Thanks for tuning in this The Sweet Cyclists
and today we're going to be looking at the
Reelight CIO battery free bike light set.
Today we're gonna be reviewing
something a little bit different, this is
the Reelight CIO. This is the version 3 of
this light and this is a battery free light
so no rechargeability, no batteries
to replace and no friction. It simply uses
magnets on your spoke and inside the
lights. Packaging wise really simple you
can see it has a nice eco-friendly
cardboard design with this cool little
window as well so you can see it
includes a taillight and a headlight
as a set. All the specs and everything
are all on the back. We'll go ahead and
take it out of the packaging and review
some of the specifications. The retail price
for this is $59 and includes both the
front and rear taillight as well as the
required magnets It also has theft proof
mounting design which is pretty cool,
not a standard rubber mount. As I
mentioned there's a right hand version a
left hand version of these they're also
battery free as I said. You simply use a
magnet and with the third version
they've actually improved the optics on
this to have a little more wider beam
for better visibility. Inside the box you
see we have the manual here, we have
basic packaging and then we have the
headlight and the taillight held in with
these zip ties. I'll go ahead and pop that out
and these actually flash once they're in
operation and will hold a charge for up
to 2 minutes when you're sitting at a
traffic light so they won't immediately
turn off. Now you can see the mount
here is quite cool and uses these straps
with a little bolt design that's quite
unique to this. It is a lot more theft proof
than a standard rubber strap. In the
box we have the headlight, tail light as I
mentioned there is a right hand version
left hand version that's optimized for
country you're in and then you have the
spoke magnets for the front and rear as
well as the instruction manual. Now let's
take a second to look at the weight of
the Reelight CIO lights.
Now if we take the front light with its
associated magnet that comes in at 60
grams and then if we take the tail light
with its associated magnet it also comes
in at 60 grams, so pretty light weight
for what they are. Now let's look at
the fit and finish of the Reelight CIO
lights, these are pretty unique looking
lights and due to the magnetic nature of
them have to be mounted against the fork
near the wheel. Because of that you
have this more elongated design. The
headlight and tail light actually have almost
identical designs except for the lenses.
With a version 3 they've actually
improved the light distribution of the
lenses to be a little wider.
These aren't particularly bright I
believe the datasheet shows them to be
less than 20 lumens so they're more of a
be seen type light than to actually see.
These are great if you want to leave
it on your bike as a way to have extra
visibility at night and I said they're
both nearly identical so if we look at
one you can see it has this almost
spherical bearing design here that just
has a plastic friction and that will
actually let you adjust the light. You
need to get this within a few
millimetres of the magnet. Inside the
instructions they also include this
handy little tool so you just attach
that to the light and then
it helps you adjust it so it's in place.
That's the ideal distance between
the two for generating current, it's also
worth noting that these spoke magnets
are only only designed for standard
spokes so if you have bladed spokes this
won't work. The other cool thing about
these is how they mount, they use a
metal wire strap instead of a
standard rubber strap which makes them a
lot more theft resistance as they're a
little more work to take off. Now they
also provide a little tool
that's a little 2.5 millimeter allen key,
so if you lose this you can still use a
standard allen key. There's a little
slot between on the bottom side of both
the headlight and taillight, this will
let you actually adjust the tension on
this wire. So now let's do the
light installation, here I've got my
light and inside the instruction manual
we'll find this little coin as well as
the allen key. This is a 2.5 millimeter
allen key that's used to both to loosen
and tighten the wire strap mechanism as
well as tightening the spoke magnet. I have
the spoke magnet the little coin
which is the ideal distance you
need between the magnet and the light to
make the installation easier. First we
will start by adjusting the tension on
the front light which has a little hidden
key here and you can see the hook design
you basically need a wrap this around.
I've already loosened this a bit to
accommodate the frame so I'm gonna put
that through hook it and then once I
have it in place simply tighten this
down now the key. Here is you want to
optimize the distance between the light
and the spoke magnet so you want to
really get that placement down and then
with this little spherical mounting
system you can actually adjust this as
needed so. I'm gonna get this fairly
tight but not all the way you can see
here the nice thing is with the bike on
the mount I can simply rotate the wheels. Now
we'll install the spoke magnet you can
see it has a slot here for normal spokes
if you have a bladed spoke this
obviously won't work.
