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.

Country Views: Into The Night

The bottle config has been sussed out. More on that later...

Saturday was a bit of a wash what with family obligations, a trip to a small town to pick up our locally grown, butchered, and packaged meat, and then some family time. In between I worked on the Project Wide Gravel Wheels v2 and my bottle configuration on the pink Black Mountain Cycles MCD. 

Sunday I had to play guitar at church and then I waited until the evening to ride. Why? Because I needed to get some night riding done to wrap up a review on some lights for RidingGravel.com. I also was able to load up the BMC MCD as I would be riding it at Gravel Worlds. So, it was a double-purposed ride. Besides, it's been awhile since I've been out riding in the night.

So, after the evening meal I got ready to do a bit of a ride out South of town to see the lay of the land at night by bicycle. Fortunately the weather had straightened out and there wasn't much wind at all. In fact, it was almost perfect out. Almost except for the clouds of gnats! Flying protein snacks are not my favorite thing. I had to remind myself not to be a mouth-breather. 

The added bags on the bike are Bike Bag Dude Chaff Bags. I've used those a lot over the last ten plus years and - in fact- the one on the left side here is about one of the first Chaff Bags available. I got that about ten years ago. The other side, the left one, is like the newer ones which you can get you hand all the way into. I'll use the right one primarily as a water bottle cage. The left one will carry nutrition. The idea is to not have a top tube bag, (other than the gas tank style bag), and not have a saddle bag.

I got treated to a really spectacular Sunset.

This was where I had to finally turn on the lights.

Once I got out into the country I was relieved of having to keep breathing through my nose exclusively. The bugs were still around in large numbers, but at least they were aiming for my lights and not my head! Getting my lights sorted was fun. I had three lights and three tail lights to check out during the ride. 

Testing......one....two...three!

Well, it wasn't much of a long ride, but I did have a bit of a surprise at one point. I heard a dog, and well, I wasn't too concerned, but I did scan for the mutt and was expecting to see it converging on my path. You know- dogs are experts at that. And so, when I saw a large mutt taking a rather different line that would put him way off from converging on me, I was a bit confused. 

Then I saw an animal, about the size of a small dog, and white-ish in color, jetting across the road and I realized the dog had taken no notice of me, but was on the chase behind this unidentified animal. Whatever the dog was chasing, it was an expert climber because it went through the ditch and straight up the utility pole that was there lightning fast. It was rather startling. 

The dog, a German Shepherd, saw me then and I told him, "Good boy! You treed that animal! Good boy!" and the dog acted like I was its master and cowered and looked for affection from me, then took off to see that the varmint didn't escape. I simply rode away. That was a lot easier than I was expecting!

I heard a few deer running alongside the bike path on the way back in and I even came across another night-cyclist! Sometimes these shorter trips are the most interesting ones! Especially when they take you into the night.

Country Views: Into The Night

The bottle config has been sussed out. More on that later...

Saturday was a bit of a wash what with family obligations, a trip to a small town to pick up our locally grown, butchered, and packaged meat, and then some family time. In between I worked on the Project Wide Gravel Wheels v2 and my bottle configuration on the pink Black Mountain Cycles MCD. 

Sunday I had to play guitar at church and then I waited until the evening to ride. Why? Because I needed to get some night riding done to wrap up a review on some lights for RidingGravel.com. I also was able to load up the BMC MCD as I would be riding it at Gravel Worlds. So, it was a double-purposed ride. Besides, it's been awhile since I've been out riding in the night.

So, after the evening meal I got ready to do a bit of a ride out South of town to see the lay of the land at night by bicycle. Fortunately the weather had straightened out and there wasn't much wind at all. In fact, it was almost perfect out. Almost except for the clouds of gnats! Flying protein snacks are not my favorite thing. I had to remind myself not to be a mouth-breather. 

The added bags on the bike are Bike Bag Dude Chaff Bags. I've used those a lot over the last ten plus years and - in fact- the one on the left side here is about one of the first Chaff Bags available. I got that about ten years ago. The other side, the left one, is like the newer ones which you can get you hand all the way into. I'll use the right one primarily as a water bottle cage. The left one will carry nutrition. The idea is to not have a top tube bag, (other than the gas tank style bag), and not have a saddle bag.

