Thanks for tuning in today we're going
to be reviewing the Orb
Droid anti-theft bike light set.
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Most bike lights use quick release style
mounts which makes them an easy target
for thieves to simply pull off your bike.
That means if you park outdoors or
simply running into a shop to get a
snack
you need to either remove the lights
from your bike or find a more secure way
to mount them.
That's where the motivation behind the
Orb Droid anti-theft light set came in.
This is a lightset designed to really
integrate with your bike and be theft
resistant.
Now if the Orb sounds familiar
the company that makes the illuminated
bottle
which is another really cool nighttime
visibility accessory.
Now in terms of packaging really simple
you have a compact cardboard box.
Black on white lettering so it really
pops, the Orb logo
and little illustrations of some of the
features. The instructions
actually just printed directly on here
and then again
some more information on how to mount
them. I'll go ahead and take it out of
the box and we'll go over these specs
while I do that.
Retail price on this is about 80,
it's 60 pounds on the Orbs website and
it's actually on sale right now for 50
with free shipping. Both the headlight
and tail light
are 120 lumens so quite bright with up
to 50 hour run time.
They have theft resistant design which
uses special bolts
and these are usb type-c rechargeable
which is a really cool feature to see.
They have eight output modes each with
different flashes and constant modes.
They both use a cnc aluminum body
with these nice metal collars for
a very robust overall design. Now in
terms of what comes in the box
you get the headlight the tail light. The
headlight has the
stem faceplate bolts already attached
you have the 27.2mm
a metal collar here for your seat post.
You get the woven three meter USB Type-C
cable, this is really long so you can
actually charge these while they're
still mounted on the bike.
You get a spare 31.8 millimeter seatpost
collar just swap that out if needed
and then the anti-theft part comes in
with the special bolts.
So you can actually see these are just
simply a standard allen bolts with a
little raised section
with a special tool for that. So you
get
four bolts for the stem faceplate
two for the side pinch bolts for the
stem
and an additional bolt that you can use
with your seatpost collar.
Lets go ahead and take a look at the weight
of the Droid light set. If we take the
front light
with the little face plate mounts
attached
that comes in at 72 grams
and then the tail light with the collar
already attached to that
that comes in at 62 grams.
So as you can see both the headlight and
taillight use the same body same battery
and same interfaces. The big difference
here is the tail light is red
and the front light is white. You can see the
individual
led element elements on the lens itself.
So you have five on top
five on the bottom and then one on each
side.
Power buttons directly in the middle
with this little rubber button
and you have this faceted lens which
also sticks out a bit so you can see if
i turn this on
you do get some side visibility as it
protrudes.
Each of the leds is illuminated
individually
and you can see with certain modes
they'll actually light up independently.
There's some really cool output modes
here.
It's a simple cnc aluminum body you have
the ore printed on top the lights also
have this kind of brushed texture to it
but they are a bit bulkier than other
lights on the market.
The USB Type-C charging port here on the
bottom with a thick gasket.
That's really nice feature to have you
don't need more cables
with you don't need a micro USB cable
you can just use your standard USB
Type-C cable.
Now each of them have unique mounting so
the front light actually uses the
face plate of your stem assuming you
have a four bolt stem.
You can see to accommodate different
spacings this actually slides back and
forth
and it can be all removed all together
and used with a similar collar style as
well
if desired. It's a really simple design
and with the anti-theft bolts
it's much harder to steal although you
can still steal it if you really want it
to but
now you'll need a special tool. The
taillight
as I mentioned almost identical, the
difference here is the
collar so use a hinged metal collar
with the anti-theft bolt here and you
can see it's just a hex bolt.
It's a little raised center section if i
grab one of the bolts you can see that
more clearly
and the tool for it is just a little
allen key that has a little center
cut out so that gives a nice easy way to
use it
and then you can just leave it on your
bike. To charge it you're going to have
to use a long cable
or a power bank.
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Now let's take a look at the different
output modes of the Droid light set. What
I'm showing here is the tail light the
headlight and taillight and have the same modes.
There are eight different modes you have
three constant and I'm showing the
theoretical lumen
and then the claimed run time on the
right side.
You have three different flash modes:
flash low, medium and high.
