Originally Posted by
lightbulbjim
....I just caved and ordered a Gloworm Alpha
. It should solve the runtime problem for my bike. Not sure if it'll fit my unicycle yet, but I'm not doing long night rides on it at the moment. If it doesn't fit then I may may pick a
Micro Drive Pro 650XL (basically what I have now but with fast charging) once they're available and it can live on the unicycle. I'll just have to continue to nurse the batter on longer rides. I could
maybe stretch to an Exposure Diablo, but it's many more $$$ for less of an improvement. Probably in another couple of years there will be more options available and I can re-evaluate then...
So I didn't end up where I expected I would when I first asked the question... The Gloworm looks neat though, so I decided it was worth a shot. The runtime was the main thing that made me choose it over other similar lights, plus the neutral white option. Second in the running was the Lupine Piko, but it's a lot more expensive, has slightly shorter runtime, and uses a slightly less common connector. Anyway, looking forward to trying out the Alpha!
You seem to be outside the guidelines of your own priorities, namely self-contained, rubber mounting feature and no flash modes in the main menu. Not that you won't do well with the Alpha. Should be programmable and all the flash modes should be hidden. It will require an external battery though. You will find the Alpha to have exceptional throw, throw that actually rivals the X2 according to one person I know who has one. OTB though the Alpha tends to have a somewhat narrow beam pattern from what I'm told. That said I believe they might also offer a wider optic but I'd have to recheck on that. At least with the Alpha you will have lots of options when it comes to buying batteries. I'm starting to see more cell holders that offer even more options. I just picked up a Trustfire 4 cell holder and have it setup with 4 LG-MJ1's ( 3500mAh ) cells. You can even buy 2-cell 18650 holders ( cells in series ) but they are harder to find.
The Lezyne Micro drive Pro you linked to looks very interesting but like most smaller self-contained lamps they ( unfortunately ) don't hide the flash modes. You might take a look at the lamps made by Raveman. The Raveman's have a very unique lens that creates a very impressive road cut-off beam pattern. I use one of the Raveman's myself and beside that fact that I was asked to review two of the lamps ( which I received for free ), I absolutely love the cut-off beam pattern for road use. Of course like most you have to deal with the flash modes in the main menu but with the included wired remote, not real hard to rapid fire through the unwanted modes. Down side of the Raveman's ( like a lot of others ) is that the batteries are not user accessible.