Review of Knog Blinder rear light

The Knog Blinder is a range of USB rechargeable lights for either the front or rear, with a fantastic selection of colours and LED layouts to choose from. You can have circles, crosses or stripes, or if you fancy lighting your way with a skull, heart or flower then the Blinder is the light for you.

We tested the Standard rear light which comes kitted out with four LED’s in a square pattern and gives out 44 lumens, which in layman’s terms means ‘bright’, with Knog claiming light is visible at over 800 metres.

It would appear that the ‘Blinder’ moniker is spot on then!

Knog Blinder Review – first impressions

The Blinder is a stylish piece of kit – very tactile and feels great in the hand. Weight wise it comes in at 39 grammes, which is heavier that some but does give a sense of solidity. At the front there is a hard wearing anodized aluminium cover that is available in a variety of colours to keep your offspring happy, while the rear is made from tough polycarbonate, with a UV-resistant silicone strap and stainless steel clasp for attaching the light to your bike. It’s good to see that the materials chosen for the Blinder are intended to last, and avoid degradation from the sun and dreaded corrosion!

What, no batteries?

The Blinder is a petite little thing. With a front face measuring 42mm x 42mm it’s the length of an AAA battery, so you wouldn’t get one inside. However, flip it over and there snuggled into the casing is a connector to stick into your computer and get some charge. I’ve successfully plugged it into all ports on two laptops, but if your ports are very low down on the casing, say 6mm between table and bottom of port, then you might struggle. Solution – position near edge of table or something under the laptop feet while charging.

Fitting

Knog advise that it will fit on seatposts ranging from 22mm up to 32mm diameter which covers the majority out there, so unless you have something unusual going on then it should fit fine.

Getting it on the bike is straightforward and involves wrapping the silicone strap around the seatpost, hooking onto the clasp and then snapping it into the closed position. On the test mule, the light felt very secure and could not be budged off line. Another positive is that the light is angled so that the LED’s project their light out towards the traffic and not at the floor.

In use

A single button is used to switch the light on/off, and also for moving through the four flash modes. With the light on steady, Knog claim you should get around 3 hours of light, increasing up to around 50 hours with the mode 4 flash. Switching on requires you to hold the button in a tad longer than you’d expect (0.75 sec), but this is wise move that stops accidental activation. Moving through the modes takes just a tap on the button, while turning off requires a longer push (0.5 sec) to stop you from plunging unexpectedly into darkness.

In the Winter Glove test, the Blinder passed with flying colours due to some clever design, with the area surrounding the button being curved just enough to let a podgy finger find its way to the target.

Wet weather resilience is always towards the top of my list, so I was impressed when the Blinder passed the Soggy Bear test without hitch, and would have endured the torrent of water for much, much longer than the two minutes test condition.

Verdict

As is the norm with Knog products, the Blinder has been designed with the cyclist in mind. Classy looking and well made, it fits securely to the bike and provides a good, strong light that will make other road users aware of your presence.

Where to buy

The Knog Blinder is available either as a single front or rear unit, or as a twin pack from a number of outlets including Chain Reaction Cycles, Wiggle and Rutland Cycling.

 

The Knog Blinder was provided for review.

All articles on: Bike lights, Cycle Sprog review, Knog
Posted November 8th, 2012 by Chris in accessories, equipment tests, lights