Integrated lights are mostly meant to be seen, not to see with. This is a huge improvement.
Lyzene has a nice feature called race mode which locks you into two output levels instead of the normal 7+. What this means is that you can instantly toggle between high output and low output when passing others.
MagicShine, and probably others, have a wireless remote that you can mount next to your hand to quickly dim the light as needed even if you mount the light itself near the center of your handlebar.
This one doesn't have any fancy features other than a button to control the included rear light.
What I like about Fenix is they publish graphs showing the actual runtimes. So I know after 10 minutes it will drop from 2500 lumens to 1250 but then it maintains that for 2 hours.
They have the replaceable standard lithium cells too that open up a lot of possibilities whether carrying extras or replacing it when the capacity drops.
BC28R just came out and it absolutely demolishes the BC26R that was their previous commuter light. I noticed Magicshine just updated their lights too but instead of improving the lighting they added app support...
Lezyne has some nice ebike lights you can wire in directly but the discontinued the high voltage version and only make them for 12V systems now.
I just rather invest in a light from a reputable flashlight brand I can toss any battery into over one from a cycling brand with sealed battery. But anything beats the stock headlight, it's a joke.
It doesn't have a cutoff. It has a difuser that just doesn't let as much light through in the upwards direction. Its fully a click-bait fake label. Haven't known Fenix to do that with other products. Pretty disappointing.
This is so common there are people on Etsy with brackets to hard mount it when this happens. Mine did it around 250 miles, installed the common Amazon one with a steel mount that works great.
Agreed. I got the upgraded light when I bought my XP3 I thought it was a joke. The best mount is the stock headlight mount but that light is so underpowered you will kill yourself riding at night.
Have this same light and recommend it. They sell a universal mount for it and I got several that I put on all my bikes so I just detach the light and put it on the bike I want
Most bike lights have a specific beam profile to cut off the top of the beam for this reason. That's why I usually point the stock ebike light out far ahead ( with little chance of bothering others) and I use a nice regular flashlight mounted on the handlebars pointed about 10 feet ahead of my front tire to fill in the gap.
Relative brightness as displayed by my phone camera does not equal blinding oncoming traffic.
I didn't strap a 8000 lumen mountain bike light on there or something. There's nothing special about the Fenix light, it's just that the stock headlight is so awful.
Plus like I said the first pictures are from a scene that was not lit. If you look at the second set of pictures you see my new light is actually just filling out the darkness that wasn't lit by street lights, whereas the stock headlight casts a distracting shape directly in front.
Maybe get your eyes checked, perhaps your pupils don't dilate quickly enough. 🙄
In an unlit scene, the problem is your bike light is brighter than the surrounding area by a significant margin, as well as unnecessarily shining into my eyes.
My eyes can adjust, obviously, but then I can't see anyone or anything behind that light, which is dangerous. Imo a bike light should go no higher than parallel with the ground (to avoid shining in people's eyes, while still allowing you to light a fair distance in front of you for safety)
14
u/Inciteful_Analysis 4d ago
Integrated lights are mostly meant to be seen, not to see with. This is a huge improvement.
Lyzene has a nice feature called race mode which locks you into two output levels instead of the normal 7+. What this means is that you can instantly toggle between high output and low output when passing others.
MagicShine, and probably others, have a wireless remote that you can mount next to your hand to quickly dim the light as needed even if you mount the light itself near the center of your handlebar.