Lighting the Night

Over the years I’ve used various makes and model of lights for fat biking, starting with a pair of Hope Vision 2 led lights which were okay but not great. These were replaced with a pair of Magicshine MJ-872 LED lights which were vast improvement on the Hope lights. However, one light has failed totally and the other is unreliable, so I set about looking for new LED lights that would serve both fat bike and kick scooter.

First of all, I put some thought into just what I wanted for these new LED lights. With my previous lights I never really needed the huge lumen output and always found the lower settings more than adequate, which, on the plus side also gives you more duration. The other things I didn’t want was huge external battery packs. Ideally, I was looking for something compact and self-contained, that could be quickly, securely and easily mounted and removed from the handlebars.

As usual, research on the Internet came up with what I was looking for, the Knog Blinder Road 400. The specification was ideal.

  • Light modes: 11 light modes
  • 3 light outputs, 2 beam widths, 2 independent LEDs
  • Light output: 400 lumens
  • Dimensions: 53 x 30 x 75mm
  • Weight: 105g
  • Two removable silicone straps for bars (tool-less attachment)
  • Visibility from 1200 metres
  • 100% Waterproof
  • Battery: USB Rechargeable Lithium Polymer
  • Full charging time: 5 – 6hours
  • Battery life – 1 hour to 9 hours (depending on mode used)

They cost around £120 for a pair – I always ride or scoot with more than one light, just in case one fails when far from home. They fit both my kick scooters and all my bicycle handlebars perfectly and produce enough light on the lowest setting for most conditions, other than when moving speed, when the medium setting is better. Duration on the lowest setting is approx. 8 hours with 3 hours on the medium setting. In use in the field they are secure and do not wobble about, though one slight bug-bear is that the small buttons are awkward to use when wearing gloves.

I initially bought them for use on my Swifty Scooters and find them ideal for the type of kick scooting I do, a mix of urban footpaths and off-road trails, in fact, it’s only really in dark woodland that I use them at all, as there is often enough reflected glow from street lighting or the moon when under clear skies, to see with.

Copyright ©2020 Gary Buckham. All rights reserved.

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