Lezyne Super Drive XL Front Light: First Impressions

A quick review on the latest gadget from Lezyne, the Super Drive XL Front Light! This is upgraded from the previous version, with a brighter and improved circuit. This is a year 2013 new product, and I am lucky to be one of the first few to get my hands on one of these front lights.

I previously had the prototype version, now I have the actual production version and there are some small differences.

As copied from the CRC website, here are the specifications for this light:

Lezyne Power Drive XL Front Light Features:

• Rechargeable Front light.
• MTB / Road / Commute.
• No wires design, clutter free handlebars.
• Up to 500 genuine lumens output.
• Mode sequence optimized for daily rider. 4 main settings.

Lezyne Power Drive XL Front Light Specifications:

• Race Mode: Access to toggle between Blast and Enduro settings.
• Simple to re-charge: Micro USB charging cable included (common EU standard).
• Easy to fit: No tools required, hard mount Composite Matrix bracket with angle adjust.
• Quality materials: Fully CNC sculpted alloy body.
• Highly water resistant: O-ring sealed to FL1 standard.
• Side visibility design improves safety.
• Uniform beam pattern: Even distribution of light optimized for cycling.
• High Quality Lezyne Lithium Ion Battery (Interchangeable) LIR18650.
• Battery indicator: Traffic light style intelligent power button when riding.
• Battery check: With light off, charge level can be checked with quick press of button.
• Compact: 33mm diameter x 102mm.
• Lightweight: 149g with handlebar bracket.

Lezyne Power Drive XL Front Light Settings:

1. Enduro (Medium): 350 lumens / 2.5hrs
2. Blast (High): 500 lumens / 1.5hrs
3. Economy (Low): 175 lumens / 5hrs
4. Flash: 350 lumens / 5hrs

The set that I have is the "Loaded" version, which means that besides the light and standard bracket mounting, it also comes with an extra battery and the helmet mount.

Clean packaging

Top of box with CNC marks. Are the plastic boxes CNC milled at the top?

The manual with clear instructions and glorious full colour.

Unboxing! The stuff that comes with the "Loaded" version of the Lezyne Super Drive XL.

Besides the light and the standard bracket mount, it also has the extra battery and the helmet mount.

Overall look of the light. Sleek and clean design.

Super big and powerful LED, magnified by the lens.

 

Micro USB port at the bottom for charging. Protected by a rubber cover.

The extra rechargeable battery with the casing, exactly the same as the one in the light. Will need to insert the battery in the light for charging.

The helmet mount, with a ball joint for angle adjustment.

Two different sized clamps are available. With the rubber shims, they can fit pretty much any handlebar.

Before I got this Lezyne front light, I actually already have another powerful front light, the Busch & Muller IXON IQ front light. You can read more about it at the review here.

Comparing the size. The Lezyne light is much slimmer, at about half the diameter of the Busch & Muller light.

  Comparing the weights of the lights, including the clamps.

From the weighing scale (my new digital weighing scale! Only $12!), we can see that the B&M light is about 60 grams heavier. But it is also because the B&M light has 4xAA batteries inside it, which means it has a much longer runtime. 5 hrs in high mode, 20 hours in low mode.

Of course, there is no point comparing the size and weight of the lights, if the light is not bright enough! I haven't had time to test out the lights on the road yet, but I can say the the Lezyne light is really very bright! Even on the Economy mode of 175 lumens, it is more than sufficient for lighting up the path on an unlit road. The Enduro and Blast modes of 350 and 500 lumens are even brighter.

With 2 fully charged batteries, the light can last for 3 hours on Blast mode, and 10 hours on Economy or Flash mode. For extended night rides, it will be best to have at least two batteries in order to last the whole night. But for short night rides of a few hours, the runtime of 1.5-5 hours will be sufficient. With USB charging, it is easy to just plug the light into any micro USB plug to charge the light.

This is only the first part of the review, will follow it up with the review of the actual light usage!

The second part of the review is now up! Click here to see the in depth review.

Fork Accessory Bracket on the Dahon Front Luggage Mount

Want to add more front lights to your bike? Besides installing lights on the handlebar or handlepost, there are very few other places on the bike where you can fix a front light. I used to mount my front lights on the Minoura Space Grip, which is basically an expansion of your handlebar area.

