recycling/scrap company. 

We benefit local veterans who need transportation by providing free bicycles and accessories, as well as providing bicycles for other individuals in need. We support various area children's bicycling programs such as bicycle rodeos, Summer programs, and childrens benefit organizations. We also provide safety checks and educational opportunities as well as supporting local events via our Bike Valet program. 

There is more to it than that, but as you might be able to see by now, this is no "bike shop" gig. I get to turn wrenches, do mechanical repairs, and solve problems like I always have done for years, but added into the mix is a genuinely rewarding experience in helping others and making a difference in the community. Things I did not really get out of being a bike shop rat. 

So, I remember this week with gratitude and I don't take this opportunity lightly. It has been an amazing three years, and I cannot believe it has been three years already. But it has and I hope to add more years to that total going forward. If you have a bicycle cooperative/collective/non-profit in your community, I urge you to support that organization in some way this year. Either by volunteering or by donation. These organizations really impact the environment and the people who need bicycles for transportation and recreation.

A Light & Motion bike light on a handlebar (Image courtesy of Grannygear)

Light & Motion Ceases Business Activities:

On January 14th news hit the web concerning the bicycle, scuba, video, and photography lighting company, Light & Motion, who published an announcement that they were ceasing operations immediately. 

A story from "Bikemag" with some comments from the CEO of Light & Motion can be seen by clicking HERE. 

Comments: While many brands have ceased operations after the exit from COVID, this is one of the more well-known brands to close its doors. While Rocky Mountain and GT Bikes have "paused operations", which might leave the door open for some sort of "unpausing", I would assume, this announcement has a bit more of an air of finality to it. 

Citing "political winds" as one of the reasons for the closure, Light & Motion ends with an over 35 year run of manufacturing its products in the USA. It is no secret that the LED lighting segment for cycling is a super-competitive market and that many companies offer excellent lights for very competitive price points. So, by sticking to its guns with regard to doing things stateside, and by having product that was priced at a more premium level, it is not hard to understand how that and the downturn in sales for cycling overall has perhaps forced this action by Light & Motion. 

Snow Dog Update:

Since I rolled out the old Snow Dog again to test those BIKETUBES TPU fat bike tubes, I had to do some updating. I was using an old Archer electronic shifting box deal which could shift incompatible parts, and well, that was no longer an option here. Archer is done as a company and I didn't want to try using the app anymore to set up the thing since it isn't being supported as far as I could tell. 

So I fished out a roll of 4mm derailleur housing in silver and an old SRAM 9 speed shifter. I already had a SRAM rear derailleur mounted, so I figured that would work.

Except this was a SRAM shifter compatible with Shimano. Doh! Okay..... Back to the bins. I fished around and found an 11 speed Ultegra long cage derailleur. Probably the one that came on my Tamland Two? Maybe.... Well, that went on there and with a few adjustments, bingo! I had a working rear derailleur and shifter. 

You may be thinking, "Wait! That's an 11 speed rear derailleur running with a 9 speed chain and shifter? Isn't that forbidden?" And I say, "Don't try this at home, folks!" It's another instance of a mechanic doing what "they say" cannot be done. That's all. I would never tell anyone else this would work. Why? Because, well.....for you it probably wouldn't, and then it would be my fault for saying it does work. That's why. So, I'm saying "this doesn't work", but I'm going with it anyway. 

Remember, it is all fun and games until it breaks. Then if that describes you, and you end up with a failure, or worse, it is because you tried this. It will be your fault. I said it does not work. So there. 

And I will have an update on the tubes soon. 

Image from the Jan. 15th social media post.

Robidoux Roubaix Is Back:

Last August the race director of the Robidoux Roubaix, a gravel race in Western Nebraska, announced that the event was on "indefinite pause" status. 

Specifying a lack of concern by riders for safety and other safety related concerns for race directors of gravel events, the event was taken off the calendar. Now in an Instagram post dated January 15th, the event posted the following quote pulled from a longer statement. 

"It turns out that a little four month break, escaping an unfulfilling 9 to 5, and starting to ride bikes again was enough of a mental boost to remember why I’ve always loved hosting Robidoux!"

Comments: The statement directed readers to register now and that more details would be released about the new routes and more soon.

No mention of the concern about rider safety and conduct at gravel races. This, on one hand, seems odd, but it all may get addressed in future communications, so as of this time, I cannot really comment on this point other than to say the question is there to be answered. What about the previous safety concerns? 

I like that this event came back, however, if just for selfish reasons. I think the area would be a spectacular place to ride, and so I've always had a soft spot in my heart for doing the event. Not that it will ever happen. Especially now with a carless Guitar Ted! 

That's it for this time. Have a great weekend and ride those bicycles!

Bookman Volume Light Review: Part 2

 Note: Bookman sent over the Volume light, (as well as some previously reviewed products) for test and review to Guitar Ted Productions at no charge. I am not being paid, nor bribed for this review, and I always strive to give my honest thoughts and opinions throughout. 