I got treated to a really spectacular Sunset.

This was where I had to finally turn on the lights.

Once I got out into the country I was relieved of having to keep breathing through my nose exclusively. The bugs were still around in large numbers, but at least they were aiming for my lights and not my head! Getting my lights sorted was fun. I had three lights and three tail lights to check out during the ride. 

Testing......one....two...three!

Well, it wasn't much of a long ride, but I did have a bit of a surprise at one point. I heard a dog, and well, I wasn't too concerned, but I did scan for the mutt and was expecting to see it converging on my path. You know- dogs are experts at that. And so, when I saw a large mutt taking a rather different line that would put him way off from converging on me, I was a bit confused. 

Then I saw an animal, about the size of a small dog, and white-ish in color, jetting across the road and I realized the dog had taken no notice of me, but was on the chase behind this unidentified animal. Whatever the dog was chasing, it was an expert climber because it went through the ditch and straight up the utility pole that was there lightning fast. It was rather startling. 

The dog, a German Shepherd, saw me then and I told him, "Good boy! You treed that animal! Good boy!" and the dog acted like I was its master and cowered and looked for affection from me, then took off to see that the varmint didn't escape. I simply rode away. That was a lot easier than I was expecting!

I heard a few deer running alongside the bike path on the way back in and I even came across another night-cyclist! Sometimes these shorter trips are the most interesting ones! Especially when they take you into the night.

Crazy Lights

Raveman lights purchased for test/review on RidingGravel.com

 We have it easy these days, we do. Especially when it comes to lighting for our night time bicycling excursions. I never cease to be amazed by each new generation of LED lights and Lithium/Ion battery technology that seems to come around about every 3-4 months. Last year's lights? Ancient! Old technology! 

I think the term "planned obsolescence" has never been better defined than by the pace of LED light tech. It's stupid, really, and you get more for less all the time. 

This has me thinking about old technologies for lighting which we thought were fine. Perfectly usable stuff, that's what we thought, and we raged through the night with lights not much brighter than birthday candles. We were crazy, that's what we were. There is no way we'd do things like we did with that poor lighting now, especially since we 'know better'.  

This may sound completely bonkers now, but back in the mid to late 00's, we didn't have much for lights. Well, not self-contained lights. You could get rad battery pack lights, but we gravelists didn't want to have to deal with dangling wires and we didn't want to have to deal with battery packs, which typically weighed a ton.We could have gone the hub dynamo route, but that was very expensive. So we had to hack, make-do, and what I ended up using were some less than stellar lights. One I used and had three different iterations of was this home made bodge of a camping head lamp with an external battery pack. (Light, three triple "A" batteries) But I had 100 Lumens of light for thirty hours!  So there was that. 

I dredged through the archives and found some examples of what I used to use. So sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and be amused at what it was I used to use to bomb down hills at night on gravel at 30mph.....

The venerable Cat Eye EL 500

 This was a light we used to recommend for Trans Iowa. Yes- really! It was rated at 1000 candlepower and ran off 4 AAA batteries, easily found at convenience stores and you could pack extras. The unit was light, fairly durable for gravel riding, and threw an okay amount of light. It was also pretty inexpensive going for around $25.00 in its heyday. It had a magnetic switch, so theoretically it could never fail. The major downfall of this light was that the lens screwed off to reveal the batteries and that usually fouled up the housing at some point, which was made of pretty flimsy plastic. The lens also wasn't what I would call great either. 

Blackburn came out with a "better version" of an EL 500 in the late 00's and I used one for a while.

 After the Cat Eye EL 500 came out and was wildly popular many companies went to work to make a better version. I had a Blackburn light around the time we did Trans Iowa v5 in 2009 which was definitely an improvement. Gone were the separate AAA batteries and it was a true self-contained unit. The trouble with this one was that the handle bar/light mount was finicky, (a very common issue with lights), and the thing was heavy for the minuscule amount of power (compared to today's lights), so off it came. It also had pretty poor run times on its higher setting, as I recall, making it a bit of a problem when it came to riding at night for a long period of time.

