Just received the new Fenix TK11 Flashlight.. Many people have used the Fenix lights for riding at night, I am no exception.. This light is a little shorter than the L2D and a little taller than the P3D.. It uses a Li-Ion 18650 battery.. I used the AW model from fenix store. I have always thought that there batteries seem to be a little pricier but you get what you pay for..

This light is a thrower.. The Hot spot is very white and intense.. It is rated at 225 lumens but it sure seemed to brighter than that. Unlike the L2d or P3D, you loose a little of the side spill that these lights are known for, but you get a light than can easily throw 20-30 yards down the road and see things perfectly. At distances this light just blows away the L2D and P3D lights that I have.. The ability to throw a lot of light to distance is definitely it's strength..

The battery was fully charged when I went out.. The light ran for 2:45 in Turbo mode before it dropped down 1 mode to the general mode which is 60 lumens.. The medium mode is perfectly fine for getting home, but not ideally suited for fast training rides at night.. The light ran for additional 1:30 before finally shutting off.

Over 4 hours of burn time is way beyond expectations for this light. If you use lockblocks, they work just fine. The light is moderately heavy and would not be ideal as a helmet light.

The only negative is that there are only 2 modes, Turbo and General.. It would be nice to have a high mode in between as well as strobe sometime in the future.. On a scale of 1-10, it is an easy 9+. I have 2 more batteries coming this weekend, the Ultrafire 2400mah and Trustfire 2500mah. Most likely they will be on par with the AW battery, even though they are rated higher. It is late and I will add some photos tomorrow.. Here is a link to where to buy:
https://www.fenix-store.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_85&products_id=497

Many other online shops are getting these in stock, so there are a few deals out there.. I had mine pre-ordered with fenix..

Thanks for the review!

Cool!

I was wondering how the TK11 would rate as a bike light.

I'll be curious to hear how you rate the AW battery against the Ultrafire and the Trustfire, too. My impression (and it's only an impression) is that the AW batteries are generally favored over both of the others...but it will be good to hear what you have to say with real testing in the TK11. I'll look forward to that.

As a side note, I think the AW batteries are available from CPF seller AW for quite a bit less than through Fenix-Store.com (or now, 4sevens.com). It's good to support 4sevens (a great seller), but the AW batteries are definitely expensive and can, I'm pretty sure, be had for less straight from CPF seller AW. I could be wrong, though.

PS to my comment on the AW 18650 batteries...

Someone else asked the same question over on CPF, and they're currently discussing good 18650 choices for the TK11 right now (with references to other relevant threads):

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=202447

or

good 18650 battery suggestion for tk11? (http://www.bikeforums.net/good 18650 battery suggestion for tk11?)

...although, socalrider, I realize you might already be reading all of that stuff anyway. ;)

I agree that the AW cells are priced a little high, but I have never received anything but quality cells from them. Plus they also have the anti explosion vent hole which I think is a huge plus considering how much a light gets tossed around on a bike ride..

The ultrafire cells have very mixed reviews, they seem hit and miss.. The Trustfire cells have a much better reputation and I have 2 of those that arrived today.. Here is a good source for trustfire that is located in the USA and the aw cell direct..

http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-Light-Accessories/searchpath/250/start/9/total/21/Categories
http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=180449

Yeah, I recently picked up a flashlight that uses 18650 cells and bought from AW via CFP Marketplace myself...based on the reputation of the cells. Considering the expense of the AW cells, I wanted to buy them at as reasonable a price as I could (and from a seller of good reputation), so I went with the CPF marketplace source, paying $12 each rather than $16 each as charged at Fenix-Store (now www.4sevens.com (http://www.4sevens.com), if anyone needs to know). 4sevens is a seller of great reputation, but he is selling those batteries for 25 percent more that what AW via CPF (as you linked above) is charging.

the difference for me is that fenix is in the usa and ships for free and aw is on hong kong and he charges 4.50 for shipping.. If you use the cpf8 coupon for the fenix website you are more or less even and you get your items faster..

the 2 trustfire cells I received yesterday fit just fine in the TK11.. Will see on the burn time.. Will test on next ride and see how the Trustfire 2500mah stacks up against the aw cell. I bought a 2400 and 2500 mah cells from shiningbeam.com

the difference for me is that fenix is in the usa and ships for free and aw is on hong kong and he charges 4.50 for shipping.. If you use the cpf8 coupon for the fenix website you are more or less even and you get your items faster..


Ah! Good points on the discount and shipping time.

On my ordering via AW, I pretty much ordered enough items to make it the better route to go for me (seemingly so, by my calculations in any case), but I also wasn't in a great hurry to receive anything, having a few days to wait for the flashlight I ordered.

I'll be curious to hear your reports on the different batteries with the T11, although I suspect there won't be any huge difference in the short term with initial tests, except perhaps on runtime (which would be good to know). That Fenix T11 has been tempting me, I have to admit...and now that I have a flashlight that uses the same batteries, it seems even more tempting after hearing your initial reports. ;)

By the way, I went for the Pila IBC charger for the 18650 batteries. Seemed like a very good choice, even if a bit to the high side.