Well, now that I've used this light several times I have some impressions to share. All the technical data and specs are found in Part 1 of this review HERE. Click that before you fire off any questions about run times, batteries, etc. This post will mainly deal with how this light is to use and any high or low points I have found in its design and function. 

Many of you will be looking for some light beam shots, and I actually have some okay ones to share here. It is difficult to find places in the vicinty of Waterloo that are not really light-polluted at night, but a "tree-tunnel" over one of our cycling paths did prove to be pretty good for what I needed to show here. Especially so since the foilage is still mostly on the branches. So, from "low" to "high", here are four of the five levels of light that the Bookman Volume light has on tap.(The lowest setting is basically a flashlight level) I'm going to show these from dimmest to brightest and the level will be numerically indicated from low to high (2,3,4, and 5)

Setting "2"

Setting "3"

Setting "4"

Setting "5"

In these images I see why my preference was to run only the two brightest settings. I also noted that there is barely any difference between "3" and "4", but to my eyes "4" was significantly easier to ride with. While it is nearly impossible for you, the reader, to see, I did place an object at 25 paces away which I cannot see at level "3" but I can discern it at "4", so there is that. But be that as it may, level "5", the 800 Lumen level, is what I would want for faster riding. The next level "4" is 400 Lumens, so that is a significant drop in "punch" level, but this is something I found to be a curiosity with the Volume light.

Bookman Volume at level "4" on a gravel pathway.

The Volume doesn't have that "throw" that some lights do, and that's going to adversely affect my comfort levels on fast downhill gravel sections. Think something at 25+ miles per hour here. There just is not enough bright light far enough ahead of you to make corrections, or brake, to avoid bad lines, potholes, etc. The front "fill" light is tremendous here. The width of the beam pattern is excellent as well. The color is okay with my eyes. it's just that this light doesn't punch a beam way down the road as I would need it to for faster descending or just plain very fast riding on technical roads. 

2016-ish era Lezyne 1100i on high.

The good news? I can find a helmet mounted torch that will have a long-throw spot beam for that higher speed stuff and that would be a great compliment to this more washed out beam pattern of the Bookman light. 

Run times are something to consider as well. The Volume is rated at 3 hours on the highest setting. That's actually pretty impressive. Consider that my late twenty-teens era Lezyne 1100i runs for 1.5 hours on the "high" setting. You might be thinking, "Hey Ted! isn't that Lezyne supposed to be 1100 Lumens on "high"?" You would be correct. But there are "lumens" and then there are Lumens. How these companies measure their light output is not regulated and varies from one tester to another. See my comparison of "high" on the Lezyne to the half power setting on the Volume. Not much difference, eh? 

Of course, it could come down to the old battery, or different optics. But it is clear that the Volume is a better light. Better than the Lezyne anyway. Plus, when you factor in that brilliant knob design that the Volume has, which eliminates guesswork and tabbing through a "menu" to get where you want to be in terms of light level, this light begins to look like a much better design. 

That button is hard to find in the dark with a gloved hand.

There were a couple of things that bugged me about the Volume light though. One was the On-Off power button. It is oh-so "Apple-like" sleek and it works, but try to find that little depression in the dark with gloves on. Yeah..... Frustrating. Maybe there should be a little ring of LED light there or a raised button. I vote for the raised button myself. 

Then there is the mount's band attachment. It is clever, but that one bolt attachment is fiddly and hard to get to. Fahgeddaboudit if you are in the dark and need to tighten it up. I know.....tighten it up enough before you leave. I get it, but a tool-less attachment might be nicer. 

I had one curious hiccup with the Volume where I had turned it off and was running the Lezyne light as a comparison. When I went to turn on the Volume light, after I found that durned button, it would not turn on. It would show me the battery status, but that was it. I tried it a few blocks down the trail later and hey! On it came. What? 

I couldn't replicate the issue, yet..... But I'm watching for this and I will report back if that becomes an issue again. 

So Far... Okay, so this thing will run three hours on high, and the light pattern is pretty okay. The knob thing is really nice. I love that and the Garmin mount. I had a middling experience with the Lezyne 1100i this past Summer on gravel. We will have to get this Volume light out on the gravel next to see how it stacks up. But first, I need it to not be "dead of Winter cold" before I will consider that. Fortunately temperatures are supposed to moderate a bit going into November. 

Stay tuned...

Bookman Volume Light: Review Part 1

The Bookman Volume light, foreground, and other Bookman products.

 Note: Bookman sent over the Volume light, (as well as some previously reviewed products) for test and review to Guitar Ted Productions at no charge. I am not being paid, nor bribed for this review, and I always strive to give my honest thoughts and opinions throughout. 

Going back to last February I reviewed some Bookman light products. You can click that link to see what the deal was with those lights. They were pretty much a type of light you'd use as an accessory to your main light set up. A "safety light" for daytime riding, ,maybe, or as a fill light for close up sight in the dark. But there was no mistaking those for a "to see by" head lamp that you could rely on for city or gravel riding. They just did not pack enough punch, nor do they have long enough run times. 