My hacked camp head lamp with external battery pack. This was from 2012

 Longer run times meant you had to compromise on light power. Battery technology wasn't quite being applied at the time so one could have a light weight, portable, self-contained, long run time light. I ended up scouring department stores and hardware stores for options. I ended up finding these Eveready camp head lamps, you know, the type you wear around your head so you can set up your tent at night? 

I hacked three of these, but my best attempt was the last where I found this adjustable lens light with a metal casing and bezel which ran at 100 Lumens for thirty hours off a three AAA battery pack. With the lens bezel set to maximum flood, I had a light I could putter around out in the country with for as long as I liked. Trouble was that it was too floody, and there wasn't that 'punch', that strong beam you need to see when you are flying downhill at warp speed. So I supplemented this light with one of the forerunners of the new vanguard of self-contained LED lights, a Lezyne Super Drive, circa 2012. 

The Lezyne Super Drive came out at the end of 2011.

 The Super Drive was top of the line at the time for Lezyne and had a 450 Lumen output with a run time of 1.5hrs. A piddly amount compared to today's lights, but back then, it was something, being so small and powerful as it was compared to the competition. By the way, it would run at 100 Lumens for 5 hours. Six times less than my hacked camp light! 

It was at about this time when companies started dedicating R&D to lightweight, self-contained, versatile lighting with decently long run times. That's when the whole deal went bananas and takes us up to today. 

So, now we have LED rear lights with brake sensors and light sensors to warn cars coming up from behind that there is a cyclist on the road. We have 1600 Lumen lights, which is supposedly 600 Lumens brighter than a car headlamp on high-beam, which run for an hour plus at that level. All self-contained, and priced well below $200.00. It's crazy. You used to have to spend nearly a thousand bucks for that sort of power and run time. This 1600 Lumen light I am testing will run at 400 Lumens for 7 hours. Quite a bit better than that Lezyne Super Drive at about the same power. Plus I have several modes other than that, and a remote!

Stay tuned for updates on these Raveman lights. 

Note: These Raveman lights were purchased at a discounted price for test and review on RidingGravel.com. I am not being paid, nor bribed, for this post and I always strive to give my honest thoughts and opinions throughout.

Crazy Lights

Raveman lights purchased for test/review on RidingGravel.com

 We have it easy these days, we do. Especially when it comes to lighting for our night time bicycling excursions. I never cease to be amazed by each new generation of LED lights and Lithium/Ion battery technology that seems to come around about every 3-4 months. Last year's lights? Ancient! Old technology! 

I think the term "planned obsolescence" has never been better defined than by the pace of LED light tech. It's stupid, really, and you get more for less all the time. 

This has me thinking about old technologies for lighting which we thought were fine. Perfectly usable stuff, that's what we thought, and we raged through the night with lights not much brighter than birthday candles. We were crazy, that's what we were. There is no way we'd do things like we did with that poor lighting now, especially since we 'know better'.  

This may sound completely bonkers now, but back in the mid to late 00's, we didn't have much for lights. Well, not self-contained lights. You could get rad battery pack lights, but we gravelists didn't want to have to deal with dangling wires and we didn't want to have to deal with battery packs, which typically weighed a ton.We could have gone the hub dynamo route, but that was very expensive. So we had to hack, make-do, and what I ended up using were some less than stellar lights. One I used and had three different iterations of was this home made bodge of a camping head lamp with an external battery pack. (Light, three triple "A" batteries) But I had 100 Lumens of light for thirty hours!  So there was that. 

I dredged through the archives and found some examples of what I used to use. So sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and be amused at what it was I used to use to bomb down hills at night on gravel at 30mph.....

The venerable Cat Eye EL 500

 This was a light we used to recommend for Trans Iowa. Yes- really! It was rated at 1000 candlepower and ran off 4 AAA batteries, easily found at convenience stores and you could pack extras. The unit was light, fairly durable for gravel riding, and threw an okay amount of light. It was also pretty inexpensive going for around $25.00 in its heyday. It had a magnetic switch, so theoretically it could never fail. The major downfall of this light was that the lens screwed off to reveal the batteries and that usually fouled up the housing at some point, which was made of pretty flimsy plastic. The lens also wasn't what I would call great either. 

Blackburn came out with a "better version" of an EL 500 in the late 00's and I used one for a while.

