Thanks for tuning in today we're going to be reviewing the Knog Blinder V
Traffic COB LED bicycle rear tail light.
Knog is well known for the unique and attractive bike headlights and tail lights.
The Blinder V series continues the legacy by incorporating their popular design elements with
the latest COB led technology. What we have here is the Blinder V Traffic which has a traffic style
three block led illumination pattern. This is also available in the Blinder V Bolt variation
which has nearly identical specs but has a lightning bolt pattern to it which is quite unique.
In terms of packaging it's also very clever here you can see the light is encased in this little
plastic backing you can see the front of it with a sticker on top to show the illumination pattern
and then on the side you can actually peek all the way through you can see the mount
and the incorporated usb and all the cool features. Specs are printed on the back as well as
underneath. So i'll go ahead and take it out of the box and we'll go over these specs on here.
So retail price on this is $49.95 and it has a 100 lumen max output so more than enough for daytime riding.
In a lot of ways it's of evolution of their Mob V which has the same aerodynamic sleek profile.
You have a COB led design so that means you have circuit on board technology and that
means you have a bunch of little leds actually placed directly onto the circuit board so they
all illuminate together and it gives you a much more uniform and attractive illumination pattern.
Lets go ahead and pull this out of the box.
So it has eight output modes it can do the three different blocks in various constant modes as
well as flashing patterns. What's cool about this is you also have that integrated usb cable
or usb connector directly in here so you don't need a cable you just plug this in directly into
your port. In terms of what comes with it obviously you get the light and usb port directly on here.
You have the second part of the rubber mount design and then you also get two different
options for that strap so depending on what your handlebar diameter is you have the medium one
installed you also have a short and then a longer one so that'll accommodate different bike styles.
You also have the quick start guide it's kind of buried underneath this plastic.
Now let's take a look at the weight of the light so the light
with the medium length strap that comes in at 40 grams so quite light.
Now let's go over the fit and finish of the Knog Blinder V. This was designed to have a v profile
so you can see how it kind of tapers in and should hide behind any seat posts for a very sleek look.
Knog offers this in two variations we have the traffic version
so you can see if I turn this on it has three blocks of leds that illuminate
in different patterns so it's very reminiscent of a traffic light where you have red green yellow.
They also have the bolt version which has a lightning bolt which is kind of a unique spin
and similar to the other variations that have on the other lights. This is an evolution of
the Mob V so if you look at the Mob and you look at this you can see a lot of similarities.
With this one you get a full COB led design. What that means is you have individual leds all on the
circuit board so it's very sleek and it gives you that glow so it's much more uniform when it's on
versus more of the single surface mounted leds that you see with the previous version. It's also a
sleeker and much higher output so it's 100 lumens versus about 45 that the previous version offered.
You also have a raised lens here so you can see when you turn it on a little bit of it peaks out
the edge and that gives you side visibility so most of your accidents are going to happen
at a angle where a car doesn't see you so this helps you be more visible at awkward angles or
intersections. The interface itself is a one button design so i wish it was a little bit better place
but it's actually right here on top and it's a little bit awkward to press because you tend to
press the raised portions kind of on an incline. So if you press it and hold it it will turn on
and then you press it again or hold it again it'll turn off. It has mode memory so it
remembers which mode it was on and then when it's on you can cycle through the eight available modes.
So quite a few options here probably too many options we have various flash patterns
various constant modes and they'll have different run times
and then you simply cycle through hold it again and then mode memory means when i turn it back on
you don't have to cycle through and find the one again. It will go exactly to where it was so nice
feature. The mount on here is also quite unique so it works with both aero seat posts and round
ones and you can see it does that by having this elastic design so you can see how it'll flex so
it'll go wider for a round seat post and then more narrow with this little center cutout so a nice
design feature. It blends a standard rubber strap with this polycarbonate clasp so instead of just
having a rubber strap and two hooks like you see with a lot of tail lights this actually uses a
little clasp on here they pull up and over and locks into place so a little more secure
and you can see with the different length o-rings you can do larger diameter or smaller diameter so
if you have an aero set up you'll probably want the wider one if you have a more small one you can
try the different lengths. The other thing you'll notice that there's no usb connector it's actually
just built in directly so this is really cool. It's a USB-A and with this design you just slide it in
to your port and you can charge it so you don't have to worry about cables or anything like that.
