Review of Blackburn Voyager 4.0 Luxeon Bicycle Headlight

Blackburn Voyager 4.0 Luxeon Bicycle Headlight
By: Blackburn Average Rating: 3.5 Total Reviews: 4
More Information

Close to perfect

On: 2008-06-29

Except for the rather useless side lights that waste energy, this is a very nice system. I love the fact that this system uses generic AA batteries, and since the similar rechargeable system is a NiMh system (vs a lithium battery system), you are much better off buying this light and 4 DuraCell 2,650 NiMh AA batteries for $10.
Rechargeable NiMH Batteries, 2650mAH, AA size, 8 batteries per pack DC1500

Not only will you then have a more powerful battery system, (which you can upgrade over time) but you can buy a general-purpose charger and those batteries for less than the price difference AND power this light with "Joes Bait & Tackle" AA cells (sold at any wide spot in the road in the developed world) in a pinch. The same AA batteries will also power your camera, camp lights, radios etc. Proprietary battery systems are to be avoided at all costs.
La Crosse Technology BC700 Alpha Power Battery Charger

I think its possible to snip one of the "legs" of the side LEDs to disable them, and thereby keep them from wasting energy. In their place I plan to use a 2nd flashing Fi:zik seat-mount red light which runs on 2032 button cell batteries.
Fizik Blin:k Bicycle Tail Light w/Integrated Clip - Silver - F1702601

I then have a backup for my rear light and the spare button cells I carry for my wireless Sigma computer, speed sensor, cadence sensor and rear light can go in that light as well. Just use some electrical tape or a zip-tie to attach it to the top or bottom of this light.

Too Good to be True

On: 2008-01-16

It seemed odd that the Amazon price ($44.99)was 1/2 of Bike Nashbars ($99.95) for this item, but I figured Amazon has some sort of bulk discount purchasing, so I ordered despite the 3-6 week wait time. A few days later an email from Amazon told me my item has had been shipped. Wow, I thought, I really got a deal on this! However when the package arrived and I opened it up it made sense why the price was so low. Despite explicitly describing the rechargable version on the website, Amazon shipped the standard version with no recharger and disposable batteries. A lenghty conversation with an Amazon representative on the Indian subcontinent ensued. She was nice enough about the whole thing, but save yourself the trouble and order through Nashbar and get what you are looking for.

Too Good to be True

On: 2008-01-15

It seemed odd that the Amazon price ($44.99)was 1/2 of Bike Nashbars ($99.95) for this item, but I figured Amazon has some sort of bulk discount purchasing, so I ordered despite the 3-6 week wait time. A few days later an email from Amazon told me my item has had been shipped. Wow, I thought, I really got a deal on this! However when the package arrived and I opened it up it made sense why the price was so low. Despite explicitly describing the rechargable version on the website, Amazon shipped the standard version with no recharger and disposable batteries. A lenghty conversation with an Amazon representative on the Indian subcontinent ensued. She was nice enough about the whole thing, but save yourself the trouble and order through Nashbar and get what you are looking for.

The low powered cyclop has arrived

On: 2007-11-29

Safety is everything when youre in the dark, and require any light to get out of danger.

Headlights in comparison:
- Blackburn X3.
- Generic 5 LEDs torches
- Luxeon 2 LEDs custom mount flashlights

Adaptive Design:
The light can be mounted on virtually all bike handle bars. I have a custom hybrid road bike, my wife is a Sidewinder FX mountain, my 8 year old sons is BMX, and my little 1 year old is a Schwinn Mark III trailer. The quick release handle bar mount accommodate a handle bar tube as small as 1/4 inch, up to 1.75 inches. This is practically the sizes for 99% of the bikes handle bar tubes and trailers frames. The cool thing is, the mount also has an adjustable side-to-side angle for your light. Its perfect when you need a quick adjustment on your light beam from left, to right, and back to center, based on your travel path. If you need a quick use of the light as a flash light, the mount allows you to quickly remove the light by squeezing in the V-clip, and slide forward for a fast dismount.

Visibility:
- Morning hours: At dawn, with just a crack of sunlight in the horizon, your light only gives you enough lumen to see about 5 feet away. But, to motorists, your light is bright enough to be seen at 1/2 mile away.