So, back in June I got a little more excited about Bookman when word came down from their hired marketing firm that a "serious" torch was on the way with a very unique take on design. I actually put in a request for the light to review but after a couple of months I wrote it off as something that may not happen. Then a box showed up on Monday and what do you know? It was the Volume light along with another set of the lights I had reviewed previously. 

What comes in the box.

The Volume light is a unique take on a bicycle light to "see by" with its unusual knob sticking out of the side of it. Typically an LED, self-contained torch will utilize a button that forces you to scroll through all the light modes to get to where you want the light. This is somewhat annoying if, say, you are on the second from the highest setting but you want to toggle to "High". The light may force you to scroll through the lower settings before it will come back around to the highest one. This happens a lot with typical LED based bicycle torches. 

The Volume dispenses with that allowing you to simply twist the knob, (like a stereo volume knob, thus the name), to go directly to the setting you want. One motion. Boom. Done. 

You also will find that the Bookman Volume dispenses with silly, proprietary mounts and instead utilizes a Garmin mount. This is a great idea. I've seen a few lights that utilize the Go Pro mount, and that is nice too, but the amount of cyclists that have Garmin mounts probably outweighs those who might have a Go Pro mount by what I would wager is a fair amount. So, kudos to Bookman for that smart idea. 

What It Is: Besides those two innovative features, the Volume light comes in two versions and three colors. The maximum power varies from the range-topping 1500 Lumen model to the (tested) 800 Lumen model. Colors are Orange, Black, or White (tested). 

The Volume 800 has five levels of steady light output and five levels of flashing light. The flashing light levels are reached by a short push on the power button on the top/front of the Volume and another short push of that same button takes you back to steady light modes. In either mode, different power levels are adjusted by the knob. A long push of the power button turns the light on or off. 

Other features include a replaceable LI-ION 18650 power cell, (UPDATE 12/04/23: NOTE: It is not the standard 18650 battery as this Bookman variant has both the negative and positive ends on one end of the battery. Bookman says it will offer replacements/extra batteries in the near future.), side indicator lights, a series of 4 small LED's to indicate power level in reserve, and a USB C charging port on the left side of the light. The Volume comes with handlebar compatible Garmin style mount, a Go Pro Garmin style mount, and two different length straps to cover most handle bar situations. A USB-C charging cord rounds out the contents of the box. 

The use of a Garmin style mount is a really smart choice.

Run Times: 

Flashing Modes	Runtime  (hours)**
1	6
2	11
3	12
4	35
5	120

 

Steady Modes	Runtime  (hours)**
100%	3
50%	5
25%	11
10%	17
5%	35

 *True Lumens: measured according to the ANSI / NEMA FL1 standard

** Modes are subject to change

Price: $107.00USD

The Volume has a replaceable Li-Ion battery cell.

Impressions: I received the white model and out of the box it reminded me a whole lot of an Apple product. I imagine had I received the orange one it may not have been quite so "Apple-like" but it was with the white light body. The design is smaller than I was thinking from promotional materials I had seen. It is well done and feels like a quality product in the hand. 

The Garmin type handlebar mount looks smartly done. You have a pretty sturdy plastic strap with an attached rubber strip to help it grip slippery metal or carbon handle bars. This has one end anchored into the base of the mount with an Allen bolt. The other end has a loop with a barrel that has a threaded hole in it which accepts a single 3mm Allen head bolt that runs through the base and attaches the mount to the bar. 

I mounted the light on my Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross rig for now and the mounting went smoothly. The Garmin type mount is simple to use and quite secure. 

A long push and the light comes alive. The Volume's knob has a satisfying detent at each level of light. There is no doubt about where you are at in regards to the knob's positioning. Bookman could easily have flubbed this point up. However; I feel the detents are spot on and reassuring. 

That said, it is easy to twist the knob quickly right where you want it. That's a great thing, but on my initial test ride, I also noted that you can get your hand to the knob and back without even thinking about it. A button to scroll takes longer, and so in trickier situations, the Volume is going to be so much easier to use without worrying about having your hand off the bar too long. 

That mount is also a thing of beauty. Rock solid. And you can tweak the position of the light off-axis slightly to accommodate a swept bar or a off-centerline mounting position. The side light indicators are cool, and the power level LED's glow a nice green color on top to let you know where you are at with reserve power. 

I have to do more night rides and grab some good images of the beam pattern, etc, before I can really say much more. That said, so far this light is impressive. The mount, the knob, and the entire design overall is really well done and looks killer. Time will tell how things wear and how things will do after I have this for a bit. Stay tuned for an update to come.

Light Season Starts Now

My lights are two years old and already old technology!

Maybe you are old enough to remember when computers, home computers, or "PC's", went out of date at a rate of about every six months. You'd buy a cutting edge system only to have it be , essentially, an antique in a year. 

Well, I feel that way about LED lights for bicycles. The technology changes so quickly that I end up having lights that have good batteries yet but don't have nearly the lens technology or battery performance that the newer stuff coming out now has. It's hard to "make do" with two year old lights when you see how well new lights work and especially when you see how inexpensive that technology is. 