It also has a low battery indicator on here and a charging indicator so to the right of these this
will turn red and then when you're charging it the left one will go red or green depending on
whether it's charging or done charging so pretty simple interface and very sleek overall design.
The Blinder V has eight different output modes to choose from you have two constant modes
a high constant at low constant low constant which is good for seven hours and 20 lumens.
Then you have various flash modes that highlight the three different blocks in different order so
low flash will keep the center on and flash the outer ones high flash is the full hundred lumens
for seven hours. It does all three fading will kind of fade in from the outer to the inner pulse does
a similar thing but pulses it so it gradually goes up and then turns off. Accelerating flash is
a really fun one so it goes up and down and then the highest run time of 50 hours is for eco flash
which is just a little bit of a slower flash. In terms of visibility on the road here you can see
some daytime footage and actually works quite well you can see the light from a fair distance away.
With that wide led face you have a nice uniform distribution that's great for lower distances
the one downside this light is because it has such a big led face it's not very focused so
something like a Light & Motion or Bontrager Ion which has a single led and a small reflector
those are visible for maybe a mile away this one will be limited to shorter distances.
That said it's still a very effective light and has a nice uniform glow to it that looks great
on urban bikes or even road bikes and with the simple mounting it's easy to put on and take off.
What we have here is quite a few options this is the Moon Sport Cerberus so it's a three cob
led design and you can see it has three strips so one on each side and one down the middle so pretty
unique looking and gives you a very unique pattern as well. This is also designed to fit flush
against a seat post and has a similar angled or almost ratcheting design with the mount which
accommodates both aero and standard seat post. With the Moon Sport it's a lot more complicated
the interface has what they call a variable lumen system where you can actually adjust each mode
and it's a little bit too much. Honestly I wish they would kind of pare it down more.
Visually you can see the Knog has a more wide and uniform look so this will catch your eye
a little bit more but it won't be as visible from further distances because it's less focused.
Speaking of focused lights the Vya pro smart here is one of those lights that are very narrow beam
so single led and they've really designed this to be visible from a very long distance away.
So it has a usb port directly built in as well but because of the form factor it's a little
bit easier to use when you're charging so you can see you can just plug this directly in it's
long and narrow versus tall so this one you can only really place in one direction and you might
have some access issues while the Vya is longer . Again if you want something for urban riding
or just a bigger front face the Knog does that so different design elements if you want be visible
from further distances like road cycling you would want something more focused that's similar to the
Bontrager Flare RT so this is about 100 lumens as well I believe about 90. Again single led
and you can see it's very focused which means you don't really see it that much from certain angles
but you can see it from very far distances while the Knog here is great for more urban riding
city commuting where you want a big front face that really catch your eye so you can
see the difference there just side by side the Bontrager has a lot more features though
such as bluetooth connectivity so you can actually see your battery status
while the Knog just has standard COB leds no brake sensor or anything like that. The Bullet 200 is
also a good option obviously has a dual led setup as well so you have two rings which is really cool
and then this almost mushroom style to it standard usb port a lot bulkier. So the nice thing about the
Knog is if you have a road bike this will kind of tuck underneath it while this sticks out
the upside of the Bullet is because it has this bulging shape
you can see this from almost any angle so even from behind because it actually sticks out so
you definitely want to pick the one that matches your style and has enough run time for your riding.
Now let's go over the pros and cons for the Knog Blinder V. What we like about it is as a minimalist
design. It's a nice large led face with a COB design. You also have a cleverly integrated USB
a connector directly into the mount it's really nice feature so you don't need any charging cable
to worry about you just plug it directly into your usb port and with the three block design of this
traffic variation you have unique and eye-catching flash modes so they illuminate in different orders
and patterns which really catches your eye. Some of the cons for the tail light is the fact that the
mount can't be angled. It's parallel with your seatpost which is always angled backwards slightly
also the button placement can be difficult to press it's fairly narrow and on a little bit of
an incline plane so you have to be careful where you actually touch. The rubber coating on the
rear of the housing also tends to really attract dust and dirt so it's hard to keep clean.
Taking everything into account would give the taillight a 9.2 out of 10. It's very attractive
and cleverly designed rear taillight. Thanks for watching this review don't forget to like and
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