So went out last night with my C&B Seen light.
Got to say I’m very impressed.
Build quality of the lamp unit is pretty good, well made aluminium body. There are threaded caps at both ends, one for the lens and reflector and one for the switch. Both have O-rings and spare O-rings are included in the box. The emitter itself looks solidly mounted and I couldn’t find any evidence of swarf or metal shavings from manufacture left inside the light.
The handlebar clamp is a bit snide. There is a plastic semi circle on the base of the lamp unit which you fasten using a rubber strap.
However you can unscrew this mount and use a Hope bar clamp instead – instant upgrade!
In use the light is very bright and has excellent throw. I’m not sure if it reaches the claimed 1200 lumens but its substantially brighter than my old Hope HID which was rated at 600 lumens.
Its a bit spotty, there is a very definite bright centre to the light pattern but the spill is still easily bright enough to be useful. I wouldn’t use it as a bar light on its own except on relatively straight trails – but then I wouldn’t rely on any light on its own for technical trails.
Battery life is shown from the glow on the switch. It glows green when the battery is full or almost full – blue as it runs down and then red if you are about to run out of battery. I rode for 90 minutes last night and the light was still blue.
Downsides – The way you change modes on the light is a bit of a PITA. It has 4 modes – High – Low – Fast Flash – Slow Flash. When you first switch the light on you can cycle through the modes with a press on the switch. But after five seconds the next press on the switch turns the light off. So if you have been riding along in high mode and want to switch to low you have to switch the light off, then cycle to the correct mode. Not ideal if you want to go from low to high on a tricky bit of trail. So after farting about with it I just left it on high!
Overall though I’m very impressed with it. Seriously it was £40! one on you bars and one on you helmet would be a pretty good lighting set up with change from £100. I’m seriously considering buying another.