This is getting important right now because we are just coming into "Light Season". I know, many of you think it is "Fall", whatever that means, but for us cyclists who like to ride all year, it is "Light Season". The time of year we have to break out the lights, charging cables (uggh!) and to make sure we have the mounts (double uggh!), for the lights we want to use. 

So, this press release from Lezyne came out the other day featuring their newly redesigned (of course they are!) lights. I checked out the "big dog" of the range with the most Lumen power. I do this out of habit because in the past, those were the lights I'd use for longer outings. Never at the maximum power rating, but at a mid-level, because battery run times on "high" level were generally around an hour, maybe an hour and a half. And you know, that isn't very long for my rides out in the country.

The Lezyne Macro Drive 1400+ (Image courtesy of Lezyne)

I was looking for something at a lumen rating of 300 with at least two hours of run time. That would be great! And lately, those lights have started to appear that have that capability. But now?

Oh my!

Check out these stats for the latest Lezyne model, the Macro Drive 1400+. On the highest setting, the blinding 1400 Lumen setting, this light is rated to run for three hours! What?!!

And 450L is a lot of light on white rock, gravel roads, and I can see really well at that level, given the lens tech is reasonably good. What is the run time there?

Twelve hours plus. 

Okay, but what do you have to pay for that? Usually great specs equaled big dollars, at least it used to in the past. How does a hundred bucks seem to you? Actually, it lists for a penny less than 100 at $99.99, but who's quibbling over that penny here when you get all of that packed into a self-contained unit? It's insane what you can buy for that kind of money in 2023. 

Look, you don't have to just look at Lezyne. Many lights will be hitting the market this Fall, (Light Season) for similar prices with similar specs. These sorts of advancements in bicycle lighting are generated by LED emitter tech and battery tech that is available to many companies. So, I'm not saying Lezyne is all that, although I will admit to liking heir past products. Good stuff which I still use. But obviously, Lezyne isn't the only deal on the block here. 

But if you haven't been thinking about some late-season night riding, you should. These lights out now are bargains for what performance you can get and they are compact and easy to get along with. The lens technologies have never been better and riding in the dark is fun. It's Light Season - Go ride in the dark!

Getting Lit

Schmidt Edulx II (Image courtesy of Angry Catfish)

I'd been putting this off for far too long, this fixing of my Ti Muk II. It's getting on into the year and Winter is coming soon. I figured I'd better just pull the trigger on something and get it here before it was too late. 

Shopping for dynamo lighting is a weird experience. At least, here in the U.S. it is. You don't have a lot of choices, and when you find something interesting, the information you'd like to have about the product is pretty shallow. 

In my case, I needed to understand what length the leads were off the light head unit. The Ti Muk is a bit of an oddball in terms of dynamo lights. Usually this sort of thing would be going on a randonnuer bike, or maybe an "adventure hard tail" MTB. But with a fat bike, the little details matter, and things like leads need to be a bit longer, so that's one of the things I needed to understand. 

You also have to know if you are getting the mount for the light, because - it appears to me at any rate- some companies don't provide that and seem to give you a "better deal" on the light. Well, that does me no good, ya know.....because I'm not duct taping this thing on! 

I'm also sure some of the retailers are fine, but when many of the ones I saw pop up in my Google search are companies I've never heard of, that gives me pause as well. There were a couple of hits that were from places I knew of, so I went with those choices. Interestingly, one of those had such a wordy and - in my opinion - gruff stance on ordering, that I decided that maybe this was just not going to be a seamless experience. So, I bailed on that choice and took a look at a more local one, Angry Catfish out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

It's coming......whether we want it or not!

The order page had all the info I needed to make a decision, and so I went with Angry Catfish, (that name!), and I actually received a call after I placed the order from them. This was due to the fact that the site had indicated what I had ordered was in stock, but in reality, it was not. I was offered a no-hassle refund, or I could wait for them to order one in. 

Since what I had ordered was in a color I didn't really want, but ya know- it was in stock -only it wasn't. Anyway, that afforded me the chance to order the color I did want at no extra charge to me. Nice! 

So, I have to wait a bit, but at least this problem will get solved and I'll be back on the Ti Muk II just in time for Winter to arrive. As long as the new light install goes smoothly, I'll be good to go now. New drive train, new bottom bracket, new light, and heck.....some more new sealant! That should do me. 

I'll report back when I get the light and let you know- and see- how it goes.

Note: I have no affiliation with Angry Catfish and I paid full retail for the light.

Getting Lit

Schmidt Edulx II (Image courtesy of Angry Catfish)

I'd been putting this off for far too long, this fixing of my Ti Muk II. It's getting on into the year and Winter is coming soon. I figured I'd better just pull the trigger on something and get it here before it was too late. 

Shopping for dynamo lighting is a weird experience. At least, here in the U.S. it is. You don't have a lot of choices, and when you find something interesting, the information you'd like to have about the product is pretty shallow. 

In my case, I needed to understand what length the leads were off the light head unit. The Ti Muk is a bit of an oddball in terms of dynamo lights. Usually this sort of thing would be going on a randonnuer bike, or maybe an "adventure hard tail" MTB. But with a fat bike, the little details matter, and things like leads need to be a bit longer, so that's one of the things I needed to understand. 

