Thanks for tuning in today we're going to be reviewing the Knog Blinder 900 LED bike
headlight. [Music] Knog is best known for their attractive and creative be-seen style lights
whether it's the fun Frog lights or the Blinder Road Series. What we have here today is the new
Blinder range which is the high output headlight variation which offer bright output, advanced
technology and competitive price points for both road or mountain biking. We have the Blinder 900
here but they also offer a Blinder 600 and an even brighter Blinder 1300 version. Packaging wise you
can see very simple you have a nice cardboard backing the headlights primarily and displayed
and then you have the specs printed on the back with this little hidden compartment to
hide all the accessories so pretty slick. No excessive packaging or wasted plastic.
I'll go ahead and take this out of the box and we'll go over the specs. Retail price on this is
$79.95 as I mentioned earlier there is a $60 Blinder 600 as well as a $100 Blinder 1300. As the name
implies this has 900 Lumen output while the other ones are either brighter or dimmer. This has a very
slick dual sided mount so it simply clips on and it has a rail design to go backward or forward.
This has six different output modes so you can easily switch between constant or flash options
and you also have a battery status checker with a single button press on the top.
You also have two and a half hour to 120 hour run time which is the range for the steady high mode
all the way down to eco flash so you should be able to find the perfect mode whether road cycling
or doing trails on a mountain bike. As far as what comes with it you can see it's pretty simple.
You have the headlight itself this is again the 900 version. You have the handlebar mount which
you can see has a cool clip-on Style with a rubber strap. Then we have an included GoPro
adapter that does not appear to be a USB type-c charging cable but you should already own one of
those by now as. You can see it has a simple USBC Port so you can easily charge this one to one of
your existing cables. Now let's take a look at the weight of the Blinder 900. The headlight by itself
that comes out to about 147 grams the handlebar mount is only 20 grams and then the GoPro adapter
that is only 12 grams. [Music] The Knog Blinder headlights combine a single piece industrial
CNC aluminum housing with a four LED lens. Design wise these have a very sleek and modern look as
you have a square profile and an elongated shape so it almost feels more like a flashlight that
you can hold in your hand. The Lithium Polymer battery is on the inside
there's actually IP67 rated so you can put this underwater and not have it get damaged.
With no removable battery you have to use the USB type the charging port on
the bottom side to charge this. It's really convenient and it charges within a few hours.
The body has a black anodized finish so you can see it looks really slick and modern and should
be very durable so if you drop this it should handle that and not show any scratches or damage.
You have heat fins cut directly into the body and these are the little lines that go all the
way around. Very simple branding with Knog and then Blinder here and you can see these little raised
cutouts down the sides and these are part of the mounting system so you have these little ledges
on each side and it not only does it hold the mount but also makes it easier to hold by hand
as you have the little cutout. So pretty slick overall and it looks a lot like their PWR packs
with the square shape. They're also nice little details like the little side window cutouts
that help with side visibility which is really important when you're riding in urban settings.
So you can see even if you can't see the front of the light you can see the edge.
In terms of the LEDs you have four and you can see the bottom has these vertical diffusers so
that gives it a wider beam while the top two are more of a spot beam to let you see further down.
These are always operated together so you can see the beam shape has
additional cone but it's a little bit wider due to those diffusers so a nice
balance with the beam optics. This is great for road cycling or mountain biking.
In terms of mounting that's where the light really has a lot of advantage of
so you can mount this either on the top or bottom. You can see there's no GoPro or Garmin directly
on here instead you have this rail design and you can see these little extensions and this
goes right on those ledges so you can mount this upside down or from the bottom or from the top so
rather than flipping the light you always keep the power button on top and then you can mount this
underneath a out front mount or directly to your handlebar. You can see if I apply some pressure
and simply click into place and you can see there's also adjustment forward and aft.
There's also a GoPro adapter included so if you want to put this on an out front mount you open
the tab which allows this to extend as the same shape so with this one it's ideal for the top.
So we'll position that and then lock the tab down and now you can see I have a top mounted set up
which is really nice so you don't have to again flip the light power button is still visible and
with this design you can actually move it forward or backwards. So depending on your bike setup
you can put this forward or backwards and that gives you a lot of flexibility, it's a slick
design and then with the mounts off again it almost feels like a flashlight so really easy
to carry removing. It's also easy so you just want to extend it out raise the tap on the adapter the
other one requires quite a bit more force so really have to grab that and then pull it off.
You can see nice rubber strap and this should handle different diameters pretty easily
with the different notches in here. In terms of user interface it's pretty simple you have
one power button on top. Again no replaceable battery here it's all integrated. A single click
will activate the battery status so you get a multi battery status will be red or green.
