DanKMTB

I finally broke down and bought the Lowe’s flashlight everyone has
been raving about. I figured even if it wasn’t quite as good as the
hype, it’d still be good, and if not I could simply return it.

Until now my headlight has been a Planet Bike 5 Beamer. OK little
light, but certainly nothing to write home about. I found it passable
for 15MPH or so on the road, and near useless off-road.

I got the Task Force light Saturday. Sunday, I rigged up a mounting
bracket using an old headlight bracket from a worthless Bell light
that I no longer have. Some dremeling, a zip-tie and it’s pretty
secure. I won’t be surprised if it requires a second zip-tie in the
future, but it seems plenty secure with just the one. Since I didn’t
have any reusable ties around I’ll be cutting this thing every time I
want to use the light off the bike, I figured I’d give it a go with
just one.

Anyway, the light is amazing. The throw for the primary spot is as
far as I could ever need it for a bike light, and damn impressive for
a flashlight as well. Short of breaking out high-power spotlights, I
can’t imagine doing much better. It’s also got a good amount of
(spill?) off to the sides, letting me see right in front of the tire
as well as off to the side. I tested it out with a quick trail ride
on the dirt bike trail around the property, and was very impressed.
That same trail is simply unrideable with the 5 beamer (I tried, just
to compare).

I took some snapshots of the difference in the lights, but my sub-par
photo shooting combined with my lack of tripod and the long shutter
time didn’t give the best results. Still, I think it’s good enough to
get the point across, even if they won’t win any photography awards.

Here’s the 5 Beamer shining on the Quonset hut from ~25’.


Here’s the TF doing the same shot:

Here’s the 5 Beamer shining into the yard:


Here’s the TF doing the same shot:

The pics really don’t do it justice, although the reflect each light
poorly, to be fair. In that last shot the fire pit on the left was
perfectly clear, the side of the hut was visible, and the trail (leafy
section in front of the ramp) was lit up enough to feel comfortable
riding into it at full speed from that distance. The ground was also
plenty lit right to my front tire. My poor camera skills are not
doing this thing justice.

The best way I can think of to relate the difference is this: If I
had the PB light on and turned on the TF in addition, it completely
overrode the PB, to the point where I could hardly notice if I turned
it off. If I had the TF light on and then turned on the PB, there was
no noteworthy difference. For now I’ve got both on there, but I
expect the PB light may be deemed pointless next to this beast and
removed. That would allow me to use the bracket from that light to
make a road bike TF holder. Otherwise I’m off shopping for Ruland
collars. Or off to ebay to find some cheap bike light holder saved
from a dead light. I’d just buy another of these cheesy Bell lights
for the holder for the road bike, but it doesn’t fit on the oversized
bar.

Tonight’s commute home will be ~10 miles, 7 or 8 of which will be
offroad. 5 miles of the off-road will be powerlines, with a couple
miles of dark, fully tree-covered, very rough and sometimes muddy 4x4
truck & dirt bike trails thrown in. That will be the real test, of
both the bracket (will 1 zip tie suffice?) and the light. Based on
what I saw on my own trails last night, I’m optimistic.

I’ll keep you posted on how it fares tonight.

Dan

aliensporebomb

Dan: what did you pay for this flashlight?

Would it be small enough that you could have TWO of them on your handlebars?

Seems very bright for a flashlight bought at a regular store, a good find!

DanKMTB

The light was $30. I'm blown away - I've paid more for far lesser lights. As far as I know they are only available @ Lowe's, and you need the one that says "60x brighter" - that designates the Cree LED. I can upload a picture of the packaging if you'd like.

