there are quite a few options out there if you're looking to add a bike light to your mountain bike
i started off with simple cree flashlights that take double a batteries mounted on my handlebars
i quickly outgrew those though last year i bought a lumina 900 boost by nite rider but after i
purchased it i found out that it had a narrow spot pattern and while it did a good job of filling in
the dark spots on my dawn rides i decided that this year i wanted to go ahead and purchase
a flood light i ended up purchasing the macro drive 1300 xxl by lezyne now because both these
lights are priced less than one hundred dollars and within ten dollars of each other i thought
i'd do a comparison the lazy macro drive came nicely packaged in a reusable plastic storage box
i managed to find the loaded version for the same price as the basic version so i received
some additional accessories including a remote switch and a couple of different mounting options
everything was well packaged and organized i will definitely reuse this packaging for storage
the light itself it's well made out of machined aluminum and siliconized rubber for the handlebar
strap this manufacturer advertises 2 hours and 30 minutes of operation at the highest output
we're going to test that because i purchased the lumina 900 a year ago
i don't have the original packaging and i can't remember what accessories it came with
what i have now is the handlebar strap and the light itself
the knight rider is well made it's held up really well after a year of use the manufacturer claims
that the knight rider gets an hour of operation at the highest output and it shows no loss of
performance after a year and we'll get to that later the knight rider mount uses a rubber
strap the mounting point allows you to remove the light without removing the mount
i really like that feature
the lezyne uses a rubber strap for mounting also but you can't remove
the light without removing the strap like you can with the knight rider
i was eager to see if the lights could match the manufacturer's advertised performance
for operation so i set up a test rig to see how long each flashlight would run
once fully charged i turned both lights on the maximum setting
the lumina 900 boost indicated red at one hour at one hour 13 minutes it reduced its
light output beating its advertised operation of one hour by 13 minutes
at one hour and 27 minutes the lumina turned itself off but the lezyne was still running strong
at 1 hour 54 minutes the lezyne indicated red and at 2 hours 19 minutes the design began flashing
red and reduced its output the lezyne did not match its advertised 2 hours 30 minutes run time
at maximum output in the end lezyne ran another hour at reduced output before i just turned it off
now something interesting happened to me during testing the lezyne kept failing and going into a
low power mode at about seven minutes and it took me a little while to figure out but i figured out
that the light was overheating and it was dropping into a low power mode in order to protect itself
so in order for the lezyne to make it through the test i had to set up a fan
in order to cool the light off for it to run that whole duration
this might be something for you to consider if you're going to be riding a little bit slower
maybe in some hotter climates so definitely something to be aware of if you're thinking
about the lezyne now i think the nite rider did a better job at heat dissipation
even though it read hotter on the outside i think it's because it was pushing heat out through those
deep grooves in the side having purchased the lezyne specifically to use it as a flood light
i really wanted to test its beam pattern and i used the opportunity of a foggy morning to
capture some video of the brightness and the beam pattern in its sweeping those images didn't turn
out quite like i would like so i set up a test rig in the garage the test rig i set up in my garage
was 15 feet from a reflector and i used a square to take angle readings for each light for the nite
rider you reach the edge of its coherent beam at 25 degrees now at 45 degrees there is almost
no light output from the sides of the nite rider on the other hand the lezyne tapers very gradually
to the side having usable light well past 60 degrees and maybe all the way out to 90 degrees
what i found in my testing is that there's a huge performance difference between these two lights
that are only separated by about 10 dollars in price between these two lights i would recommend
the lezyne light first as your first bike light you're going to want to start out with a flood
and then maybe at a spot later i accidentally bought the spot first but now that i have both
i'm going to use both of them on the trail now that i have a flood and a spot i bought a $10
adapter for the nite rider to put it on my helmet if you do this make sure that you're pointing that
spotlight just a little bit down and here's why watch as i follow will into this tight corner
and look at how where i'm looking is lit and where the bar light is pointed
the spotlight on my helmet adds that little bit of fill that i need for those extra sharp corners
having a combined 2200 lumens projected in front of me is a fantastic experience
and i know that it's going to open up all kinds of opportunities for riding as the
winter months drag on well i hope you found this video useful let me know in the comments
what you're using and also let me know if i've missed anything in this review later