- Night hours: When the sun starts to sink into the horizon, your visibility increases significantly. If theres still some light before dusk, you still able to see about 7 feet in front of you, and you can be spotted at 1/2 miles away. When theres no light left, and all you have are street lights, you can see about 10 feet in front of you, quite clearly, within a 3 feet spot light circle. The halo around your spot light (4 feet in each direction) gives you enough light to see obstructions, but not enough to clearly identify the obstruction, such as a log, or a shredded tire piece. You can bet you can be seen by motorists up to 1mile away. In total darkness, you can see 15 feet in front of you within the 3 feet spot light circle, and the halo around the spot light area can be seen quite clearly to identify everything, down to a 1 inch bolt. Youre now can be seen as far as 1.5 miles away at level ground, and as bright as a motorcylists headlight. When the vehicle is close by, the LEDs can be quite blinding. If you mount the light onto your head with a helmet mount, you bet you can temporarily blind the drivers, like I have. There are passengers screaming out indicating that the LEDs are way too bright, and drivers honking horns to tell us to crank the brightness down. Sorry, cant do that. Our safety goes above the irritation the drivers may have.

In comparison with the Blackburn X3 (2.3 watts and uses tons of power), this 1watt (powered by 4 AA-batteries) gives enough light to get you through the dark nights, or a fraction of the price. Combine with the X3, or another Voyager 4, you can light up the roads regardless of how much street lights are on, and how bright they are. Rather than spending hundreds on the expensive lights, the Voyager 4 can act as your first 10 feet supporting light on your handle bar, and your X3 helmet mounted light can act as your mid and long range spot light. In combination, these two lights illuminate my paths on my long commutes.

If youre going into dark trails or riding downhill faster than 15 mph, using only this light, you will outrun the light. This only gives you a good visibility of 15 feet ahead of you if you travel at 10 to 15 mph. You need to use this in combination with a good spot light for a far forward visibility. X3 is a good combo, since it only cost $60, rather than the $150+ for the X6 system, or the more expensive LEDs and Halogen/HID systems. This will give you the effective 20+ feet of illuminated path for less than $100, and you can max your speed out at 40 mph like I do with my road bike down the hills.

Side marker LEDs:
There are two yellow blinking LEDs that acts as side markers. These proves to be useless on all levels. Theyre not bright enough as effective visible markers, and theyre draining the batteries for nothing.

Power usages:
There are three settings and three level of power usages:
- Solid highest brightness: The LEDs are on continually. The power usage at this state will eat up your Duracel batteries within 4 hours, and rechargeable NiMH within 3.5 hours.

- Solid medium: The LEDs are on continually, but the brightness is reduced by half. The power usage at this state will eat up your Duracel batteries within 6 hours, and rechargeable NiMH within 5 hours.

- Steady fast blinking: The power usage at this state will eat up your Duracel batteries within 8 hours, and rechargeable NiMH within 7.5 hours.

If you use your light on and off, an hour or two each day, you can go as long as 9 hours for the solid light, or as long as 13 hours on blinking mode. Just be warned, when the batteries reaches the 1/2 way point of power spent, the LEDs will automatically dim to solid medium brightness strength to conserve power until the batteries are drained completely. The trick is to use the lights in blinking mode, which utilizes the highest power level or maximum brightness. The only annoyance is the blinking.

Durability:
The shell is nothing to laugh about. Although the batteries is housed in a twistable housing shell, the shell will not snap or fall apart on accidental drops. The shell survives so many of our three to 5 feet falls, onto hard concrete while we prepare for our trips, and launches from our mounts on quick stops because we did not ensure proper mounting attachment onto the mount. There are minor nicks and scratches because of the harsh surfaces, but the brightness remain the same regardless.

Overview:
If I have to invest in an effective headlight that doesnt break the bank to shine my path, this is it. Not only its inexpensive, but its a versatile to have on any equipment for good visibility in the dark. A couple of these strapped to your handle bar and helmet, and youre set to venture the highways and byways of the modern day. My suggestion is to use a combination of strong spot light (such as the Blackburn X3), in combination with this light acting as a flood light. With this combination, you cant outrun your light combos.

The low powered cyclop has arrived

On: 2007-11-28

Safety is everything when youre in the dark, and require any light to get out of danger.

Headlights in comparison:
- Blackburn X3.
- Generic 5 LEDs torches
- Luxeon 2 LEDs custom mount flashlights

Adaptive Design:
The light can be mounted on virtually all bike handle bars. I have a custom hybrid road bike, my wife is a Sidewinder FX mountain, my 8 year old sons is BMX, and my little 1 year old is a Schwinn Mark III trailer. The quick release handle bar mount accommodate a handle bar tube as small as 1/4 inch, up to 1.75 inches. This is practically the sizes for 99% of the bikes handle bar tubes and trailers frames. The cool thing is, the mount also has an adjustable side-to-side angle for your light. Its perfect when you need a quick adjustment on your light beam from left, to right, and back to center, based on your travel path. If you need a quick use of the light as a flash light, the mount allows you to quickly remove the light by squeezing in the V-clip, and slide forward for a fast dismount.

