Sunday, November 15, 2009

Blaze 2W - It's a Bike Light!

I’ve been waiting for this light since I discovered it a few weeks back on a website. I’ve been looking around for it at local bikes shops and happened to see it today. I grabbed it, mounted it and proceeded to ride on the Minuteman trail with it.

I have multiple 1 watt lights from different manufacturers, including the Blaze 1W.

This light is a joy to use. As a matter of fact, it is too bright to leave on when you approach someone. I felt the need to cover it with my hand as a courtesy to on-coming riders.

As I was leaving the trail at Alewife a rider who had been behind me caught up and off-handedly said something like “thanks for sharing the light.”

He had the Spock on his bike and is convinced that the Blaze 2W is a real step forward.

Anyway, instead of packing it in at about 5:30 tonite I went on and rode until just about 9:30 with the light. It throws enough light for me to ride at my usual pace (14 – 18mph) and not be surprised by the road/path surface.

I’ve owned other rechargeable systems and have also built high output 12 and 18 volt systems for my bike. The Blaze is a convenient and light-weight solution.

The 2W is a real step up from the 1W. As a matter of fact, if you mount both you can use the 1W in flash mode and the 2 to light your way, or at one point I had the 2W focused on the path farther out and the 1W closer in and I had continuous light in front of me for 30-40 feet or so, definitely far enough to see any bumps/holes and detritus on the road and enough lead time to avoid it.

It’s worth the $60.

Also, Planet Bike as a company gives back. They pledge 25% of their profits to Bike Advocacy. I've got to tell you, not enough is getting spent on bike advocacy these days. IMHO!

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