My Lupine Piko X Duo arrived yesterday afternoon. I'll do a more complete review with photos as time permits, but a few quick observations.
1. This is a very small, very light headlamp. Wearing it is completely comfortable. The battery at the rear and the lamp at the front are so light as to be unobtrusive when worn.
2. A high quality item; it arrives in a very well-made, zipper-closed pouch that stores the spare battery, charger and adapters. The lamp itself is meticulously finished and anodized.
3. The Smartcore batteries have a red LED display, which gives you a quick read as to remaining battery power. These LEDs can also be used to stay illuminated and act as a rear red light when cycling, doing rescue work, etc, where you want an added degree of visibility from the rear.
4. Bright. As a previous reviewer on this forum wrote, this light is the Noisy Cricket (reference the movie Men in Black) of headlamps. I haven't done specialized testing or output measurements, etc, but trying this on last night in a dark rural setting next to my new Eagletac G25C2 flashlight, the Piko X is brighter in my opinion/to my observation on repeated illuminations than the G25C2 when using the diffuser on the G25C2. That said, the Eagletac with the diffuser off has further throw than the Piko. The Piko is rated at the high end at 900 lumens. I wanted something I could use for night fishing, and this casts more than enough light for slower speed night fishing. I am utterly amazed by its power. The four levels of light also give a really good range from full on 900 lumens to a much lower light/longer lived battery for around the camp/doing minor tasks. The light is a very pleasant white light with no discernable yellow to my eye.
5. Gretnabikes, where I ordered the light from, has outstanding customer service. There was a slight niggle in my order and they were extremely quick and pleasant as they remedied the issue. A real pleasure to deal with.
Overall: this is one expensive piece of kit. However, you get what you pay for and this light is designed for really rough use and should not crap out on me in the rain, snow and mud. It is simple to use, casts a frightfully bright diffused flood that's as close to being the perfect "all-around" light I could conceive of. Gretnabikes are excellent to deal with. My only issue with the light is that the power cable leading from the lamp gets in the way of some adjustments of the lamp up and down. Not a major thing.
I'll get some pictures up once I have more time.
Best,
Chris
1. This is a very small, very light headlamp. Wearing it is completely comfortable. The battery at the rear and the lamp at the front are so light as to be unobtrusive when worn.
2. A high quality item; it arrives in a very well-made, zipper-closed pouch that stores the spare battery, charger and adapters. The lamp itself is meticulously finished and anodized.
3. The Smartcore batteries have a red LED display, which gives you a quick read as to remaining battery power. These LEDs can also be used to stay illuminated and act as a rear red light when cycling, doing rescue work, etc, where you want an added degree of visibility from the rear.
4. Bright. As a previous reviewer on this forum wrote, this light is the Noisy Cricket (reference the movie Men in Black) of headlamps. I haven't done specialized testing or output measurements, etc, but trying this on last night in a dark rural setting next to my new Eagletac G25C2 flashlight, the Piko X is brighter in my opinion/to my observation on repeated illuminations than the G25C2 when using the diffuser on the G25C2. That said, the Eagletac with the diffuser off has further throw than the Piko. The Piko is rated at the high end at 900 lumens. I wanted something I could use for night fishing, and this casts more than enough light for slower speed night fishing. I am utterly amazed by its power. The four levels of light also give a really good range from full on 900 lumens to a much lower light/longer lived battery for around the camp/doing minor tasks. The light is a very pleasant white light with no discernable yellow to my eye.
5. Gretnabikes, where I ordered the light from, has outstanding customer service. There was a slight niggle in my order and they were extremely quick and pleasant as they remedied the issue. A real pleasure to deal with.
Overall: this is one expensive piece of kit. However, you get what you pay for and this light is designed for really rough use and should not crap out on me in the rain, snow and mud. It is simple to use, casts a frightfully bright diffused flood that's as close to being the perfect "all-around" light I could conceive of. Gretnabikes are excellent to deal with. My only issue with the light is that the power cable leading from the lamp gets in the way of some adjustments of the lamp up and down. Not a major thing.
I'll get some pictures up once I have more time.
Best,
Chris