You also have to know if you are getting the mount for the light, because - it appears to me at any rate- some companies don't provide that and seem to give you a "better deal" on the light. Well, that does me no good, ya know.....because I'm not duct taping this thing on! 

I'm also sure some of the retailers are fine, but when many of the ones I saw pop up in my Google search are companies I've never heard of, that gives me pause as well. There were a couple of hits that were from places I knew of, so I went with those choices. Interestingly, one of those had such a wordy and - in my opinion - gruff stance on ordering, that I decided that maybe this was just not going to be a seamless experience. So, I bailed on that choice and took a look at a more local one, Angry Catfish out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

It's coming......whether we want it or not!

The order page had all the info I needed to make a decision, and so I went with Angry Catfish, (that name!), and I actually received a call after I placed the order from them. This was due to the fact that the site had indicated what I had ordered was in stock, but in reality, it was not. I was offered a no-hassle refund, or I could wait for them to order one in. 

Since what I had ordered was in a color I didn't really want, but ya know- it was in stock -only it wasn't. Anyway, that afforded me the chance to order the color I did want at no extra charge to me. Nice! 

So, I have to wait a bit, but at least this problem will get solved and I'll be back on the Ti Muk II just in time for Winter to arrive. As long as the new light install goes smoothly, I'll be good to go now. New drive train, new bottom bracket, new light, and heck.....some more new sealant! That should do me. 

I'll report back when I get the light and let you know- and see- how it goes.

Note: I have no affiliation with Angry Catfish and I paid full retail for the light.

Review: Planet Bike Dual Blaze 1500 Light- Part 1

Today I want to start the review of a light from Planet Bike, the Dual Blaze 1500. Right up front I want to make it understood that I was provided this light to review by Planet Bike and I will point you to my Standard Disclaimer page for reference regarding that point. 

The LED light technology changes continue to amaze and the Dual Blaze 1500 is no exception. The two Nichia NVSW319BT emitters are powered by Samsung's 5000 mAh lithium ion battery to give you up to 1500 Lumen of lighting power at a retail price of $100.00 USD. That's crazy!

It wasn't all that long ago that a 1500 Lumen bicycle light, if you could find one, was well over that price and it had a ginormous external battery pack. (I have such a light yet from around the early twenty-teens) And that was for a bargain priced, Chinese made, internet only option. 

Now this Dual Blaze light is a self-contained unit with USB charging and a light weight for the entire unit in a compact package. Obviously, at this price you are not getting all the bells and whistles that maybe a more expensive LED unit might have, but if you are looking for simplicity and if you are on a budget, this is a great light to look at. 

 Specs:

Run Times; 2.5 hrs (high - 1500 lm), 6 hrs (medium - 800 lm), 12 hrs (low - 400 lm), and up to 45 hrs (Superflash™ Day - 1500 lm)

Battery: Samsung 5000 mAh lithium ion battery charges in 3.5 hours with USB C 

Features: Provides 275° of visibility with side lens, water resistance rated to IP64 standard, and weighs in at 185 grams. 

Accessories: Included Quick Twist™ mount fits 25.4mm to 31.8mm handle bars. Aftermarket accessories include helmet mount, fork mount, and extra handle bar mounts. (See website for details) 

The Dual Blaze 1500 has a plastic casing which helps reduce weight to under 200 grams even with the mount.

First Impressions: The Dual Blaze 1500 is about 10% smaller than a recently reviewed 1600 Lumen light I tried and it is obviously lighter in the hand than most lights with this sort of power. I'm not sure where the weight savings is coming from 100%, but obviously, the plastic housing is saving some mass here. Most lights in this category have metal housings for better heat dissipation. More on that in a minute....

The Quick Twist mount was not hard to figure out. It utilizes a slip joint to accommodate several handle bar diameters. Pretty clever that. Once you get the proper setting it is easy to tighten the mount for a secure base for the Dual Blaze to sit on. 

The Quick Twist Mount seems secure enough for rough gravel travel.

Once again, I should remind you that this light cost $100.00 bucks. The fact that it doesn't feature a lot of things higher priced lights do should come as no surprise then. For instance, you do not get a mode indicator. You do get a nice On/Off button that tabs through the four modes. The button also seems to glow in the dark slightly, making finding it easier. 

That button turns on and turns off the light easily by holding it down momentarily. It is maybe the easiest button to use on a light of this type I've ever tried. Many lights have fussy On/Off/Mode buttons that are a bit frustrating. The bad thing about a button that is easy to use? It could turn on at an unwanted time in a bag, or when stored in luggage. To avoid an issue with this you must put the light in "Lock Mode", which is attained by holding the button down for 5-6 seconds at which time the light will flash quickly several times to let you know you've got it locked. Do the same procedure for unlocking the light. 

 By the way, the button flashes a blue light when charging that goes solid blue when the battery is topped off. If you get too low on battery power the button will glow red indicating a 20% power level reserve is all you have left.