You could certainly fit 2 on your bars, although one really is enough for most uses. The pictures don't do it justice - this thing is bright! Here's how it looks on my 29er





It'd be easy to add another where the Beamer 5 is now. I don't think I'll need to though. The ride home will tell for sure. I’ve got a multi-tool to loosen the screw and rotate the clamp if need be. The Beamer is angled lower out of necessity, due to the lesser beam. I may be losing the Beamer 5 altogether, as I don’t think it will add anything in the presence of the brighter TF light. It didn’t seem to on my trail
around the house. That will also be tested tonight. The muddy, rocky, rooty, leafy truck & ATV trails toward the end of my commute will be the real test. They're entirely covered with trees, so there is no moon or star light - it'll be just the flashlight to navigate the mess. I'll let you know how it works out.

My mounting setup uses an old bell light bracket I had lying around, but SMS has a good setup to build a bracket using electrical conduit clamps that wouldn't cost more than a couple dollars, and will look sharp and be rugged. It can be seen partway down this page https://nordicgroup.us/s78/flashlights.html

I plan to make one for my road bike, since this bracket is too small to fit over the oversized road bars. I'll report back on how it holds up.

Anyone want to guess how this setup will fare in the woods tonight, or if that single zip-tie will survive the bumping and jostling of the trails on the way home?

uke

^ Zip ties are less than ten cents each. Unless your flashlight isn't worth a dime, this is not the time to cheap out with one tie.

DanKMTB

I’m not concerned with the cost of zip ties. I'm concerned with making the bracket weaker by putting another set of holes in it further back. I can't go farther forward due to the mounting hardware, so the only place for a second is toward the back of the bracket. I'm concerned about the integrity of the bracket if I install a second tie and the requisite set of holes. I've got a few hundred zip-ties at home, that's no big deal. Here's a pic that will give you an idea where the second tie would have to go, and maybe help you understand my concerns about making the bracket weaker:

teacherbill

I use zip ties to hold my halogen driving lights on my OCR2. They have become my newly "styled duck-tape."

Wanderer

Why not just X two zips over the bar itself, for redundent(sic) insurance?

Wanderer

How about the model number of the light, as they have several on their website that look like your's.

Fredmertz51

Get the one with the black rubber o-ring around the front outside of the lens as shown in the picture. Looks to be #225285

Fredmertz51

Just to muddy the issue, Home Depot has a Husky 2-D Cree with even more Lumens. Ugly as sin. Don't know if its on the website yet, but the stores have them.

Fredmertz51

You can always use a hose clamp. Lots stronger and is thinner and wider so less stress on the bracket.

no motor?

A backup light is good to have, even if it's your old light that suddenly got outclassed. I'm hanging on to mine until I get something better to replace it with, even if I don't use if much anymore.

UberIM

I am especially interested in run time.

Looking forward to your report

Wanderer

Looks like they have more than one 225285

Fredmertz51

When I type in 225285 into the Lowe's website only one comes up for me. Here's the Cateye mount I use. At the LBS for approx $5. Hose clamp $1

mechBgon

For non-oversized handlebars (25.4mm or 26.0mm), you can also use a Wald #40 steel flashlight holder if you want to be all retro and stuff A layer or two of inner tube over the barrel of the light may be needed to eliminate rattling.

https://www.amazon.com/Wald-Flashligh.../dp/B000AO3H24

DanKMTB

Good idea, thanks. I think I may do that, at least for the intermediate. Eventually I think I'm going to convert to the conduit clamp style mount from SMS (a poster over @ r.b.t.). Here's a picture of his design, which I plan to copy almost exactly https://nordicgroup.us/s78/images/homemadebracket.jpg

DanKMTB

The model # is 225285, but unfotunately that isn't enough to go on. That is the same model # they used on the previous version of this light, which wasn't nearly as good a beam, nor was it nearly as bright. I beleive the old one was a Luxeon bulb, where the new one is a Cree. The giveaway that you have the right light is the packaging. The new one says "60x Brighter", where the old version (with the same part #, for reasons unknown to me) says "30x Brighter".

Here is a picture of the light in it's packaging:


As you can see, the "60X Brighter" is plain to see if you're in the store. I don't know how you'd go about ordering one online and making sure you got the right light.

