ALL PRICES ARE CANADIAN
I went to MEC in canada to pick up a light. I went thinking I was gonna get the Nite Hawk for $100. 10W, 2 hours, not great, but good enough, I supposed…especially for the price.
BUT…for a mere $30 more ($130) I picked up the PLanetBike Insight. It is way better! Here’s the specs
<b>Power</b> 9/12/15 watts
<b>Burn Time</b> 4.5/2.5/1.5 hours (claimed - I’ve only ridden once…and still had light after 2 hours on 12W)
<b>Battery</b>NimH (preferred battery type among mountainbikers)…waterbottle diameter, 4" long (priceier ones are way smaller)
<b>Bulb</b>Halogen
This isn’t a durablilty test, I just got it, so I can’t say exactly how good it is. I’m just going on the huge features in this VERY low price range
They say it has an intelligent plug and forget charger which is a very nice feature. The old “dumb” chargers that needed to be manually timed are a pain.
One thing to note about the NiMH batteries is that they don’t start holding a full charge until you have done about 3 or more full charge and full discharge cycles. After that you’ll start to get the full burn times. Burn times will also be less in cold weather. The NiMH battery will loose about 10% of its charge 24 hours after being unplugged from the charger and then continue to loose a couple percent of charge per day after that.
Keep it plugged in until you are ready to use it so the battery will be fresh when you need it. Just don’t leave it plugged in for extended periods (like several weeks) because even a plug and forget charger can still overcharge the battery when it’s left on trickle charge too long.
When packing the light make sure to unplug it from the battery. They can accidentally turn on while packed in your bag. The light gets very hot and can cause a fire if it turns on accidentally.
Does it have a flood or a spot bulb? I experimented with both a spot and a flood bulb in my NiteRider light and found the flood light to work better with the uni.
but you get the point