If you hold it it turns it on there are six different modes so you have multiple
constant intensities: low, medium high and then if you double press you activate the
flash mode. You can see this is kind of the nighttime flash where it goes high to low
you have a crazy strobe effect and then ecoflash which is great for daytime riding
so it's nicely separated these and you have to double press to activate either the constant or
the steady modes or switch it between the steady modes and the flash mode so it's really nice so
if you're riding at night and you just want to increase the power or decrease it you don't have
to worry about accidentally activating flash. This has mode memory so it always turns back on to
the mode as previously on. There are six different output modes with the light you have
three constant mods low medium and high medium gives you 450 lumens four hours and then high
gives you that full 900 lumens with two hour run time which is not too bad. You can see the
beam pattern is really nice too it's very wide and uniform. There's three flash modes you have
steady poles then on off style strobe as well as the eco flash which gives you an impressive
120 hour run time and that's a great option of daytime riding. Here you can see it during the day
so you have nice long distance visibility with these little four small LEDs and ensures are
visible even during the day when the sun is out so pretty nice setup. At night time we're impressed
with the beam on this again there's four small LEDs and the combination of the flood and spot
give you this very uniform glow that lights up the road. You can see it's almost two lanes wide
so it's more than enough for mountain biking or road cycling. Even the medium mode is quite bright
and you can't actually turn off the flood or spot separately they're always in uniform so
you get a consistent beam. We like the high mode for really dark areas or for faster
riding but either one is more than enough low mode is probably good enough for urban riding
when you have a lot of lights around you so pretty nice setup. It's great to see Knog
create a higher output light not instead of just the be-seen style lights so a good option if
your road cyclists are mountain biking and you want that versatility mount. Here you can see here
we actually have it underneath our Magicshine TTA out front mount using the GoPro adapter and it's
really clean so you don't even see the headlight and it's in underneath their computer [Music]
Now letsa do a comparison between the Blinder 900 and other lights on the market. Here we have the
Knog Blinder Road so this is only 400 lumens so not that bright but you can see similar
design. You have a nice black finish heat fins cut directly into the body and this USB port directly
integrated into the body itself so pretty cool feature you can just plug that in. Obviously
this is more of a be-seen light versus to-see like the Blinder 900 so if you're going down a dark trail
you're going to want the 900 lumens versus just 400 which is more appropriate for urban settings.
We have the Magicshine RN 1500 very similar sizing here but you can see the Knog is just a
little bit smaller with the four LEDs versus one big one and the diffuser. Both the Magicshine
and Knog are USB Type-C and have the same battery status checker. They have
a Garmin Mount which can't really be flipped so if you flip this you actually create more glare
while the Blinder has the dual mount so dual mounting design so you can
mount from the top or the bottom it's a lot more flexible than the RN 1500.
Topeak also has a dual sided light you can see it has a beam cut off with this reflector style so
you have a top mounted LED and then a scallop shape that eliminate any glare.
You can also connect wirelessly to a tail light which is kind of a cool feature. Their design has
a slot as well but it's on the front and back so not quite as flexible as the Blinder center design
and again a little bit more expensive for the output. Trek has their Commuter Pro which is a
similar light but a lot fancier. So metal body dual gauge so you can actually control the tail light
and headlight and you can see you have multiple LEDs versus just guessing a color which is nice.
You have these orange cutouts and that StVZO style beam which you can see has a nice cutoff
compared to the Blinder standard cone beam so if you're on a lot of pedestrian trails this
is a more friendly light as you're not blinding people. You put these side by side you can see that
but obviously you're paying for the extra features . Another good comparison are the Fenix Lights
it's actually a flashlight company but they have quite a few bike lights you can see similar form
factor. Metal body they have a standard tab style Mount so you just slide this on
but otherwise very similar USB type-c single button press for battery status.
These have single LEDs but the nice thing about Fenix is that you can actually replace a battery
which is something you can't really do with most bike lights so if you do want something a little
bit more adaptable and future proof something like the Fenix Lights it's a good option
but I think the Blinder strikes the nice balance it's very affordable not the highest
tech option on the market but it gives you the dual mounting and a very simple form factor.
Now let's go over the pros and cons for the Blinder 900. What we like about it is
they have dual sided mounting so you can put this underneath and out front mount or in your
handlebar very easily. It also has a simple one button interface with an illuminated ring around
it which makes it really easy to see the battery status or switch between flash or constant modes.
Also with the Blinder 900 you have that premium build quality design that Knog is known for.
The main negatives of the light is the fact that it does have a large form factor it's fairly long
so you do have to slide it forward to fit in front of handlebars. It also doesn't utilize
the modular PWR battery system which I think would have been a great opportunity here to make it very
versatile could have had a very short battery for daytime riding and then a longer one for
nighttime riding. Taking everything to account we give the Blinder 8.9 out of 10. It's really nice
to-see style Blinder headlight. Thanks for watching this review don't forget to like and subscribe. You
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