Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on March 17, 2011
Boomer: A Rechargeable USB Bike-Light from Knog
I like Knog bicycle lights. They’re cheap, bright, tough and more-or-less waterproof, and their rubbery bodies make them as easy to mount on the bike as they are to toss in your bag. What I don’t like is buying batteries, whether they’re AAAs or button cells. That’s why I’m excited about the Boomer Rechargeable, a USB version of Knog’s 50-lumen Boomer.
The light was spotted by the good folks from Urban Velo on a trip to the recent Interbike show. The Boomer Rechargeable works like every other Knog lamp: a plastic core containing the electronics and LEDs is wrapped in a stretchy silicone cover. The difference is that when you slip the skin off this one, you see a USB plug which you can jack into a computer or charger. It could hardly be better for a commuter who rides to work on dark winter days.
The regular Boomer costs $35, so expect this to be a little more. The lamp isn’t yet live on the site, but (hopefully) will be soon.
Knog Boomer Rechargeable [Urban Velo]
Knog Boomer [Knog]
Photo: Urban Velo
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Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on September 23, 2010
Hands-On: Spaceship Bike Light Blinds Puny Humans
A while back, the folks at Portland Design Works sent over a couple bike lights, a set containing the Spaceship and the Radbot. After opening them up and almost blinding myself, I set out to test them, with the intent of killing them. Read on to find out if they survived.
The kit consists the Radbot 500, a 0.5-watt red LED powered by a pair of AAA batteries, and the Spaceship, running on two AAs, which shines its white LED through a “German-engineered lens” and will “withstand rain showers and meteor showers,” (according to the blurb).
I started out the test in Barcelona, but it quickly became clear that the hot temperatures, lack of rain and smooth roads weren’t going to tax these lamps. Worse, Barcelona is so well lit at night that you really don’t need lights on your bike (although the law says otherwise). So I took the pair to a rather more difficult terrain: Berlin, Germany.
Berlin is almost bankrupt, which means long stretches of unlit road and teeth-rattling cobbled streets. It is also in the North of Europe, which gives it hot, dry days (up to 40-degrees, or 100 F) punctuated by cold nights and day-long thunderstorms. It is, in short, a very tough place for bikes and bike accessories.
The lamps do their most important job admirably. They’re ridiculously bright: the red Radbot alone can illuminate a whole room at night, and that’s when its still strapped on my rucksack, pointing in the wrong direction. The Spaceship’s tight beam, a mere curiosity in Barcelona, was essential when cycling through the pitch-black Mauerpark at night, picking out a glowing ellipse on the ground in front to illuminate a safe path between the potholes and broken beer-bottles.
The lights are removable. The Spaceship clamps onto the handlebars with a wraparound collar and a finger-operated screw to tighten it. It stays in place, even over the cobbles. The Radbot comes with a few different fixings. I clip it to the Brooks tool-bag hanging from my saddle, but you can screw an adapter to the light-mount on a rack, the seat-stay or the seat-post.
Despite hanging on tight, I managed to drop both lights plenty of times (usually while trying to drunkenly fix them onto the bike, post-beer-garden). They bounced, and neither of them has even a crack (yet. I’m still trying). Both lamps have also sat outside in Berlin rainstorms: They’re waterproof.
Problems? Very few. While the Radbot needs a long, 1.5-second press on the power switch to turn it on and off (to stop it lighting up in a bag), the Spaceship doesn’t, and actually switched itself on in my bike-bag on its air-trip here. Also, to change the batteries, you need to unscrew the lights to open them. A minor pain, as the screw-shut cases are what keeps the rain out. Otherwise, they come highly recommended (especially the Radbot’s cool pulsing flash-mode). The Spaceship even doubles as a handy weapon with which to blind rival bike-polo players (I have tested this).
Available now in a set for $45.
Spaceship/Radbot 500 [PDW. Thanks, Dan!]
Photo: Charlie Sorrel
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Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on July 28, 2010
Hands-On With The Knog Frog Bike Light
Relax, lean back in your comfortable chair and join me on a journey. Imagine, if you will, that you own a beautiful, brake-free fixed-gear bicycle. The exquisite paint-job,iridescentin the shimmering sun, is rivaled only by the clean lines of your ride. From front to back, there is nothing to distract the eye as it rolls across the smooth geometry, free of superflous lugs and holes, or even reflectors.
Imagine now that you need to take this bike out at night. You want to be seen, of course, but you also want to be seen. Permanently fixed lights are, naturally, out of the question, as ridiculous as wearing a hair-mussing helmet. Even removable lights need unsightly brackets. What to do? You need a hipster lamp, something that the Bike Snob calls the Hipster Cyst. It is the Frog, from Aussie company Knog.
The Frog is a bright, weather sealed LED lamp in a silicone casing. The built-in strap stretches around bars and frames and hooks back on itself. I found a set at my local bike-shop for 11 ($16) apiece, for once actually less than the 12 list price. At this price, theyre a little above the cheapest lamps, but nowhere near the top end.
The best feature of the Frog is its size. The tiny lamps are hardly bigger than the button-cell and LED within. The switch is concealed and you turn things on and off by pressing the top of the light. One press for on, another for flash and one more to switch off. Flash is probably the best of these, as it is both eye-catching to other road-goers and stretches battery life from 80 hours to a maximum of 160 hours. Thats around two and a half months if you ride two hours every single night.
The frogs attach to any part of the bike, although for the pictures I just put them on the top-tube where they hang like little one-eyed vampire-bats. You stretch the loop around and slide it into the hook. Its easy enough not to be annoying good news when you have to take the lights off to stop them being stolen. I havent been out in a good downpour yet (and without fenders, Ill be leaving the fixie at home and taking the Dutch bike anyway) but the case seals the lights well enough for all but the worst rainstorm. The only openings are for the LED itself and a gap underneath the case to remove the unit for battery replacement.
The main concern with any light is visibility. The Frogs are bright, although Knog has some multi-bulb alternatives too. I took these shots against the balcony in daylight, if that helps you to visualize the output. Ill put it this way. I first switched one on inside a fairly bright bar, pointing at my eyes, and got major retina-burn.
Problems: They pick up dust. You can see how much in the photos. Also, the LEDs stay white until switched on, so Id recommend buying front and back in different colors to avoid confusion, unlike me.
I like these little lights. Well see how much I still like them if those battery-life claims are exaggerated, though. Until then, I will not be looking to have my Hipster Cysts removed.
Product page [Knog]
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by publisher on April 30, 2009
