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Old 11-05-11 | 01:19 AM
  #538  
chicagobent
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 37
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Originally Posted by chicagobent
So today my light arrived, yeah! It seems to be of decent quality for the price (the end cap threads on cleanly, the annodizing is good, and even the glow in the dark powder blue clicky doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would). There is however one very strange thing----on the flat panel on one side of the tube it says "Cree Q5" as expected, but on the other side it says "Sexy" as if that is the brand name or model name of the light. So, some of you have a Romisen, ITP or Fenix ligbt, but I have a Sexy light.

First problem, no instructions to tell me which way the battery goes into torch. I looked closely at one of the photos on the tmart site and it showed the battery negative terminal toward the tail, so that was how I installed it and the light works fine and didn't get blown out. The light is more than sufficiently bright for my purposes and will light a dark path well enough as well as cause me to be seen when riding on streets in Chicago. I leave it about 2/3 out of zoom (i.e. slightly more flood than focused). The ad stated three mode, but the decription indicated four mode-- fortunately for me because I didn't want too many modes, it has three modes, high, medium and high light level medium speed strobe (very usable), in that order. Correction, the middle mode is about one third as bright as the high mode, so really a low mode and the flash rate on the third mode is about 50% on and 50% off, so it is faster than medium, but still usable in Chicago.

The charger will not charge a 9 volt battery contrary to the photo in the ad, but given the price for the package, not really a big deal. It is small and will charge 18650, nimh or nicad, one battery at a time. Correction, it will charge a 9 volt battery-there was a sticker indicating correct polarity covering and hiding where the 9 volt battery plugs in to the charger.

The package included a brochure for the tmart site I referenced earlier where the light, battery, charger and bike mount package can be found for only $17 if you want it to ship from China instead of NY and can wait the extra week or two. So I'm guessing the seller in the ebay listing is simply tmart's US warehouse or distributor.

The bike mount cannot be located on my fork as it interferes with the spokes when placed low on the fork and it will not fit around the fork higher up where the fork is thicker bit the spokes are further away......so. I put the light on my stem because I don't like handlebar clutter. It holds the light very well and seems sturdy, but it is not easy the get the light on and off the mount, perhaps that will change as it gets broken in. I do like the 360 degree rotation feature.

Overall it is a great package for the price, a Cree q5 emitter aluminum torch which is fairly bright, one 18650 protected battery, a smart universal single battery charger, and a 360 degree bike mount---I paid $22.6, including free shipping on ebay and got the light in one week. The same light package can be had for $17 on the tmart site if you don't mind it taking a little longer to arrive.

I will update later after I ride more with it at night, including run time, recharge time, etc. I will ultimately get a spare 18650 cell to carry for longer rides, but that can wait.

Last edited by chicagobent; 11-05-11 at 10:17 AM. Reason: correct inaccurate statements
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