They're all just one button to cycle
through they're pretty distinct and they
have nice large jumps that go all the
way from about 20 lumens to the full 120
so definitely catches the eye.
We really like the snake and then the
random mode here
as it's a more creative option that
takes advantage of the multi-led design.
Now putting everything side-by-side you
can see that the different modes
definitely have nice jumps in them so
they definitely ramp up in brightness
and it's obvious that which mode you're
in
and again the random and snake
definitely catch the eye.
Now the especially when you
combine it with the Orb illuminated bike
bottle
they provide really nice nighttime
visibility and daytime visibility.
You can see here the headlight, taillight
and then the bike bottle are visible
from quite a distance.
Again it's quite bright it's a be
seen light though so don't expect to
ride with this
as your only light at night as it's
really dispersed so it doesn't have much
throw
but again you can see even from a long
distance away. It's quite bright
and here's a static shot just to show
how distributed the lights are. So it's
180 degree visibility
with really good brightness here
especially at 120 lumen.
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See here we have an assortment of
different lights. As you can see
the Orb is a quite a large light even
compared to something like the
Bontrager RTs they're about the same
size as both the
Flare and Ion together. For just the
front light
so similar thickness same kind of
rectangular design.
The big difference with the Bontragers
is that they're $120 but they do have
more features like the ambient light
sensor and bluetooth connectivity
which the Orb does not.
Otherwise there's a lot of tail lights
on the market as well. Now
for better visibility probably one of
the best lights we've recently reviewed
is the NiteRider Bullet 200.
You can see the bullet is quite a bit
bigger so it's a much larger light with
a more protruding lens design
and actually has a dual element so you
can see it illuminates everything around
it
where the Droid has just a standard 180
degree visibility.
The NiteRider will have 360 degrees
but again the Droid has a little
larger face and the anti-theft design
where this one can simply be pulled off
your bike.
Now we really like the COB led design
we've seen some other lights with it.
This is the
Magicshine Seemee 60. You can see it's a
lot smaller and denser which gives it a
more
uniform look which we would have liked
to see with the
Droid but otherwise pretty similar again.
The Droid is just a larger light overall
so
if you're looking for a really sleek
light to hide behind your seat post
this one will definitely stand out. Now
this also lacks some of the other smart
features like a brake sensor which you
just saw that the Magicshine.
I think are a little bit
overrated as they can run down the
battery life
and they're difficult to calibrate.
Another light comparison here
is the Seemee 180
so you can see similar profile. The
Seemee is a little bit thinner
and it has more features you can see
the light output is a little bit
smoother and more uniform
with this multi led design.
It also has an ambient light sensor
and brake sensor as well
and also costs less than the Droid which
is kind of surprising.
I think that the big
difference is the mounting style
and the fact that the Droid is USB Type-C.
Compared to more traditional tail lights
like the
Planet Bike Rojo 100 this is also
usb type c
100 lumens versus 120. This one's a
little bit cheaper
i believe it's about 40 dollars and you
can see
kind of bulky design very similar shape
where the maybe the planet bike has
slightly better visibility with the
larger lens.
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Now let's go over the pros and cons for
the Droid light set.
What we like about them is the fact that
they have an anti-theft design
with those custom anti-theft bolts that
means they're a lot harder to see off
the bike
especially compared to those
quick release lights. It also has a long
USB Type-C charging cable included
as well as USB-C charging on the go which
means you can run this with a power bank.
It also has unique flash output modes
like the random and snake which is great
for daytime riding.
Some of the cons of the fact that it's
fairly expensive at eighty dollars,
you can get some Bontrager lights that
are more compact and have bluetooth
capability.
It's also a little bit cumbersome to
charge the lights while they're still on
the bike.
So you they need to run the long
provided cable or use a power bank on
the bike itself
and finally they have a bit of a bulky
form factor so it does stick out
on your handlebars and the seatpost.
Taking everything into account would
give the Droid light set an 8.7 out of
10. These are really bright and theft
resistant lights
something you definitely leave on your
bike and then forget about it
With the 120 lumens it's more than
bright enough for daytime and night
riding as well.
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This is The Sweet Cyclist reminding you
to enjoy the ride!
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