Thanks for tuning in today we're going to be
reviewing the LightSKIN H2B integrated LED flat handlebar.
Between GPS computers and headlights it's hard to avoid clutter on your handlebars. That's what
inspired LightSKIN to develop their flat handlebars with integrated LEDs. It's a sleek
design that combines a bright LED headlight with an aluminum handlebar for a modern aesthetic and
theft proof setup so no one can really steal your light anymore without stealing the whole bike.
Packaging is very simple you have a nice cardboard box and obviously the handlebar is right beneath
the little graphic indicator. What's cool about this is they also have these little circular
cutouts which shows the orange instruction manual underneath and matches their logo. There are a
number of variations of this we have the H2B with the 31.8 millimeter diameter and 640 millimeter
width. Lets go ahead and take it out of the box and go over specs. Retail price on this is $130 dollars.
It's a flat handlebar has a 90 degree back sweep zero degree up sweep and then five millimeter rise.
It's available both in matte black which we have here as well as a polished finish and 150 Lumen
output from the LED. They're pretty impressive for the small size and has micro USB recharging
directly built in so you can simply charge it while it's still installed on your bike.
It's an aluminum handlebar as well. In terms of what comes with it obviously get the handlebar.
the orange instruction manual which gives you some guides on how to set it up
as well as cutting it so if you do want to shorten it you want to make sure you move that battery.
Then you have a very long micro USB charging cable so you can reach outlets
while it's still installed. Now let's take a look at the weight of the H2B handlebar.
We have the 640 millimeter width so obviously the weight will depend on how wide you go.
This is 306 grams which is fairly light considering the fact they have an LED built in.
Now let's go with the fit and finish H2B with this one the B signifies that is battery powered. They offer
quite a few variations you can get Dynamo power or e-bike which would use an external battery source.
So with this one with everything in it being integrated you don't have any any wires coming
out. The other variations you would have a wire sticking out the back that you could connect to
your power source. What's great about this is you get a traditional flat handlebar so it's
great for city or urban riding nice wide stance. This is 640 millimeter you offered in quite a
few variations and you can cut it down all the way to 540 which is the minimum width and if you
are cutting make sure to move the battery inward you don't want to slice through it.
Now what's really cool about the handlebar the fact that you have the built-in LED. They've
cut two circles in here so two rectangles you have the light and then the charging
port. Now it is a little bit weird to cut a hole in something so structurally important like your
handlebar for this one they've compensated for it and you can see really nice and smooth edges
it's also past all the regulations so it should be durable for at least city and urban riding.
With this led it's a single LED design with a projector lens and it is actually claimed to
be one of the world's smallest LEDs that are StVZO compliant at only 13 by 18 and a half
millimeters so very small. What that means is there's no glare here so you actually have
a beam cut off so rather than having a cone style beam you have this nice cut off which
really focuses the light on the ground in front of you so it's great for urban riding you won't blind
other people as it is already directed downward. The user interface on this is also very simple
you have a rubber cover which you pull up which doubles as your power button and then the micro
USB port here. It'd be great to see USB type C in a future version though and then you have a
one level menu so one press will go from off to high another press will go low and then another
press will turn it back off. There's no mode memory there's no holding it it's simply a short press
to cycle through. There's also LED indicators built in here so when you're charging this will
be flashing red when it's fully charged it'll be red and then when you're riding and there's
a low battery indicator this will actually go blue so pretty simple setup and very easy to use.
Now let's take a look at the light output of the H2B handlebars. There's only two modes a
high mode and a medium mode. High is 150 Lowman with four hour runtime while medium doesn't have
the listed lumen amount but it's good for six hours. The beam itself is nice and sharp. You have
the small projector lens and really prevents any glare and keeps most of the light on the ground.
So it's a nice feature with only 150 lumens it actually feels brighter than it really is.
Now you can see here it looks pretty dark and that's because the GoPro really doesn't
do that well for nighttime photography so it is brighter than this in real life but you can see at
150 lumens it is not a really bright light. So if you're doing mountain biking or any higher speeds
you're definitely going to want something brighter. Instead if you're doing mixed use like urban use
and lower speeds it's a really great option even on fully blackout trails it has enough light and
a nice focused beam to really light up the road in front of you. So again great option for city
or urban use. This is the light you'll never forget because it's always attached to your bike.
The downside of this integrated approach is that you can run out of battery and there's no real
battery status checker so you do have to be on top of it with only four to six hour run time
you want to make sure you charge it so if you're doing longer rides you want to make sure you don't
run out of light mid-ride. So it's still a good idea to bring up back up light the other thing to
point out with the integrated approach you can't really move that lens so if you have cables like
our bike has here. This is a Priority Ace of Spades the front cable and the rear brake cables actually
do slightly block the lens and obscure it a little bit so you may need to zip tie them out of the way
or sort of reroute them slightly if you're able to but that's one downside of any integrated approach.
Now lets go over the pros and cons for the H2B Handlebar. What we like about it is that has an StVZO lens. It's a
very compact projector lens so it doesn't have any glare it really focuses the beam on the ground.
It's also a minimalist and sleek lighting solution because it's integrated you don't
have an additional mounts or battery packs or wires running anywhere it's all in one.
Also the integrated design is theft proof so you can't really steal the light without
stealing your whole handlebar or the entire bike. Some of the cons for the
handlebars is the fact that it uses a micro USB port. It really would have been nice to see a USB type-c
and also it has a low battery status indicator only instead of a multi-level checker so there's really
no way to check the status of the battery so you do need to be on top of charging it.
Also the integrated lens can easily be obscured by cables so if you have front brakes or shifters you
might need to reroute them so they don't block the lens. Taking everything into account would
give the H2B handlebar a 9.0 out of 10. It's a sleek and integrated solution that's great for
urban bikes or city use. Thanks for watching this review and don't forget to like And subscribe. You
can see more content from us on our website at thesweetcyclists.com as well as follow us
on Instagram at @TheSweetCyclists. This is The Sweet Cyclist reminding you to enjoy the ride!