has anyobe tried the 500 as a head torch yet? i`m tempted i do tend to like my head torch to be more powerful tham bars though (super twisty singletrack here)
I picked up a 500 and a 1600 the other day to replace some cheap non-branded ebay crap I got end of last year.
Rode Penhydd on Tuesday night in the worst conditions I think I’ve ever encountered on a night ride, probably top-10 for rides of any time too. Rain and fog meant viability was at 3 metres even with my lights and my mates Exposure Six Pack at full tilt.
Anyway, once the fog cleared it was a nice pairing, the 500 was light enough not to give me a stiff neck and the Bikehut helmet mount (sold separately £5) stopped it bouncing about and gave enough light for berms n’ that. The 1600 is probably about as bright as the ‘10000 Lm’ 7 lap Chinese one I ditched for it, better spread and better light ‘colour’ the 10k one is very white, almost blue and makes for very sharp shadows making the trail harder to read than the softer, more yellow bike hut one.
The functions don’t bother me, the 1600 has a separate on/off button and the 500 you need to hold down the button to turn it off/on – I only run full power anyway. I think it took about 2 hours to complete because of conditions and even with the lights on full to help see get ready / change etc they were still showing 1hr left on 500 and 2hrs left on 1600, don’t know how accurate that was.
The only downside was the out in front mount was pretty crap – it’s hard to fit with using Geoff Capes strength hands and however much I tightened the GoPro style knob, it slipped, the plastic feels like the sort of ‘self lubricating’ stuff you get bushes made from, I’ll try the rubber strap next.