 After the Cat Eye EL 500 came out and was wildly popular many companies went to work to make a better version. I had a Blackburn light around the time we did Trans Iowa v5 in 2009 which was definitely an improvement. Gone were the separate AAA batteries and it was a true self-contained unit. The trouble with this one was that the handle bar/light mount was finicky, (a very common issue with lights), and the thing was heavy for the minuscule amount of power (compared to today's lights), so off it came. It also had pretty poor run times on its higher setting, as I recall, making it a bit of a problem when it came to riding at night for a long period of time.

My hacked camp head lamp with external battery pack. This was from 2012

 Longer run times meant you had to compromise on light power. Battery technology wasn't quite being applied at the time so one could have a light weight, portable, self-contained, long run time light. I ended up scouring department stores and hardware stores for options. I ended up finding these Eveready camp head lamps, you know, the type you wear around your head so you can set up your tent at night? 

I hacked three of these, but my best attempt was the last where I found this adjustable lens light with a metal casing and bezel which ran at 100 Lumens for thirty hours off a three AAA battery pack. With the lens bezel set to maximum flood, I had a light I could putter around out in the country with for as long as I liked. Trouble was that it was too floody, and there wasn't that 'punch', that strong beam you need to see when you are flying downhill at warp speed. So I supplemented this light with one of the forerunners of the new vanguard of self-contained LED lights, a Lezyne Super Drive, circa 2012. 

The Lezyne Super Drive came out at the end of 2011.

 The Super Drive was top of the line at the time for Lezyne and had a 450 Lumen output with a run time of 1.5hrs. A piddly amount compared to today's lights, but back then, it was something, being so small and powerful as it was compared to the competition. By the way, it would run at 100 Lumens for 5 hours. Six times less than my hacked camp light! 

It was at about this time when companies started dedicating R&D to lightweight, self-contained, versatile lighting with decently long run times. That's when the whole deal went bananas and takes us up to today. 

So, now we have LED rear lights with brake sensors and light sensors to warn cars coming up from behind that there is a cyclist on the road. We have 1600 Lumen lights, which is supposedly 600 Lumens brighter than a car headlamp on high-beam, which run for an hour plus at that level. All self-contained, and priced well below $200.00. It's crazy. You used to have to spend nearly a thousand bucks for that sort of power and run time. This 1600 Lumen light I am testing will run at 400 Lumens for 7 hours. Quite a bit better than that Lezyne Super Drive at about the same power. Plus I have several modes other than that, and a remote!

Stay tuned for updates on these Raveman lights. 

Note: These Raveman lights were purchased at a discounted price for test and review on RidingGravel.com. I am not being paid, nor bribed, for this post and I always strive to give my honest thoughts and opinions throughout.

Fall Views: N.Y. Roll Ride

It's a jungle out there!

Saturday was a planned, very early morning ride with N.Y. Roll. I figured that we should get our ride in early, while my family slept in. My son was in a high school football game Friday night and that meant that nobody at the palatial Guitar Ted Productions headquarters got to sleep before 12:30am. Yeah.....I did not get a lot of sleep either. 

The alarm went off at 04:30 am and I rubbed my bleary eyes and jumped to it. I met N.Y. Roll at the Stone Castle Estates, where I was greeted by his dog, Ella, at the door. After a short chat, we were off in the direction of the Cedar Valley Nature Trail (CVNT), going Southeast out of town, so we could explore some roads that N.Y. Roll had been on and a few he had not been on.

Fall air was in play as it was about 52°F at the beginning of the ride, and it dipped down a bit from there. There was a mostly cloudy sky, (although we couldn't see anything at first), and a light breeze out of the Northwest. All in all it was pretty pleasant, actually. I wore my base layer, my Twin Six Standard Wool jersey, wool arm warmers, a RidingGravel.com vest, Showers Pass shorts, Zion liner, Twin Six wool socks, and I cut up a couple plastic shopping bags which I wrapped around my toes and then I put on my Shimano RX8 shoes over that. I wore a tube sock (or "Buff", as they are called) under my helmet. I was warm all ride long and never was really uncomfortable. Temperatures probably dipped into the upper 40's at some points, and it got up to 58°F by rides end.

