Thanks for tuning in this The Sweet
Cyclists, today we're gonna be reviewing
the Planet Bike Bottle Blinky side light.
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So here we have the Bottle Blinky in it's
original packaging, as with all
Planet Bikes lights and accessories
they do a really great job in terms of
packaging. There's no plastic to be seen
here, you have this really eye-catching
design and a very simple cardboard
presentation with the light itself
really prominently displayed.
I want to thank Planet Bike for
providing this. It is a really cool way
to get an additional side visibility,
especially when you're riding at night
or even the daytime. While I take it
out of the packaging let's go ahead and
review some of the specifications. The
retail price on the bottle blinky is
$20, it has six surface
mounted LEDs three on each side. You
also get their patented Superflash as
well as the Courtesy and a steady mode.
Runtimes on these go from 24 hours up to
a hundred hours in the super flash mode.
As you can see on the specifications printed on
the back and as with all Planet Bike
lights they're all FL1 tested. This
one carries an IP64 rating for water
resistance and dust. Now with this off
you see they're really simple with the
box out of the way. All the instructions
are basically printed on the back of the
package itself and you get the Bottle
Blinky right now. Let's take a look at
the weight of the Bottle Blinky, it
simply attaches underneath your normal
water cage so without any hardware this
is 54 grams.
Now let's take a closer look at the fit
and finish of the Planet Bike Bottle
Blinky. It's a really cool way to add a
little side visibility when you're
riding.
If you ever ridden in the day or night
you'll know that most cars won't see
cyclists even if they look directly at you.
It's very easy for them to see
right through you, so adding an additional
blinky lights and accessories is a great
way to ensure additional safety when
you're riding. In terms of construction you
have a basic plastic backing here and
this will fit underneath your water
bottle cage. So you have to remove that
and attach it right above. The main light
is mounted on the bottom portion here,
so below the bottle cage. It
basically consists a one power button
and as you can see a transparent body.
You can actually see the entire circuit
board in here. There are two triple A
batteries underneath this, and on each side
you have three surface mounted LEDs.
To operate this it's simply a click so
one press will cycle through the modes.
You can't long press to turn it off so
there's no memory mode here because you
can't actually turn it off without
cycling through to off. This is what it
looks like turned off. This is the
super flash mode which is pretty erratic,
then you have the courtesy mode which is
really cool pulsing. It is a nice way to
draw a little attention without being
too annoying. And finally we have
steady mode. The runtimes on these are
really great, the lowest run time of
24 hours and then up to a hundred hours
on Superflash mode. It's kind of
counterintuitive that Superflash would
use less power but because it's on less
the battery life is significantly higher.
Underneath you have the Planet Bike logo
and simply plastic here. You see these
two slots here and this is to access the
battery, so I'll show you that here so if
I take a coin and just pry up on that
you can see that I'll pop it out. Now if
we take it out, the two batteries are
included with the original purchase so
you don't have to buy them. We have a
simple gasket that runs around it for
the water resistance and then the main
body. You should be able to do this
with the light
mounted on the bike as well as long as
you have enough space to come in here
and pry it off. To reattach it you simply
line them up again and then press it
together and make sure the gasket is
fully seated all the way around. One
thing to note is that even with a few
practice times, this plastic does get a
little deformed. Now let's take a look
at the Bottle Blinky installed on my
bike, you can see here it's pretty subtle
even with bottles on barely noticeable
and because it screwed on you should
never have to really take these off.
There are three modes, you
have steady with 24 hour runtime, Courtesy mode upto 27
hours and Superflash for up to 100
hours. I really like courtesy and super
flash in particular as they really draw
attention. Now let's go over the pros
and cons for the Bottle Blinky, I really
like that they improve your side
visibility and they're so easy and
convenient to mount that you just have
to put them on your bike once and forget
about it.
You also have really impressive run time
with AAA batteries and Superflash
mode so you don't really have to
worry about constantly recharging these.
The things I don't like about it is the
brittle housing plastic, every time you
do the battery change you can feel
them deform. I'd be worried about that
IPX4 rating possibly letting water in
over time. Also it can be easily obscured
due to the low mounting point. It's better to
have a side visibility light on your
helmet as obstacles won't block it but
using this in conjunction with other
lights is a great combination.
One other thing is the interface is a
little bit strange you can't do a long
hold to turn it off, you have to cycle
through the mode to get back to off.
We've seen this with some of the other
Planet Bike products but it's
something you just have to get used to.
In terms of a final rating I would give
this a 9 and a half out of 10. I think
they're a really slick way to add some
visibility without the worry about
recharging or mounting. You can really
put them on your bike and forget about
them. Thanks for watching this review
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