Has anyone bought one of the new Planet X lights? I’ve seen them suggested in a couple of light threads, but no direct review. They look good and seem a good all-in-one light for winter use on the gravel bike with limited off road content / MTB backup. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who’s actually used one. In particular:

How’s the beam spread? Is it reasonably flat with a central pool, or is it going to blind oncoming traffic?

How sturdy is the bracket? From the look of it, I’m not sure if it’s going to be sturdy enough for off-road use, or if it’s going to end up shaking loose and need frequent adjustment.

Bonus points if anyone’s actually done a back-to-back comparison with the visually similar units available from popular auction sites and can confirm whether the Planet X ones are brighter / longer run time / better finished.

Depending on what you’re coming from it’s either brilliant not not that good.

I have one but it’s going back, as it isn’t as bright as my Evolva X8’s – the 1st gen ones with the crappy mount and tripod thread in the bottom. It’s not as heavy and I haven’t tested the claims on battery life (X8’s allege 4h on full)

The Bobby 30W is supposedly 3000Lm – in a side-by-side with an X8 in a darkened room, even on mid setting, the X8 (supposed 1200Lm for 1st gen) seems brighter, and on full, it’s way brighter.

Beam pattern-wise, they look similar at 5m as a round spot, rather than elliptical. I know this isn’t an ideal test and won’t tell you if it’ll blind oncoming traffic, but I don’t want to take it out on the trail and muck it up if I’m returning it.

As for the bracket, there’s a plastic dovetail wedge on the bottom secured by 2 screws. This slides into the bar mount which tightens with a thumbscrew and will fit std, 31.8mm (and possibly 35mm without a rubber sleeve) bars. One of the reasons for it’s return is that I prefer the tripod-thread mounts as they are easy to get GoPro adaptors for and fit on my Super 2R.

Ultimately, for me, it’s not as good as the X8 (which is really good for £40-60 depending on branding on Amazon), but I think it would certainly do as a gravel bike light.

I now have various reflectors/collimators from LEDDNA on the way to try and get more of a flood from the X8’s

Interesting, ive been looking for a new front light for the road bike as it doesn’t seem to play nicely with the normal battery in a pouch mtb lights

Brant, Brant, Brant, can you find a stvzo version in a catalogue?

Thanks, @teethgrinder, just the sort of thing I wanted to know!

Interested in the LEDDNA site, I might try some experiments with my “main” light (a Solarstorm X2) to see if I can improve the beam spread if it looks like I could swap out the reflectors.

Mine should be delivered this week – bought as a back up as my ageing Maxx D seems to be dying. Had a feeling I might be disappointed but we’ll see, my commute is easy towpath, the off roading is very gentle as well

Seems to be a rebadged Bx2/bx3 light? I think mtbr have a big thread on chinese leds..
https://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=13867888#poststop

It’s 11.99 here https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1000Lum-Usb-Rechargeable-Built-In-3Modes-Bicycle-Light-Waterproof-Headlight-R5W4/303260241982

Difficult to tell, that’s certainly used to refer to a lot of the visually similar lights, but P-X say the 30W uses XM-L2 LEDs, the only place I can see specify the LEDs in the BX3 (Deal Extreme) says they’re first gen XM-L. Interestingly everywhere selling the BX3 say it has T6 binned LEDs, whereas P-X don’t specify.

So the P-X light could be an updated version and/or built with better LEDs and batteries than the commonly available ones.

The X8 mentioned above seems to be listed on Amazon with XM-L2 U3 LEDs, which should be brighter than the T6, which may explain why @teethgrinder’s is brighter. I’d be surprised if they were sufficiently brighter for two of them to be brighter than 3 slightly lower spec LEDs in the P-X light, without other factors. Mind you, my understanding of any LED taking more than about 50mA is “Magic”…

Picked up the Jobsworth Bobby Dazzler Three Degrees Powerbank 2000 PLUS 300 Lumen light that’s on off for £20 and pretty impressed with the build quality and cob light haven’t been out on a ride yet but will hopefully be this week. The only thing that looks weak is the mount which I thought would be. Anyone recommend a helmet light for around £50 cheers.

Thanks darkside, I’ve been considering that model – let us know how it is when you’ve ridden with it a few times.

Just test rode the two of the Bobby Dazzler Three Degrees 2000 (with COB).

Full power for an hour an a half on local XC trails – perfectly bright enough and Torchy (ebay) is selling these for 50% more, but his tests show about 600 lumen on full.

I think that’s right for the lumen, as I have brighter lights (C&B Seen City Slicker) that’s very powerful, and a big 4x Solar Storm (that eats batteries).

I switched to low on a couple of short road sections. Handy thing is the light can quickly be rotated to the side – handy when you have on-coming bikes or walkers, but still want to see, but not blind the on-coming rider (although the two last night didn’t lower their lights).

The COB is useful for trail fixing at night, and camping, but don’t go switching through the modes in pitch black – you’ll get an eye full. I switch on, one press to go to low mode if needed. One long press to go off, then another long press to go high.

As for vibration and staying put, yep no issues, no bouncing around, and despite being plastic, no worries with the under part of the case, and this was on my old rigid 90’s MTB.

These will be fine for grab and go, all in one units. If you are on techy trails, then I’d add in a helmet light and maybe a bigger light for high speed descents.

Unfortunately Planet X no longer sell them. I was waiting for stock and got an email saying they won’t get any more in.
Shame, it seems like they were good versatile lights.

I have a 30 and a 20 and I’m not very impressed. There’s no way the 30 is 3000lm. Not knocking px lights in general as I have a hubble which is great. I just don’t rate these ones.

As above, bought the 30 as a backup light/for guests -its OK, but maybe not even 1000lm, certainly not 3000.

Still, it’s a nice self contained unit, a good enough for off road riding in combo with a helmet light.

I’m not an no-one basher I have loads of their stuff but I used the 20w one for the first time last night and wasn’t impressed as an off road light Not that bright, I couldn’t get the bracket tight. I was also blinded a couple of times by the cob light cycling through the modes. Thanks for the tip on the long press. Plus one off the screws fell out so I had to gaffer tape it together. I’ll probably bang it on the commmuter.

However It does make a great camping torch I took it away a few weeks used it all evening as a torch and used the cob light to light up a wider area when we were back at camp then charged my phone with it overnight. It was spot on.

One the other hand I’ve been quite impressed with the freebie that came with the LED helmet. Going to keep in my bag as an emergency back up.

I’ve had the 30w one now for a couple of weeks. I’m not blown away, and wouldn’t have it as my main MTB night ride bars light at all, the brightest setting isn’t really bright enough for anything very tech, and the lowest setting (only two settings plus flash) isn’t really bright enough to ride off road at all.

However, it’s nicely made, has a good spread, the bracket works well, is a nice all-in-one unit (rather than separated battery packs & leads, which all my other lights are) … For my gravel-commmuter bike, sometimes taking in unlit cycle paths or sections of urban Singletrack, and paired with a discreet helmet light, it’s been a good buy.