Another 'hidden feature' was that the light unit swivels on the Quick Twist Mount slightly, maybe a few degrees. But that is all you need to get that beam pointed in the direction you want and could be a great feature if your bars sweep backward after leaving the stem clamp. 

Once I had the mount secured on my handle bar the Dual Blaze was easy to slide into place. I have to say that it doesn't give you a reassuring "CLICK" or provide any resistance to give you a feeling that it is locked into place. A gentle tug on the light head did show I had it on there well enough though. 

Quick Ride Impressions: I received this light in April but we had such cold, windy, and wet weather that I put off trying the light out until now, and of course it feels like Mid-Summer out there now! Anyway, my initial impressions are good. The 1500 Lumen setting was a bit of a surprise in that it did not just wash out the features I would look for while navigating a gravel road. There was a nice flooded area of light to see by and spill-over was wide enough to illuminate a broad swath of roadway. Throw was good enough for fast riding too. 

One thing I noted was that at the highest setting, the casing got pretty toasty. Perhaps this is a compromise for getting that lighter weight plastic casing in lieu of using a heat dissipating metal casing. But whatever the case may be there, I found that the high setting was throwing off a decent amount of heat to the point of maybe being too hot for sensitive hands. 

On Medium the light was okay for general gravel travel, I thought, and it ran noticeably cooler. This 800 Lumen setting was what I was most interested in checking out. This is where I would use the light most often. Especially since you get a claimed six hours of ride time in that mode. Plenty for my needs. 

Interestingly, the light 'temperature' or 'color', was not that blinding bluish hue, but a warmer, almost yellowish tone, much like old automobile headlamps. It was easy on the eyes of this old man, if not all that impressive. That harsher, bluish light makes an impression, but it gets fatiguing to look at after a while, in my opinion. So, this "800 Lumen" of light wasn't going to wow anyone, but it might be better in the long haul than something which seems to have more punch, but is less kind to the eyeballs. 

I did see some mild artifacts from the lens on High beam, but this seemed to disappear at Medium. By the way, Low beam was essentially a commuter, "I am here" light, in my opinion. Not really all that great at first glance, but I'll try it some more before I fully pass on that mode. 

So, there is what I think so far. I plan on taking this out for a longer gravel ride and directly comparing it with the light I used for my Tour of Black Hawk County last year. Stay tuned for that and more on the Dual Blaze 1500 soon.

Review: Planet Bike Dual Blaze 1500 Light- Part 1

Today I want to start the review of a light from Planet Bike, the Dual Blaze 1500. Right up front I want to make it understood that I was provided this light to review by Planet Bike and I will point you to my Standard Disclaimer page for reference regarding that point. 

The LED light technology changes continue to amaze and the Dual Blaze 1500 is no exception. The two Nichia NVSW319BT emitters are powered by Samsung's 5000 mAh lithium ion battery to give you up to 1500 Lumen of lighting power at a retail price of $100.00 USD. That's crazy!

It wasn't all that long ago that a 1500 Lumen bicycle light, if you could find one, was well over that price and it had a ginormous external battery pack. (I have such a light yet from around the early twenty-teens) And that was for a bargain priced, Chinese made, internet only option. 

Now this Dual Blaze light is a self-contained unit with USB charging and a light weight for the entire unit in a compact package. Obviously, at this price you are not getting all the bells and whistles that maybe a more expensive LED unit might have, but if you are looking for simplicity and if you are on a budget, this is a great light to look at. 

 Specs:

Run Times; 2.5 hrs (high - 1500 lm), 6 hrs (medium - 800 lm), 12 hrs (low - 400 lm), and up to 45 hrs (Superflash™ Day - 1500 lm)

Battery: Samsung 5000 mAh lithium ion battery charges in 3.5 hours with USB C 

Features: Provides 275° of visibility with side lens, water resistance rated to IP64 standard, and weighs in at 185 grams. 

Accessories: Included Quick Twist™ mount fits 25.4mm to 31.8mm handle bars. Aftermarket accessories include helmet mount, fork mount, and extra handle bar mounts. (See website for details) 

The Dual Blaze 1500 has a plastic casing which helps reduce weight to under 200 grams even with the mount.

First Impressions: The Dual Blaze 1500 is about 10% smaller than a recently reviewed 1600 Lumen light I tried and it is obviously lighter in the hand than most lights with this sort of power. I'm not sure where the weight savings is coming from 100%, but obviously, the plastic housing is saving some mass here. Most lights in this category have metal housings for better heat dissipation. More on that in a minute....

The Quick Twist mount was not hard to figure out. It utilizes a slip joint to accommodate several handle bar diameters. Pretty clever that. Once you get the proper setting it is easy to tighten the mount for a secure base for the Dual Blaze to sit on. 

The Quick Twist Mount seems secure enough for rough gravel travel.

Once again, I should remind you that this light cost $100.00 bucks. The fact that it doesn't feature a lot of things higher priced lights do should come as no surprise then. For instance, you do not get a mode indicator. You do get a nice On/Off button that tabs through the four modes. The button also seems to glow in the dark slightly, making finding it easier. 