Visibility:
- Morning hours: At dawn, with just a crack of sunlight in the horizon, your light only gives you enough lumen to see about 5 feet away. But, to motorists, your light is bright enough to be seen at 1/2 mile away.

- Night hours: When the sun starts to sink into the horizon, your visibility increases significantly. If theres still some light before dusk, you still able to see about 7 feet in front of you, and you can be spotted at 1/2 miles away. When theres no light left, and all you have are street lights, you can see about 10 feet in front of you, quite clearly, within a 3 feet spot light circle. The halo around your spot light (4 feet in each direction) gives you enough light to see obstructions, but not enough to clearly identify the obstruction, such as a log, or a shredded tire piece. You can bet you can be seen by motorists up to 1mile away. In total darkness, you can see 15 feet in front of you within the 3 feet spot light circle, and the halo around the spot light area can be seen quite clearly to identify everything, down to a 1 inch bolt. Youre now can be seen as far as 1.5 miles away at level ground, and as bright as a motorcylists headlight. When the vehicle is close by, the LEDs can be quite blinding. If you mount the light onto your head with a helmet mount, you bet you can temporarily blind the drivers, like I have. There are passengers screaming out indicating that the LEDs are way too bright, and drivers honking horns to tell us to crank the brightness down. Sorry, cant do that. Our safety goes above the irritation the drivers may have.

In comparison with the Blackburn X3 (2.3 watts and uses tons of power), this 1watt (powered by 4 AA-batteries) gives enough light to get you through the dark nights, or a fraction of the price. Combine with the X3, or another Voyager 4, you can light up the roads regardless of how much street lights are on, and how bright they are. Rather than spending hundreds on the expensive lights, the Voyager 4 can act as your first 10 feet supporting light on your handle bar, and your X3 helmet mounted light can act as your mid and long range spot light. In combination, these two lights illuminate my paths on my long commutes.

If youre going into dark trails or riding downhill faster than 15 mph, using only this light, you will outrun the light. This only gives you a good visibility of 15 feet ahead of you if you travel at 10 to 15 mph. You need to use this in combination with a good spot light for a far forward visibility. X3 is a good combo, since it only cost $60, rather than the $150+ for the X6 system, or the more expensive LEDs and Halogen/HID systems. This will give you the effective 20+ feet of illuminated path for less than $100, and you can max your speed out at 40 mph like I do with my road bike down the hills.

Side marker LEDs:
There are two yellow blinking LEDs that acts as side markers. These proves to be useless on all levels. Theyre not bright enough as effective visible markers, and theyre draining the batteries for nothing.

Power usages:
There are three settings and three level of power usages:
- Solid highest brightness: The LEDs are on continually. The power usage at this state will eat up your Duracel batteries within 4 hours, and rechargeable NiMH within 3.5 hours.

- Solid medium: The LEDs are on continually, but the brightness is reduced by half. The power usage at this state will eat up your Duracel batteries within 6 hours, and rechargeable NiMH within 5 hours.

- Steady fast blinking: The power usage at this state will eat up your Duracel batteries within 8 hours, and rechargeable NiMH within 7.5 hours.

If you use your light on and off, an hour or two each day, you can go as long as 9 hours for the solid light, or as long as 13 hours on blinking mode. Just be warned, when the batteries reaches the 1/2 way point of power spent, the LEDs will automatically dim to solid medium brightness strength to conserve power until the batteries are drained completely. The trick is to use the lights in blinking mode, which utilizes the highest power level or maximum brightness. The only annoyance is the blinking.

Durability:
The shell is nothing to laugh about. Although the batteries is housed in a twistable housing shell, the shell will not snap or fall apart on accidental drops. The shell survives so many of our three to 5 feet falls, onto hard concrete while we prepare for our trips, and launches from our mounts on quick stops because we did not ensure proper mounting attachment onto the mount. There are minor nicks and scratches because of the harsh surfaces, but the brightness remain the same regardless.

Overview:
If I have to invest in an effective headlight that doesnt break the bank to shine my path, this is it. Not only its inexpensive, but its a versatile to have on any equipment for good visibility in the dark. A couple of these strapped to your handle bar and helmet, and youre set to venture the highways and byways of the modern day. My suggestion is to use a combination of strong spot light (such as the Blackburn X3), in combination with this light acting as a flood light. With this combination, you cant outrun your light combos.

Battery is the only problem

On: 2007-07-20

Ill make this as simple as possible:
Pros:
Intense light, people move out of your way before you even get to them.
Good various settings although the yellow flashing things on the side are useless.
Mounts on the bike easily and dismounts just as well.
Price is good.
Cons:
Battery lasts only 4 hours on max setting.
Dont worry, you dont need max setting, trust me.

Im giving it 4 stars because of the battery, i wish i could give 4.8