Use the same allen key tool to remove
these little screw on the back now we'll
place this on the non-drive side put the
bolt in
and then mess with the placement. So you
can see now after a little bit of
fiddling I have the magnet pretty well
placed, you can even see when I let go
of the wheel it actually wants the rest
at that magnet spot. Now if I spin that
around you can see slightly tell
this little pulse every time it goes
around. According the instructions
they do want you to run this for about
60 seconds before it really comes to
full power as there is a capacitor
inside which will hold some charge after
some use. Now let's jump to the rear
and do the same installation procedure. I have my
taillight with the magnet side on the
inside, I have the spoke magnet with the
little spacer coin here as well as my
little tool. What I basically do is
I'm going to put this loosely on here as
well as put the spoke magnet loosely on
the spoke. Now that I have everything in
place you can see it's just touching so
I'm going to go ahead and remove that.
Now we'll spin the wheel and see if
it turns on. Now let's compare the
Reelight CIO lights to some other
light sets on the market. What I have
here is arrangement of USB micro USB
rechargeable lights that we reviewed
here on the channel and I think what's
interesting about these is they provided
a nice comparison between form factor
size with a battery powered versus the
magnetic power. If we look at tail light
versus tail light with the Magicshine
Seemee 30, this is a $35 set with up to 30
lumens. They also have an ambient light
sensor which is pretty cool at this
price. You can see the CIO lights are
quite a bit longer with the elongated
design due to the
magnetic contact point. It also has a
more robust mounting system though with
the Magicshine you get a basic rubber
strap. This is more theft proof. Next
up is the Planet Bike Spok USB lights
which we've also reviewed here. These are
also really simple lights at 40 dollars.
With a less than 20 lumen output they're
really designed to be convenient lights
you can leave on your bike. Again quick
mount which also means it's a easy to
steal as well as easy to take off so
not theft resistant, however again
form-factor wise they're a lot more
compact while these are
quite a bit larger so it's something to
be aware of. Also if you want to pay more
you can actually get much more expensive
compact lights with additional features.
These are the Bontrager ION RT and the
Flare RT tail light, really compact
and high output. I think it's up to 200
lumens with the ion and 90 lumens with
the RT tail light but again
battery-powered which also runs out with
no battery status indicator. I think
the big difference here is that these
are $60 apiece so about $115 for the set
so obviously the price is double the
price of the CIO lights. Now let's do a
comparison between the different lights
while they're installed on the bike. Here
I have the Planet Bike Spok USB, the
Magicshine Seemee 30 and the Reelight
up here. Right off the bat
obviously the form factors are quite a
bit different with the Reelight
because you have to get close to this
magnet surface it ends up really
sticking out quite a bit. It also has me
worried if you put your bike on a train
or public transit and lean it against something that
they will be nudged so you will have to
readjust as needed. Also you can see with
a Spok USB light some more traditional
a little blinky light they usually stick
out on the outside of the fork so they
add a little bit width while the Magicshine
Seemee 30 is nice and flush. It
looks pretty good from the front angle
due to the taller form factor but the
great thing about the Reelight here is
that no battery so with these you only
get a simple one level warning if that
so these will just die mid ride wall. You
can leave the Reelight on for the entire
ride.
Now let's take a look at the light
output from the Reelight CIO lights on
the road, as you can see a pretty good
range of visibility with the wide lens
and especially as you start moving
they're fairly bright. Now you gotta
remember they're under 20 lumens so they
definitely do not illuminate the road
but they help you be seen and not
to see the actual road so it's
definitely important to use as secondary
lights and just leave these on the bike.
Also once you come to a stop they stay
illuminated for up to two minutes which
is more than enough for any stoplight or
stop sign which is a really nice feature.
Now let's go over the pros and cons for
the CIO light. One of the best things
about the light is that it's battery
free you don't have to worry about USB
recharge ability or replace any
batteries. You can just leave it on your
bike and forget about it. I'm also
really happy with the theft resistant
metal wire mount, it is something I haven't
seen before.
Most other theft resistant lights use
security bolts which require a special
head with this they usually standard
allen key, however the mountain is clever
enough that no one will really steal it
unless they have the manual in front of
them. Also the fact that it continues to
flash for up to two minutes despite not
having a battery is a really great
feature, so even if you come to a stop
sign or light it won't turn off on you.
Some of the cons are the sensitive
positioning ,like any speed sensor
cadence sensor those magnets need to be
within a certain tolerance so if they
get nudged you do have to always put
them back in place.
Also these lights have a pretty low
lumen per dollar ratio versus other
lights, it's less than 20 lumens at $60 you're not
getting many lumens.
You're paying for the fact that it's
battery free. Also the elongated form
factor due to magnets is one negative,
this is a bulkier light and a typical
blinky light which would sit flush with
a fork. Taking everything into
account I would give the CIO lights an
8.3 out of 10 these are
really cool battery free bike lights
that have theft
resistant mounting and pretty clever the
way they package everything together. I
definitely recommend it as a secondary
light you can leave on your bike
and just forget about. Thanks for
watching this review don't forget to
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The Sweet Cyclist reminding you to enjoy
the ride!
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