Flyingtest
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2015
- Messages
- 9
(Picture heavy)
Good day and welcome to a new review. This time I'll be reviewing for you the the Speedster bicycle headlight made by the German Sigma Sport.
The Sigma Speedster is a stVZO compliant waterproof LED bicycle front light running on a built-in lithium-ion battery. It is rechargeable via a micro-usb port. Thanks to the stVZO regulation the lamp will light up the road ahead but it won't blind oncomming traffic when set up correctly.
The first thing that I noticed was the bulkiness of the light.. You expect something smaller and lighter from a li-ion LED light. The workmanship is however excellent and it is clearly a top of the range model. It is fully enclosed, screws or bolts are nowhere to be seen.
What's more in the package you get a compact 1000ma rated mains power adapter, an USB to micro-usb cable and a very tiny manual.
Technical.
With an aluminium head part the LED gets nicely cooled during usage. Furthermore thanks to a special reflector and lens optics combination it creates a very usable beam profile, even though the LED is centered in the reflector. Outdoor shots of the beam can be found further down. On each side of the head is a transparent slot for side visibility.
The cool white LED is current controlled, what method is unknown.
On the top side there is a battery indicator consisting of five green LED's and one blinking red LED. These are only on when in use. The green LED's signal 100% to 5% charge. The red LED goes on between 5% and 0% charge when all the green ones are off. I found the LED's a little too bright and therefore distracting.
Also on the top is a rubberized on/off button. Despite it's rather small size, the button is tactile because it lies in a recessed shape.
On the bottom is a rubber flap, underneath it is a micro-usb slot for charging the battery.
Sigma says the light is waterproof, but to what extent is not clear. I would therefore not recommend immersing it in water, though it is all-weather proof when cycling.
The light comes with a detacheable steering mount, which is seperatly available on the market if you need a spare. The mounting mechanism to the handlebar is quite unique, using a teeth in groove system for easy detaching. It does not fit correctly over the handlebar tape on dropbars.
The fix to the light itself is solid. You attach the light by sliding it on from the back. I found this somewhat difficult in the dark, it's not easy to attach it on feeling.
Usage.
To turn the light on, press the switch on top 2 times with a short interval. It turns on in low output mode (70 lumens). By pressing it once, it will change it's output to medium (160 lumens) and with another press it goes to high (230 lumens). The lumens information is derived from Sigma itself.
To turn the light off, press and hold the power button for ~2 seconds.
Beamshots:
The main beam starts ~3 meters in front of the light in a narrow oval shape.
I've tried to mimic reality as much as possible with the camera shots.
Low
Medium
High
The Speedster lights up the road very well, near and far. Though the main beam is a bit narrow to my taste. I used it mostly on the low output, I found this to be the most comfortable.
Runtimes
The high and medium outputs seem unusable for long use, a better terminology would be a 'turbo' and 'high' setting, looking at the runtimes and still quite high brightness of the 'low' output.
When the battery reaches 5% charge, the LED will automaticaly step down to the low output.
Low (e.g. standard): 8 hours and 30 minutes.
Medium (e.g. high): 4 hours.
High (e.g. turbo): 2 hours and 20 minutes.
Weight
including mounting bracket: 183 grams
Verdict:
Pros: usable non-blinding beam profile, stVZO compliant, cooling of the LED, weatherproof, sturdy feeling, nice design, quality mounting mechanism, USB rechargeable, package includes USB mains adapter.
Mediocre: runtimes, no replaceable battery.
Cons: too big, too heavy (for what it is), distracting battery indicator LED's. Not advisable for dropbars with tape.
I give it a score of: 6 out of 10.
I hope the review was usefull, let me know what you think about it. :santa:
Cheers,
Flyingtest
Good day and welcome to a new review. This time I'll be reviewing for you the the Speedster bicycle headlight made by the German Sigma Sport.
The Sigma Speedster is a stVZO compliant waterproof LED bicycle front light running on a built-in lithium-ion battery. It is rechargeable via a micro-usb port. Thanks to the stVZO regulation the lamp will light up the road ahead but it won't blind oncomming traffic when set up correctly.
The first thing that I noticed was the bulkiness of the light.. You expect something smaller and lighter from a li-ion LED light. The workmanship is however excellent and it is clearly a top of the range model. It is fully enclosed, screws or bolts are nowhere to be seen.
What's more in the package you get a compact 1000ma rated mains power adapter, an USB to micro-usb cable and a very tiny manual.
Technical.
With an aluminium head part the LED gets nicely cooled during usage. Furthermore thanks to a special reflector and lens optics combination it creates a very usable beam profile, even though the LED is centered in the reflector. Outdoor shots of the beam can be found further down. On each side of the head is a transparent slot for side visibility.
The cool white LED is current controlled, what method is unknown.
On the top side there is a battery indicator consisting of five green LED's and one blinking red LED. These are only on when in use. The green LED's signal 100% to 5% charge. The red LED goes on between 5% and 0% charge when all the green ones are off. I found the LED's a little too bright and therefore distracting.
Also on the top is a rubberized on/off button. Despite it's rather small size, the button is tactile because it lies in a recessed shape.
On the bottom is a rubber flap, underneath it is a micro-usb slot for charging the battery.
Sigma says the light is waterproof, but to what extent is not clear. I would therefore not recommend immersing it in water, though it is all-weather proof when cycling.
The light comes with a detacheable steering mount, which is seperatly available on the market if you need a spare. The mounting mechanism to the handlebar is quite unique, using a teeth in groove system for easy detaching. It does not fit correctly over the handlebar tape on dropbars.
The fix to the light itself is solid. You attach the light by sliding it on from the back. I found this somewhat difficult in the dark, it's not easy to attach it on feeling.
Usage.
To turn the light on, press the switch on top 2 times with a short interval. It turns on in low output mode (70 lumens). By pressing it once, it will change it's output to medium (160 lumens) and with another press it goes to high (230 lumens). The lumens information is derived from Sigma itself.
To turn the light off, press and hold the power button for ~2 seconds.
Beamshots:
The main beam starts ~3 meters in front of the light in a narrow oval shape.
I've tried to mimic reality as much as possible with the camera shots.
Low
Medium
High
The Speedster lights up the road very well, near and far. Though the main beam is a bit narrow to my taste. I used it mostly on the low output, I found this to be the most comfortable.
Runtimes
The high and medium outputs seem unusable for long use, a better terminology would be a 'turbo' and 'high' setting, looking at the runtimes and still quite high brightness of the 'low' output.
When the battery reaches 5% charge, the LED will automaticaly step down to the low output.
Low (e.g. standard): 8 hours and 30 minutes.
Medium (e.g. high): 4 hours.
High (e.g. turbo): 2 hours and 20 minutes.
Weight
including mounting bracket: 183 grams
Verdict:
Pros: usable non-blinding beam profile, stVZO compliant, cooling of the LED, weatherproof, sturdy feeling, nice design, quality mounting mechanism, USB rechargeable, package includes USB mains adapter.
Mediocre: runtimes, no replaceable battery.
Cons: too big, too heavy (for what it is), distracting battery indicator LED's. Not advisable for dropbars with tape.
I give it a score of: 6 out of 10.
I hope the review was usefull, let me know what you think about it. :santa:
Cheers,
Flyingtest
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