Blackburn FLEA LED lights.
Sunday, September 27, 2009 at 1:38PM LEDs changed the whole landscape of bike lighting in the last couple of years. The small size, rugged nature, and miserly power demands of LEDs were a natural for any sports activity and recently, with the dawn of high powered LEDs, night rides are ablaze in a wash of LED powered light.
But aside from retina searing, 1000 lumen light arrays, there are more modest demands for bike lighting that casual or commuting riders require. Part of that demand revolves around seeing and part of it is being seen. Not only does the cyclist need to be able to navigate the bike path or street safely in the dark or dusky light, but being seen by other riders and, of course, cars, is a real concern. As well, the light should be compact, simple, and easy to remove if the bike is parked in a public place.
Enter the Flea lights from Blackburn.
The lightest, brightest rechargeable cycling light in the world - now with solar and USB charging.
- Ultra compact rechargeable Li-Ion headlight
- Uses four super-bright White Nichia™ LED’s
- 40 lumen output
- Includes USB charger and SOLAR charger
- Flexible and compact mounting system
- Standard, Overdrive and Flash modes
- Superlight at 17 grams
- 3 hour runtime steady, 5 hour runtime flash
- Compatible with 1.5V chargers (available separately
I received the FLEA USB + solar front light and the rear light as USB only. First off, they are tiny and weigh next to nothing. They are also inconspicuous so if you did leave them on the bike, I doubt they would attract a lot of attention. However, removing them is as easy as unfastening the velcro strap and tossing them in a pocket or bike bag. The USB charging is trick enough as you could recharge the little torch from your work laptop or PC and be ready to go at the end of the day. However, to top that a bit, the solar option provides you with a 5V solar cell panel that interfaces with the FLEA light(s) and will bring the batteries back to full charge with green-type energy.
The lights also have two levels of light output and blink (strobe) modes to attract the attention of oncoming vehicles.
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Nicely packaged, the light can be tested in the box.;)
Tiny little critter.
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Clip on back of the taillight...very strong spring here.
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USB charger, attaches to light with a magnet.
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Like so....
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Headlight version.
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Solar charging panel
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Easily mounts to h-bars, regular or oversized.
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Tailight seatpost mounting or clip it to a pack or belt.
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The lights should be completely charged before use and then, on each unit, press and hold the button till the light turns on and then off. This takes it out of demo mode.
I went out on a walk with the family and put the lights on my son's bike. We began the walk in the end of the day and continued until dark. Even in the fading light, the taillight was very visible from a long ways away. The headlight was surprisingly bright. Now you could not trail ride with it in my opinion, but you sure could hit the bike path at a reasonable pace and be OK. In fact, it would be a great light to have on the bike for those rides that should not become a night ride, but if they did, you could get out of the hills with this light very safely.
The strap is rubberized against the metal parts it wraps around and, if fastened snugly did not move.
As long as high speeds or difficult terrain are not the norm, the FLEA headlight is pretty slick and the tail light is a welcome addition and with the strap and belt-clip combo of mounting, it should fit about anywhere.
admin
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To follow up on the Flea lights from Blackburn, I will say that I have come to rely on these little torches quite a lot. I bring them on rides where I think I may run into dusk, I bring them as back ups to my main night lighting for trail rides, and I use the rear blinky a lot. So when I began to have issues turning the tailight on, it bugged me. I would have to press the switch very hard and repeatably to get it to light, then it quit on me altogether.
I spoke to Blackburn about this and they believed I had an early version of the Flea lights that were assembled incorrectly which caused the switch issues. Blackburn has a lifetime warranty on the light products, so they replaced them right away.
What I received was the 2.0 version of the Flea lights. There are a few changes that are apparent. The strap has a better sticky ribbon of goo on the straps compared to the 1.0 version, which tended to peel off after a while. This helps it stay put on the bars/seatpost. As well, the on/off button is now lit from behind in some cases, like after you turn it off.
As before, I really like these little lights. They weigh next to nothing and are good enough to get you off the trail in an emergency. They really are more of a 'be seen' light over a 'see the road/trail' light (speaking for the Flea front light), but they are adequate for slow speeds, even off road. This makes the Flea a good back-up light to your main trail riding system.
Kudos to Blackburn for standing by the product and improving it. If you have experienced this type of problem with your version 1.0 Flea lights, let your bike shop know or contact Blackburn.
grannygear
admin
Another addendum: This is a bit more info on the 'Fuel Gauge' feature of the 2.0 version that I omitted:
From the folks at Blackburn -
By the way, the light under the power button is a charge and Fuel gauge indicator. When you charge the lights the button will glow red and then turn green to tell you they are charged.
The Fuel gauge indicator works as follows:
Green (lights for 5 sec after last button push) = 100-75%
Yellow (lights for 5 sec after last button push) = 75-25%
Red (Turns on and stays on as long as light is running) = 25-0%
grannygear
Reader Comments (5)
Good timing! I did a MTB night ride a couple weeks ago and my Light & Motion HID dyed with about 3 miles to go, so I hooked up with a fellow rider who had one of these as a backup light. IMO, this is a great little backup light, which I plan to get. Although, I will probably get the battery version.
I'm witting a review of the BikeGlow Safety Light for you Urban folks and those night time festive mountain bike riders, so stay tuned!
Not sure I get the battery version part. This does have a rechargeable battery in it as well. In any case, I agree, it is a great back-up light and it beats having to hike out by the light of a cell phone!
Looking forward to the review! Commute on!
grannygear
Hmm... My fingers didn't type what I was thinking... Let's try again. What I meant to say was that I plan to get the USB charger only kit.
I've been trying to figure out the voltage that the USB charger puts out, so that I can create my own. Does the solar cell state that it is 5V?
@mrhippe
Not sure, but looking at the Blackburn website seems to point to 1.5V charging for the solar cell and other sources.
grannygear