It is good if you want to mount lots of accessories, however it makes the steering feel heavier, and the clamp may not be secure enough if you put heavy accessories on the space grip. The space grip was used to install the electric horn, the S-Sun light and the Busch & Muller IXON IQ front light. Ever since my electric horn was spoilt after getting soaked in heavy rain, I decided not to use the space grip, since I only had 2 front lights left to install.

The handlebar can accommodate only 1 front light, which means that I need to find another place to install my B&M front light. I came across this fork accessory bracket on SJS Cycles, which is specially made to be mounted on the front fork. Check out these fork accessory brackets.

Ever since I got my Ortlieb panniers, the front luggage mount on the head tube of my bike has been left empty. I decided to get this fork bracket to try it out, to see if I can make use of the space available. With some suitably long bolts, this fork bracket can be fixed securely to the frame.

The fork accessory bracket mounted on the Dahon front luggage mount. The clamp for the S-Sun front light is seen here.

Only a single bolt is required to mount the bracket. The rubber on the bracket will be compressed against the frame, giving a reasonably tight attachment.

Since I was not sure about the strength of this bracket, I first tested it with the lighter S-Sun front light. No problem there, the front light stayed on even on bumpy roads.

Next, I mounted the B&M front light, which is significantly heavier than the S-Sun front light.

Big front light!

The front light is tilted down slightly to shine on the road. This B&M light is meant to act as a steady headlight, to light up the path along dark stretches of road.

View from the top. The on/off button on top can be reached while cycling.

View from the front.

Even with the heavier B&M light mounted, there is no problem with the fork accessory bracket. Although it does wobble a bit on bumpy ground, it does not seem like it will break off. 

As discovered earlier, when the B&M light was mounted on the space grip, turning on the light will shut down the Cateye speedometer, due to the EM interference generated by the powerful front light. When mounted on the fork accessory bracket, I found that when the B&M light is on the high setting (40 lux), the EM interference is still present. However, when on low setting (10 lux), the B&M light no longer shuts down the speedo! I believe that this is due to the greater distance between the light and the speedometer computer unit. This allows me to use the front light and also have a working speedo at the same time, which is an unintended benefit.

Because this front light is mounted on the frame and not the handlebar, the light beam does not turn when you turn the handlebar. Not sure if this is good or bad, but is something to take note of.

Overall, I am quite pleased with this new accessory. It allows me to tidy up the handlebar area, as the space grip is no longer required to mount my front lights. Also, it allows me to use the B&M light without shutting down the speedometer. Lastly, it looks really unique with a large front light in front of the bike. There seems to be quite a few other types of brackets available, and with some clever jigging, I'm sure accessories can be fixed onto other parts of the bike too.

Busch & Muller IXON IQ Front Light Review!

In Singapore, the roads are usually pretty well lighted at night. The street lighting is usually bright enough for you to identify objects on the road and avoid obstacles such as potholes and other things on the road while cycling. Because of this, a front blinker is usually enough for night cycling. The blinker will be bright enough to alert other road users to your presence, but will not be enough to light up your path.

Singapore road at night. Good street lighting! Photo credit: Eric Dimaandal

However, there will be times where a front blinker is not enough! Sometimes you will need a more high-powered front light to actually light up the road. Examples will be when the streetlights are out, which is encountered quite often on Tuas night rides. Or during night cycling trips that bring you to ulu places such as Neo Tiew road. The most recent one was on the night visit to the newly-opened Punggol Waterfront PCN. Although it is mostly lighted, there are some stretches where the lighting was not installed yet. It can be quite dangerous to ride without being able to see the road in front clearly.

At those rides, I had an Innovity 3W front light, which is actually pretty bright, with a decent spread and runs on 3xAAA batteries. However, one major issue is that the battery life is quite short, about 4 hrs before the light intensity drops drastically. You can see the Innovity light here at the Minoura Space Grip review.

I decided to source for a more powerful front light that will light up my path when the street lighting is not bright enough. This front light will work in conjuction with my S-Sun 1W blinker.