DanKMTB

While this is correct, you still need to be sure the packaging says 60X Brighter, rather than 30X brighter, lest you be left with a Luxeon when hoping for the ultra-bright Cree.

DanKMTB

Good idea. If I don't manage to get my hands on some conduit clamps to copy SMS's idea soon, I may do that, or at least cross over the bars with another pair of zip ties. I'm hoping to pick up some conduit clamps today though, which would make all this null and void. Still a good idea for anyone reading this in the future who doesn't want to go the conduit clamp route.

DanKMTB

This is a good point. I have a very small LED on my keychain that I could use in a pinch for very slow riding and being seen, but it's really insufficient. Generally I settle for backup batteries, but in this case a backup light could be smaller and lighter than 2 extra C cell batteries.

Fredmertz51

You're right. I bought one of the 30x's when they first came out, and just recently bought the 60x. The 60x has the o-ring around the lens, as does the website picture. Thats what I was going by.

DanKMTB

Unfortunately I haven't carefully monitored the time I've used this so far, so the best I'll be able to do on this set of batteries is estimate my use so far, and keep track from here on out. I'll time the next set exactly.

In the mean time, there is someone over on another forum who tested it with rechargeable 5000mAh NiMH cells. He got 4.5 hours of "good bright light followed by a dwindling faint light for another while". 4.5 hours from a rechargeable is respectable indeed, I may end up taking the rechargeable route on this thing in the future. The Duracell batteries that come with the light are 7000mAh, so I think you can expect 5 hours 45 minutes or so from the batteries that come with it. Then again, I also read that Alkaline are horrible in runtime due to poor high drain performance, so who knows.

What I do know is that I have a 45 minute commute home last night, in addition with about an hour of playing with it on Sunday and helping a friend fix a flat on her car, and the beam seems the same as when the batteries were new. So I’d say I’m currently @ 1:45 or so and going strong, I’ll keep you posted and try to time it exactly on my next set of batteries.

DanKMTB

Here's my night ride tested, on and off road review of the light:
On the road, it's great. Definitely all I need for as fast as I can
spin that SS 29er, which is probably in the 20MPH area. I'll test it
in the 30ish zone on the road bike when I get a chance, but overall
I'm quite happy with that single light as an on road light.
Off road, it's fine for the easier stuff - normal power line trails,
biking and hiking trails, etc. In the real rough stuff, like the
truck & ATV trails with very uneven ground, it's passable but not
ideal. There is one section of that trail where I'm riding through
the mud, with a few inches of water on top just to make sure I can't
actually see what I'm riding on. In that section I'm riding around
trees that hang into the trail, over fallen trees and branches,
avoiding rocks and navigating the ruts from the truck tires. In that
stuff, I'd have liked a second light pointed almost directly in front
of the bike. I'm not sure if another of these would do the trick, or
if the beam would be too concentrated at such close range. The 5
beamer may have done the job, but I wanted to do that section with
just the TF to test it out, and there's no stopping and putting a foot
down once you're into that stuff to fiddle with lights. I'm thinking
my AA LED Minimag may be the perfect light to throw a wide beam
directly in front of the bike. More testing to come soon.

linux_author

tks to OP regarding this flashlight... just got back from the local Lowes and was able to get the last one on the shelf... the unit clam shell is marked '60X' as previously posted...

this is a beefy unit and could also be used (in a pinch) to thwart any untoward behavior by strangers...

i was initially disappointed when i inserted the batteries and the light would not power on... then i looked inside and saw that a small white sticker labeled with 'C' size batteries and orientation had lodged across the front terminal behind the light... a quick poke with a chopstick removed the sticker and i was rewarded with a truly brilliant focused light...

this is now my brightest flashlight in the house...

i wonder how long fresh 'C's will last? (edit: i now see the data in previous msgs - tks!)