That button turns on and turns off the light easily by holding it down momentarily. It is maybe the easiest button to use on a light of this type I've ever tried. Many lights have fussy On/Off/Mode buttons that are a bit frustrating. The bad thing about a button that is easy to use? It could turn on at an unwanted time in a bag, or when stored in luggage. To avoid an issue with this you must put the light in "Lock Mode", which is attained by holding the button down for 5-6 seconds at which time the light will flash quickly several times to let you know you've got it locked. Do the same procedure for unlocking the light. 

 By the way, the button flashes a blue light when charging that goes solid blue when the battery is topped off. If you get too low on battery power the button will glow red indicating a 20% power level reserve is all you have left.

Another 'hidden feature' was that the light unit swivels on the Quick Twist Mount slightly, maybe a few degrees. But that is all you need to get that beam pointed in the direction you want and could be a great feature if your bars sweep backward after leaving the stem clamp. 

Once I had the mount secured on my handle bar the Dual Blaze was easy to slide into place. I have to say that it doesn't give you a reassuring "CLICK" or provide any resistance to give you a feeling that it is locked into place. A gentle tug on the light head did show I had it on there well enough though. 

Quick Ride Impressions: I received this light in April but we had such cold, windy, and wet weather that I put off trying the light out until now, and of course it feels like Mid-Summer out there now! Anyway, my initial impressions are good. The 1500 Lumen setting was a bit of a surprise in that it did not just wash out the features I would look for while navigating a gravel road. There was a nice flooded area of light to see by and spill-over was wide enough to illuminate a broad swath of roadway. Throw was good enough for fast riding too. 

One thing I noted was that at the highest setting, the casing got pretty toasty. Perhaps this is a compromise for getting that lighter weight plastic casing in lieu of using a heat dissipating metal casing. But whatever the case may be there, I found that the high setting was throwing off a decent amount of heat to the point of maybe being too hot for sensitive hands. 

On Medium the light was okay for general gravel travel, I thought, and it ran noticeably cooler. This 800 Lumen setting was what I was most interested in checking out. This is where I would use the light most often. Especially since you get a claimed six hours of ride time in that mode. Plenty for my needs. 

Interestingly, the light 'temperature' or 'color', was not that blinding bluish hue, but a warmer, almost yellowish tone, much like old automobile headlamps. It was easy on the eyes of this old man, if not all that impressive. That harsher, bluish light makes an impression, but it gets fatiguing to look at after a while, in my opinion. So, this "800 Lumen" of light wasn't going to wow anyone, but it might be better in the long haul than something which seems to have more punch, but is less kind to the eyeballs. 

I did see some mild artifacts from the lens on High beam, but this seemed to disappear at Medium. By the way, Low beam was essentially a commuter, "I am here" light, in my opinion. Not really all that great at first glance, but I'll try it some more before I fully pass on that mode. 

So, there is what I think so far. I plan on taking this out for a longer gravel ride and directly comparing it with the light I used for my Tour of Black Hawk County last year. Stay tuned for that and more on the Dual Blaze 1500 soon.

Before There Was "Gravel": Lighting

Lights have come a long way in the last 17 years

The first look back at what we were doing with our equipment before the "Gravel™" thing took off in cycling went over pretty well. So, I thought I'd delve into another topic which we struggled with back in the day. 

Lighting for bicycles circa 2005 was generally centered around 24hr racing needs. Sure, you had your commuter lights, and I'll get to some of those, but generally speaking, a light only had to be blazingly bright for a little over an hour, maybe two (typical lap times at big 24Hr races were in the 1-2 hour range) and you'd be back at the pits where you'd grab another battery pack and so on.

There weren't really any needs being seen beyond that in terms of run time, different light levels, compact design, or what have you. Commuter lights were, frankly, a joke up until the mid-00's. I recall us selling halogen lights right up to about 2004. LED light technology was in its infancy at this time. 

The Blackburn Quadrant was a popular commuter light circa 2004-2005, but was a poor quality LED light.

I should mention that I will be primarily looking at this topic from my unique perspective in gravel events. At the time, Trans Iowa, The Dirty Kanza 200 (Now Unbound Gravel), and the Good Life Gravel Adventure (now Gravel Worlds) were the only 'big' events that required a light at all. Some smaller events which no longer exist did take place at night, such as the Moonlight Metric, which I did a couple of times, or the one-off Moonlight Madness event, which was an all-nighter as well. But for the most part, it was Trans Iowa that required the most from lighting back in the day. 

From my archived blog posts I was able to pull out a bunch of images and was reminded of how things were difficult for the night time gravel grinder back then. What I discovered overall are a few things. First, lights were pitifully weak and had really bad light throw and patterns back then. Secondly, most 'long-run' time set ups (More than 5-6 hours) needed heavy battery packs which had to be externally mounted to frames, bodies, or put into bags. Finally, there were great lights, but they were very expensive and had short run times.

The Cateye Triple Shot was one of the first really good LED lights

Lights like Cateye's then new Triple Shot, which debuted circa 2005, was a promising light, but it was focused on the endurance 24hr scene, and run times were low compared to what was necessary for Trans Iowa. Still, we could see then that this was where lights needed to go, we just needed longer run times. 