My criteria for a front light:
1) Bright enough to light up a pitch dark road
2) Powered by rechargeable batteries
3) Mounted as a single unit (unlike most high powered lights that come with an external battery pack connected by a wire)
4) Not too pricey!

After asking around, the Busch & Muller IXON IQ  Front Light was recommended. The most important feature for me is that it is installed as a single unit, without a dangling wire that connects to an external battery pack. The B&M IXON IQ light has the batteries integrated within the light itself.

Nice packaging for the lights!

Comes with 4 rechargeable AA batteries and a power adaptor for charging.

Single powerful LED with specially shaped reflectors

Green light that flashes slowly when fully charged. The flashing becomes faster as the battery level drops.

Supplied with 4 AA rechargeable batteries. The light has an integrated circuit to charge the batteries! Don't even need to remove the batteries to charge.

Connector at bottom of light. Plug in the supplied AC adaptor to charge the batteries inside the light.

The coolest thing about this light is that the charging circuit for the AA batteries is already integrated into the light! To charge the light, just remove the light from the clamp and plug the AC adaptor into it. Or you can just plug in the adaptor with the light still mounted on the bike. No need to take out the batteries at all, very convenient!

Also, since it uses standard batteries, you can always bring along extra AA batteries for overseas trips, where you can't charge the batteries. This light costs $100+ SGD, excluding shipping. Not cheap, but well worth the money for the bright light it generates!

The light has 2 lighting modes, bright and super bright! No flashing mode, as a flashing front light is illegal in Germany (where this light is made). To switch on the light, hold the button for 1 sec. To switch between modes just press the switch without holding it down.


City Mode: 10 lux. Minimum brightness of bicycle front light as required by German StVZO rules. Can last 20 hours!

High Power: 40 lux. WOW is the only word to describe it. Can last for 5 hours!

The Busch & Muller IXON IQ light uses lux to measure brightness, which is different from lumens that is used by many other light manufacturers. These are 2 different units that measure different things, so it is not possible to convert and compare these 2 units.

However, one downside is the weight. At 190 grams including batteries, it is relatively heavy compared to other front lights. Also, when switched on, it kills my wireless speedometer! Apparently it is so high-powered that it emits electromagnetic inteference that stops my wireless speedometer from receiving signals. When I place the light near the transmitter near the fork, the speedometer works. However when I place it near the computer at the handlebar, the signal disappears. Not a crippling issue, but something that you need to know if you are using the light.

The supplied clamp had a pretty poor rubber shim to fix the clamp onto the handlebar. The contact area was only 3 small areas, so in the end I took out the supplied shim and installed my own rubber shim, problem solved!

Now for some pictures comparing the brightness of the light. Note that the brightness as seen in the pictures is not accurate, as they are taken using my humble phone camera. The actual lighting as seen with your eyes are much brighter! But the pictures are useful for comparing the different lighting modes.

B&M IXON IQ light in high power mode (40 lux). I like the rectangular lighting pattern, no light lost to the sides! The brighter part is further away, which enables the lighting to even out when cast onto the road.

 10 lux, from 2 metres away. Again, the rectangular lighting pattern is really useful.

40 lux, from 2 metres away. Much brighter than the 10 lux mode!

Decided to test the light outdoors at night, for a more realistic comparison! Bukit Batok Nature Park is a good place. Went to a spot where there is not much street lighting to test the lights. The photos are much dimmer than what you see with your actual eyes.

S-Sun 1W front light. A very good blinker, and is also quite bright. Beam is nicely concentrated by the lens. One of the best front lights around in terms of its small size, affordability and features. However, beam is relatively small and bluish in colour.

B&M IXON IQ at 10 lux.  Slightly larger spread, and a bit brighter. Whitish light shows everything in a more natural colour.

40 lux! Much brighter, with a much larger spread of light. You have to see the actual light to appreciate how bright it is!

I have no doubt that this light will light up the road even if it is pitch dark. In fact, it is so bright that it hurts the eyes to look at the light reflecting off the wall! The rectangular shape of the beam means that it lights up a path in front of you, with minimal light loss to the sides. By making the beam brighter on top, where it lights up the further part of the road, enables the final lighting pattern to be more even throughout the entire stretch in front of you.