12.01.08

Let There Be Light

Posted in blogging, gear, info at 11:52 pm by Administrator

So there you have the latest light I got for the handlebars. If you don’t know, the law states that white lights are positioned on the handlebars, red on the rear. This light is from a company called Knog, which seems to have a lot of good stuff. The name for this light is the Toad. As far as I knew until now, I thought they only made lights and other small peripherals for the urban cyclist. However, upon inspection of the website, they have so much more. And they really seem like a good company. But, unfortunately, I have to post about my dislike for this light.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t totally hate it, but the design is dually cool and hindering. The outside of the whole unit is made of silicone, so when affixed to the handlebar, it doesn’t move around much. And the loop itself is also silicone and what yu do is unhook it from the body at the back where you see the loop overlap on the body in the back. Pretty neat idea, as you can pull it off and on easily when stopping and chaining your ride in the city. However, the flap that sits on top of the body seems a little too thick, so when in this weather, it is getting colder and you are wearing your fingered riding gloves, it is a bitch to try to press the little button to turn the light off and on. Granted you can pull the flap off to also press the button, but who wants to do that to turn the light on then ride? And again, with fingered gloves, it’s a bit of a pain in the butt. However, there are five LED lights and three settings for the lights and they are uber-bright!! I love rolling down the street and seeing the little light make the street signs glow in front of me, even as far as the corner from a few feet coming up the block!!

But again, if you also notice by the picture, the lights run vertically. So when attached to the handlebars, the bottom most lights get blocked by my brake lever!! Which then leads me to only one conclusion…. This light is made for fixed geared bikes. AAAARRRGGHHHH!!

These lights shown above are the same as the light I got for the rear. Also Knog. This one is called the Frog. The only color they had at the store was white, and the LED is red of course. Had I known that these lights come in all these gorgeous colors, I would have sought some out to match the color of my bike frame. Don’t let the little size fool you, the light is pretty powerful. Now I’m not going to say that cars can see you from up the block, but within a reasonable distance, you are visible, especially if you set the light to the flashing mode. This little guy only has the two modes, flashing and steady.

The store in my neighbourhood in which I get a lot of my gear is called Jack Rabbit Sports. I believe I have mentioned them before in another post, but this store is well worth mentioning again. However, they still haven’t updated the webpage for their cycling training programs. C’mon guys, get it together!! Sheesh!!

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