I rode the Noble Bikes GX5 with a clip on rear fender fitted, and a Revelate Tangle Bag, along with an old Carousel Designs bento bag. I used the Giant Recon HL 1600 front light and a Bontrager tail light. Equipment was spot on for this ride.

A ghostly N.Y. Roll rides alongside me South of Waterloo, Iowa.

N.Y. Roll wanted to head over to the CVNT and take that to Foulk Road which would lead us South to gravel, eventually. Once we hit gravel, it was readily apparent that the previous day's soaking rain had not been fully absorbed here. I couldn't really see it, but it was more about how the gravel sounded and felt. It was still to dark to make out much, even with our bright LED torches leading the way.

N.Y. Roll advised me that we were looking for Miller Creek Road and there we would go left. It wasn't long and we had made the corner and when we did the dead flat road, on a river valley floor, was not very well drained or solid. In fact, it was in classic, "Trans Iowa condition", being mushy, muddy, and it was causing a lot of extra effort and concern for my drive train. While I never heard any crunchy, snappy weirdness from the chain ring or cassette while it integrated with the chain, I did get a bit of skipping at a couple of points. Mud was flinging off my front tire in the light beam, and I could hear the maelstrom of grit pounding off the carbon down tube and off the back of the seat tube. Not a pleasant sound! I was sure hoping this was an odd situation and that the rest of the roads were going to be better.

N.Y. Roll wanted to turn onto Cotter Road eventually, and when we made that turn South, we found that the road trended upward in elevation and the road was much firmer and faster than what I had been on before. Of course, now the light was growing as the Sun, somewhere behind those clouds in the Eastern sky, mounted up and brought forth day.

Up and into drier territory on Cotter Road. 

Stopping for a nature break.

N.Y. Roll's plan was to show me a set of rollers with a big drop off on Cotter Road, and then to head into Benton County a bit, before coming back North and eventually into LaPorte, Iowa. There the plan was to hit the original Rocket's Bakery and have a pastry and coffee.

Pushing further South.

Eventually we went South past LaPorte a bit and then circled back around and North a hair to catch HWY 218 North into LaPorte. Oddly enough, while several cars went out Southward, we were never passed by a car or truck all the way into town and on to Rocket's, it was free and clear. Riding pavement was a bit different, but sometimes I actually do this, and I haven't forgotten how.

Drafting into LaPorte from the South on HWY 218.

Someone carved what was left of an old tree into a corn cob. 

Once we got rolled into town it was on to get a pastry. I was hungry for the last six miles or so before LaPorte and I was ready to have that and a nice cup of coffee. The temperatures never did really warm up much, despite the Sun peeking out.

Highly recommended if you are ever in LaPorte, Iowa. The Rocket's Bakery blueberry fritter was great!

Heading out of LaPorte, the Sun actually shone for a bit.

After a bit of coffee and an excellent blueberry fritter, it was back on the CVNT toward Waterloo and home again. It was a good ride and I got 46+ miles in the legs by 10:00am. It was nice to be back and spend the day with the family.

Riding along the mighty Cedar River in Waterloo, Iowa.

The Noble GX5 after I returned home.

The bike worked great, and so did I! Ha! But seriously.... I did have to modify the seat tube water bottle mount with a B-Rad rail to get the bottle mounted lower than stock so it would clear the Tangle Bag. Then the SKS clip on fender was a Godsend. Without it I would have been plastered with mud and wetter than I was, and therefore colder too.

I am looking forward to more early morning rides! Thanks N.Y.Roll for getting me out there.

Fall Views: N.Y. Roll Ride

It's a jungle out there!

Saturday was a planned, very early morning ride with N.Y. Roll. I figured that we should get our ride in early, while my family slept in. My son was in a high school football game Friday night and that meant that nobody at the palatial Guitar Ted Productions headquarters got to sleep before 12:30am. Yeah.....I did not get a lot of sleep either. 

The alarm went off at 04:30 am and I rubbed my bleary eyes and jumped to it. I met N.Y. Roll at the Stone Castle Estates, where I was greeted by his dog, Ella, at the door. After a short chat, we were off in the direction of the Cedar Valley Nature Trail (CVNT), going Southeast out of town, so we could explore some roads that N.Y. Roll had been on and a few he had not been on.

