Here’s the light setup I’ve been testing for about a month. There have been a few posts regarding light setups, and this thing works so great for me I thought I’d share my little review.
Here are the details:
Light: MTE SSC P7 900-Lumen 5-Mode Super LED Flashlight $37.70
Batteries: TrustFire Protected 18650 Lithium Battery (I bought 4, the light uses 1 and I carry 1 or 2 as backup) $5 each
Charger: Ultrafire wf-139 Lithium Ion battery charger 14500 - 18670 $16.95
Bar/Helmet Mount: Twofish Lock Blocks $12.95/3pk
Pics:
Light
Batteries:
Charger:
Mount:
I originally mounted this to my bars and that worked fine, but decided to move it to my helmet because I feel more confident in corners when the light points where I’m going. Also, I can throw the bean on a driver’s windshield if necessary. I mounted it to my helmet with the TwoFish LockBlock and then played around with rubber bands and a wine cork to get the light pointed exactly where I want it to go. It’s not that pretty of a solution, but it works perfectly and it doesn’t rattle around at all. I can unscrew the tail cap to remove the battery without having to remove the light from my helmet. I’ve got 4 batteries, so I just labeled them 1 through 4 with a Sharpie marker and I rotate them out after every ride.
In the pic above, the P7 light is on the left, that’s a NiteRider Trail Rat 2.0 in the center (great light but shitty battery system), and a Cat Eye OptiCube on the right for size comparison.
The light isn’t very heavy at all (less than the Nite Rider) even with the battery (which is lithium ion, so pretty light).
The only pic I have of this light in action so far is this:
That’s the light (on high mode) sitting on the hood of a Toyota Corolla with its high beams on. On high, the P7 is brighter than cars.
Low mode is perfectly fine if you just need to be seen. I haven’t tested it fully, but I’ve gotten 5 hours out of low mode so far (I hear you can get about 9, but there’s no way I’m doing a 9 hour night ride to test). Medium is what I usually ride on, and I’ve gotten at least 3 hours out of it (I haven’t tried anything longer yet). On high mode I seem to get about an hour before the output starts dropping pretty quickly to what you see on low. I carry at least 1 and sometimes 2 cells when I ride. They go in the zip lock bag with my cell phone in my jersey pocket or I just toss them in my messenger bag. There’s also a strobe mode, which strobes very fast on high mode, but I think it’s not really appropriate for traffic as it annoys the fuck out of drivers rather than just alerts them to your presence. When you’re out of traffic and on dark roads, the strobe is so bright and fast that I get vertigo. There’s also a useless SOS mode if that floats your boat. You cycle through these modes by turning the light on and then halfway pressing the tailcap to momentarily break the circuit. Sounds a lot more complicated than it is.
How bright is it while riding? It’s bright. I ride with friends who have Dinotte lights (get a Dinotte if you can afford it) and this is every bit as bright as those (Dinottes are sexier, have a better mount, are smaller, and have longer run times). I did a group ride last night (kept the light on low most of the time), but when I was descending a hill I flipped the light to high mode. On a dark road with no street lights, I hit 39mph descending and had no problem being able to see the road ahead of me. At 39mph I’m not outrunning the light.
The light has a great mix of throw and flood, so I can light up the road way ahead of me but at the same time a lot of light spills out to the sides. In summary:
Pros:
Crazy brightLight weightInexpensiveCrazy crazy bright3-9 hour run time on med-lowBrightUses 18650 cells, which are light and provide lots of energy
Cons:
1-hour run time on highUseless strobe and SOS modeOrdering from Deal Extreme sucks balls. Very long shipping time (they’re in Hong Kong, so you can’t really complain about that), but the charger I ordered wasn’t the charger I received. I eventually ordered from Battery Junction who were super fast.Not the most elegant of mouting solutions, but there are better ways to mount it.Uses 18650 cells, which you have to buy online or find a specialty battery store (apparently most laptop batteries are just a bunch of 18650 wired together)