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Ok
been riding with the BL21
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yup, if you need a bright bike light, and want to save major coin, this one is small, light, CHEAP, and works great
for really bony singletrack, you may want to add 1/2 diffuser film (get at camera shops) to
improve the flood. it has all the throw you need.
smart charger goes red when charging, yellow when topping off, green when done.
light is so well balanced that bumps, jumps, and get-offs do not screw with the aim
and did I say cheap ? and small ? and light ? get 2 of them, and it is still cheaper
than most light sets.
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being 18650 parallel powered, you could make your own battery pack,
2, 3, [or 4 batteries in parallel, you would get extended runtimes]. it already does
3.5 hours just fine on it's 3 18650's, says it goes to 4 hours.
the housing has a threaded hole which fits existing niterider hardware...so if you have
a tired old niterider mount or minewt, parts can be interchanged.
oh and also this....aerogel does make an awesome diffuser, it has amazing optic effects (pure diffusion, no artifacts)
and i have a giant jug of it. so if anyone wanted to play with it for a diffuser, I can supply enough aerogel for ya.
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Cool. I'd like to get some of that aerogel from you if you don't mind.
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pm sent
bring a clean dry empty aspirin or pill bottle and i can fill it up
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OK,
review update:
The BL-21 light itself and battery pack is fine, this thing works great for a long time
The charger, however, is junk. It already died (only charges to 3.99 volts then stops)
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so I am keeping the light and will charge it's pack using my Xtar wpII and some gator clips
I cannot recommend this light 100% due to the cheezy charger,
but as a light with a small battery pack (3x18650), the BL-21 is pretty awesome
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I just got a Magicshine knock off (I know! a Magicshine KNOCKOFF!) from Amazon for $37 (IIRC). It says 1200 lumens, supposedly the old MS were 700 lumens. I can see that it is definitely a different LED in there and a quick wall test says that the new one is indeed a lot brighter than the old one. Can't wait to get it out on the trail and see for sure. Same quality as a MS as far as I can see - which is to say, not great, but not bad either.