Fall air was in play as it was about 52°F at the beginning of the ride, and it dipped down a bit from there. There was a mostly cloudy sky, (although we couldn't see anything at first), and a light breeze out of the Northwest. All in all it was pretty pleasant, actually. I wore my base layer, my Twin Six Standard Wool jersey, wool arm warmers, a RidingGravel.com vest, Showers Pass shorts, Zion liner, Twin Six wool socks, and I cut up a couple plastic shopping bags which I wrapped around my toes and then I put on my Shimano RX8 shoes over that. I wore a tube sock (or "Buff", as they are called) under my helmet. I was warm all ride long and never was really uncomfortable. Temperatures probably dipped into the upper 40's at some points, and it got up to 58°F by rides end.

I rode the Noble Bikes GX5 with a clip on rear fender fitted, and a Revelate Tangle Bag, along with an old Carousel Designs bento bag. I used the Giant Recon HL 1600 front light and a Bontrager tail light. Equipment was spot on for this ride.

A ghostly N.Y. Roll rides alongside me South of Waterloo, Iowa.

N.Y. Roll wanted to head over to the CVNT and take that to Foulk Road which would lead us South to gravel, eventually. Once we hit gravel, it was readily apparent that the previous day's soaking rain had not been fully absorbed here. I couldn't really see it, but it was more about how the gravel sounded and felt. It was still to dark to make out much, even with our bright LED torches leading the way.

N.Y. Roll advised me that we were looking for Miller Creek Road and there we would go left. It wasn't long and we had made the corner and when we did the dead flat road, on a river valley floor, was not very well drained or solid. In fact, it was in classic, "Trans Iowa condition", being mushy, muddy, and it was causing a lot of extra effort and concern for my drive train. While I never heard any crunchy, snappy weirdness from the chain ring or cassette while it integrated with the chain, I did get a bit of skipping at a couple of points. Mud was flinging off my front tire in the light beam, and I could hear the maelstrom of grit pounding off the carbon down tube and off the back of the seat tube. Not a pleasant sound! I was sure hoping this was an odd situation and that the rest of the roads were going to be better.

N.Y. Roll wanted to turn onto Cotter Road eventually, and when we made that turn South, we found that the road trended upward in elevation and the road was much firmer and faster than what I had been on before. Of course, now the light was growing as the Sun, somewhere behind those clouds in the Eastern sky, mounted up and brought forth day.

Up and into drier territory on Cotter Road. 

Stopping for a nature break.

N.Y. Roll's plan was to show me a set of rollers with a big drop off on Cotter Road, and then to head into Benton County a bit, before coming back North and eventually into LaPorte, Iowa. There the plan was to hit the original Rocket's Bakery and have a pastry and coffee.

Pushing further South.

Eventually we went South past LaPorte a bit and then circled back around and North a hair to catch HWY 218 North into LaPorte. Oddly enough, while several cars went out Southward, we were never passed by a car or truck all the way into town and on to Rocket's, it was free and clear. Riding pavement was a bit different, but sometimes I actually do this, and I haven't forgotten how.

Drafting into LaPorte from the South on HWY 218.

Someone carved what was left of an old tree into a corn cob. 

Once we got rolled into town it was on to get a pastry. I was hungry for the last six miles or so before LaPorte and I was ready to have that and a nice cup of coffee. The temperatures never did really warm up much, despite the Sun peeking out.

Highly recommended if you are ever in LaPorte, Iowa. The Rocket's Bakery blueberry fritter was great!

Heading out of LaPorte, the Sun actually shone for a bit.

After a bit of coffee and an excellent blueberry fritter, it was back on the CVNT toward Waterloo and home again. It was a good ride and I got 46+ miles in the legs by 10:00am. It was nice to be back and spend the day with the family.

Riding along the mighty Cedar River in Waterloo, Iowa.

The Noble GX5 after I returned home.

The bike worked great, and so did I! Ha! But seriously.... I did have to modify the seat tube water bottle mount with a B-Rad rail to get the bottle mounted lower than stock so it would clear the Tangle Bag. Then the SKS clip on fender was a Godsend. Without it I would have been plastered with mud and wetter than I was, and therefore colder too.

I am looking forward to more early morning rides! Thanks N.Y.Roll for getting me out there.