The Saferide had a reputation of coming with somewhat defective batteries, if you read through forum reviews and amazon.com reviews. That's always been the cause - if you replace your AA batteries with decent batteries (Eneloops XX), you'll get 1-2 hours of runtime. Well...as long as you have your own charger. Seems that the built in charge in the Saferide is a little flaky to.

Though like I said, I think the Ixon IQ Premium is just plain a better light. You get 4-5 hours on the same batteries that would give you 1-2 hours on the Saferide, the built in charger has a better reputation, and as I believe it's a better beam as well. It has all the advantages you mentioned with the Saferide - evenly distributed shaped beam, beam cutoff on the horizon so your light isn't going into other people's eyes, etc etc.

35 minutes of runtime is because the Saferide often comes with defective batteries. Though the Saferide's battery life is substandard, with a decent set of batteries (like $10 standard eneloops from amazon), it gets 1-2 hours.

Like I said in my previous post though, one can get an Ixon IQ Premium and not have to deal with that - get 4-5 hours of battery life from the same set of batteries, with all the advantages of the Saferide (beam cutoff, even light distribution, and the Ixon IQ probably has a better beam pattern overall).

Or obviously if one has a dynamo, they could just get the Lumotec Cyo Premium which uses the same beam pattern as the Ixon IQ and not have to worry about batteries at all.

As i mentioned in my "its here" thread, some of the stuff on me ride is older/no longer produced. There is a photo of the light in that thread with the model info on the side. It looks to be from the range of their previous upper tier, with i think one model with better beam spread and another with same spread but brighter.

Defective batteries are extremely frustrating to the max, especially if you find out they are wonky right when you actually NEED them.

- Andy

This is why it is essential to spend the extra $5 and get the defuser lens for these "super-bright" lights. One you do that they give a shaped beam that stays on the road.

Yeah. Honestly, 30 minutes was just a huge disappointment. When I saw it jump to "get me home mode" after less than half an hour I was pretty disappointed. The fact that it went completely dead as I was unlocking my door was no good.

I shipped it back to Amazon as a return today. Good luck to somebody else. Submitted an order for a Ixon IQ Premium. Looking forward to seeing it soon.

Ha, cool. :-) Will be curious to see what you think having used both in person - if you think the Ixon IQ is about the same, or a better light (for the light distribution part, it's clearly a better light for battery life :-)).

If it was **just** replacing the batteries that would give an adequate runtime I probably would have encouraged you to just buy new batteries, but in my opinion 1-2 hours isn't enough. A decent bike light needs 2+ hours of runtime to be sure it doesn't run out while you're still riding. 4-5 hours is just awesome... :-)

So I got the Ixon IQ Premium today. Cost was $106 shipped from Bike Discount and it included the charger, batteries, and they threw in the glare protector as an unmentioned freebie. It took six days to arrive halfway around the world. So no complaints there. I found a plug adapter at my local hardware store for $4.

Compared to the LBL and ignoring the LBL's dismal battery life, I thought the LBL was substantially better. The Ixon Premium's main positives are that it takes up less handlebar real estate and the included glare shield does an excellent job of keeping the light out of your eyes. The LBL by contrast glows with a bright ring around the edges of the lens and you'd need to paint that or tape it for a tie with the Ixon. But purely as a light the LBL wins. It puts a lot more light on the road than the Ixon Premium and it's a much more pleasant, easier-to-see color. The LBL also gets points for being USB rechargeable.

But a light's no good if it can't stay on for your entire commute.

Hey, thanks for writing back, but - what's an LBL? Do you mean the Saferide?