One thing that is overlooked here is that gravel events had unique needs. These typically were not addressed in these earlier lighting solutions where all-out power dominated the feature set with narrowish beam patterns that wasted a lot of the light in its beaming twoard the shy. But as you might know from mountain biking, sometimes your bike is pointed down, but you need the light 'out front', not pointed down at the trail, so these big, halo beam patterns made sense for MTB. 

Another issue we had was the nature of gravel, which has a LOT of higher frequency vibrations, and that would rattle loose mounts, lights, and other stuff! Early on into Trans Iowa riders found that a lot of equipment they attached to their bikes would be jettisoned off into the ditch or onto the gravel unexpectedly due to the severity of these vibrations. Fortunately, that is not an issue with these newer mounts which are much more secure. 

Just before the start of Trans Iowa v5 in 2009

So, above we have the riders gathering for the start of the fifth Trans Iowa in 2009. Keep in mind things like the Cateye Triple Shot have been around a few years already. That said, you can see that riders are opting for lower power, (note- not because they wanted to), options with longer run times. There are not a lot of helmet mounted lights, and the lights that are on are not all that impressive. The reflections of the camera flash from the reflective treatments is a LOT brighter than any lighting here. 

 

Trans Iowa v7 start line.

Two years later we start to see some seriously powerful lights creeping into use by the riders. By this time, in 2011, lighting technology had taken a bit of a turn. No longer were the lighting choices all about endurance 24hr riding. Now commuting needs were creeping into the picture, and smaller companies were fulfilling needs that the big companies couldn't cover, or wouldn't. Meanwhile, other older companies fell to the wayside as they were passed by in the ever changing LED technology of that time. 

One of the companies I was aware of at the time that was really pushing the boundaries with powerful LED lights and long run times was Ay Up from Australia. While they still required external battery packs, they were minimized in size and were easily swapped out if need be. I know several top riders of the day relied on this company's lights. But they were expensive and you kind of had to be 'in the know' to even be aware of them.

My light 'hack' circa 2009.

Meanwhile people like myself who were looking for lights to last for really long times were left to their own devices. I was wanting a light for six to ten hours of run time, so I ended up buying a head mounted torch from Eveready. It was meant for campers, but it had 110 Lumen output for 11 hours off three AAA batteries. I made a mount for the handle bar using an old Cateye computer mount and stuffed the battery pack into a top tube bag. 

The really cool thing about this light was that the beam pattern could be adjusted by twisting the lens bezel. It would go from a long-throw spot to a wide, washy light that went the entire width of the road. This was the light I used in the Moonlight Madness event where it rained the entire night, but I never wanted for light. The best part?  spent less than $60.00 on the entire set up.

It's hard to believe what we used to rely on a dozen or more years ago for lights. This was from the Moonlight Metric.

Around about 2010 or so I noted that things were changing rapidly. Suddenly there was a cottage industry springing up with light choices the big brands were not offering. Commuter lights began to become more powerful. No longer was 200-300 Lumen thought of as a high beam. Now it was 500 Lumen, or even 800 Lumen, which became the top setting. "Medium" settings of 150-250 Lumen were then making 4-6 hour run times possible. Now we were getting into some serious light choices! 

By T.I.v10 in 2014 lights had become pretty good and reasonably priced. (Image from a film by P. Ross)

The LED light technology became like an arms race. About every six months to a year some new emitter technology would appear, or new battery technology would appear, or both, and the lights one could get would take another leap forward in capabilities and another leap downward in price for what you got. Value per dolar has never been better now in that regard. 

Let's not forget how generator hub and light technology has changed as well. I recal seeing my first generator hub lights at Trans Iowa in 2007. Then, just three years later I remember seeing generator hub technology that blew anything else away. It was super bright, ran without hardly any drag, and would light up at super-slow speed. The only nit here was, and is, price. Plus you have to accept a dedication to one front wheel. 

The new Planet Bike "Dual Blaze"

Now you can have 1500 Lumen power in light with Medium settings that run up at 800 Lumen for hours and hours. We couldn't even get 800 Lumen lights in the early days! Now? Slap down a Benjamin and walk out with a self-contained, lightweight, durable, reliable light that will be all you'd ever need. Something that would have cost hundreds of dollars back in the day, if you could even find such a thing with those run times. 

So, it is easy to forget where we have come from with regard to lights for night time gravel riding. It's a really fun thing to do, and the lights are not really a barrier to the pursuit of the past time anymore. But yeah, about that...... Trans Iowa is gone. Who needs lights anymore for long gravel events, right?

Well, it's funny when I think about this. Obviously, Iowa Wind and Rock is kind of the evolution of Trans Iowa, but right about when I stopped T.I. other events decided this long distance deal was a thing. Unbound did the XL distance, (originally the DKXL), and then Gravel Worlds added a "Long Voyage" distance as well. So, yeah, you need long runtime, high-output lights. If you do those events, at any rate. 

So, there is a brief overview of lights from the earliest "Modern Gravel" era days till now. I hope that you enjoyed that look back at lights.