» Planet Bike 3044 Blaze 1 Watt LED Headlight

Planet Bike 3044 Blaze 1 Watt LED Headlight Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent for my purposes
Comment: I use the Blaze on those days where I can't get out to ride before dark. After the sun goes down, I ride urban bike trails, which are generally unlit. This light is perfectly adequate and illuminates the trail sufficiently at a maximum speed of a 20 mph. Because the light snaps into its mounting bracket, I was worried that there might be some shaking, but I haven't noticed any vibration even on the short sections of the chipseal roads I ride.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Unuseable
Comment: This is a very bright light using a mounting bracket that absolutely doesn't work. The light is not balanced and sits far forward. The mounting bracket can't grab the handlebar very well due to a poor design. The result is that the light flips forward and down, requiring you to constantly readjust it.

It's too bad because other products from this company are very well made. I emailed the company and they said that all of their lights use the same bracket and they would be happy to replace this light with a cheaper less bright one having the exact same problem -- gee, thanks (sarcasm).

Sooner or later, someone is going to be hurt or killed because of this light because you have to constantly fiddle with it to keep it level. When they do, the company will get sued and, since they know about the problem but have refused to do anything about it, will lose the case and an otherwise excellent company will go out of business.

I own other lights and NONE of them have this problem. There are other ways of attaching a light to a handlebar that work well, but they insist on using this bracket, even with all of the complaints. I urge anyone from the company to recall the light and change the bracket. The light output is fantastic, if only it would stay level, which it won't.

Until then, no one should purchase this light. The bracket is a disaster and an accident waiting to happen. Keep this thing away from your kids. Their Superflash rear light is the best thing out there. Buy that instead, but find another front lamp. Don't buy this one.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Cheapest legitimate "see" light
Comment: Generally lights in this price range are "be seen" lights (for others to see you) rather than "see" lights (to illuminate the road). This light (barely) crosses the threshold to be considered a "see" light -- I can ride at 15mph on a completely dark trail and see enough to feel safe. I couldn't find any other light as bright for twice the price, making this the best deal in a headlamp that I know of.

The light has several shortcomings, but they only add up to one lost star because the brightness is really the only critical issue:
* There's little difference between "high" and "low" modes. I haven't investigated whether this makes a difference in battery life, but the "low" mode seems kind of pointless.
* The "flash" mode is at full brightness. The problem here is that the light is so bright, it creates a disorienting "strobe" effect that actually makes it hard to concentrate on the road. Since you'd only use this mode to be seen, the flash could (and should) be at a much lower intensity.
* The mounting hardware is pretty bad -- it's hard to get the light mounted really securely. (The attachment of the light to the mounting hardware, on the other hand, is pretty good -- easy to attach and detach the light even while wearing gloves.)

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Super Bright!
Comment: This light really is super bright!
It's a little too bulky though and the base doesn't really lock tight onto my handle bar... Other than that... It's Super Bright!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: all good
Comment: This is the first headlight I have ever bought or used. I rode on a totally dark bike trail (paved) with it, and was able to see adequately although I chose to ride slower than I would have in the daylight. I think that this light is good for my type of riding, i.e. not terribly extreme. I think it is a good value for the $$. It's excellent as a road light, for drivers to see me riding. The three settings are useful, low steady, high steady, and blinking. It's super easy to clip on and off its' included mount.

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