FW3A, a TLF/BLF EDC flashlight - SST-20 available, coupon codes public

Hm, I never sliced a LED

Q: djozz from here

Off white desk, greenish background to the left and grey to the right.

Camera set to 4500k manual settings for both shots. That gum is over a couple years.

Definitely good to hear no matter the LED (A and D are definitely my preference)

IMO, lights that use FET drivers make poor choices for bike lights. I used to use a BLF A6 that uses a FET+1 driver, but in any bright mode (more than about 150 lumens) it dims as the battery drains. I know the FW3A is supposed to use more 7135 chips, but I don’t believe it will maintain constant output. All my Convoys that use 8x7135 chips, still dim significantly as the battery voltage goes down. Not as bad as FET, but still very noticeable. Maybe the FW3A will do things better than Convoy, but I wouldn’t rely on that.

I now use a Zebralight SC600w MkIV Plus as my bike light. I normally use it at 700 lumens, and that will provide me a regulated 700 lumen output for almost 3 hours (using a Sanyo GA cell). If I go up to 2300 lumens, it will go up that high, regardless of the battery voltage. And when going downhill on gravel or dirt, I want that full 2300 lumens.

You need a light with a good boost driver if you want regulated output. For me, that’s very important when cycling. I don’t want to start out at 700 lumens, only to have it gradually dim to 400 lumens over my ride.

Please add me for 2. Thanks.

Please add me for 2. Th
anks.

In UK/EU there are strict regulations about bike lights and reflectors, the German ones being the tightest.

They have been drawn up for good reason, with a lot of study. We ride bikes a lot more than in some other regions and have some experience of how to do it properly, on the road, mixed with faster transport.

If you don’t have at least a legal front and rear light with certification markings, and a full set of reflectors including pedals, then get wiped out by a motor vehicle, the insurers will probably persuade the court to reduce compensation by 50%

Other EU countries have a blanket policy, any such collision is always the drivers fault, no matter how stupidly the cyclist has behaved.

My point being that an A6 or FW3A is never going to be a suitable cycle light. Fundamental point, it doesn’t emit anything 90 degrees sideways, crucial to avoid side-road car main-road bike collisions (sorry mate, I didn’t see you as we say).

And the A6 etc. bikelight flashy mode is illegal here (detail: “The 2005 RVLR amendment meant that it was now legal to have a flashing light on a pedal cycle, provided it flashed between 60 and 240 times per minute (1 – 4Hz).”

To protect photosensitive epileptics.

I was sent a couple of extreme power “bike lights” by Thorfire to evaluate, but had to explain to them that whilst great for off-road, they would never be legal on-road anywhere in UK/EU, and they would have to get suitable certification. They were really good, but that project never went further.

But they would be suitable off road.

The German regulations require that bikes use lights powered by a dynamo rather than a battery, unless the bike is under a certain weight and presumably for racing. They also require that the dynamo output 6 volts, which is oddly specific. I’m not sure these regulations are actually all that well-considered.

I do think a bike light for on-road use should have suitable optics, usually with hard cutoffs. The 10511 is absolutely not that. The 10510 elliptical optic might work OK for a bike light. Time spent in regulation with 7135s depends on forward voltage, which is lower for the same output with a triple. Of the possible emitters, the 219C has the lowest forward voltage.

Of course they were (and I enjoy them), but not appropriate for road-use and never going to be certified.

Limited market here, riding off-road at night ? Few bike shops would carry them without certification, even “under the counter”.

In UK you can have them (or anything) on you’re bike as long as you also have legal lights for on the road.

The UI was not suitable, just a circular cycle, so if using them on the road it took multiple button presses to dim them down or turn off. Not what you want to be doing when trying not to dazzle oncoming, and keep your hands on the handlebars and brake levers. Whilst riding fast.

Great off-road, but that’s specialist. The fashion here is MAMIL (middle aged men (or matrons) in Lycra, on sport road bikes. They don’t usually ride in the dark.

And ultra-light, just the bare minimum legal stuff, with a couple of tiny lights in case you get caught-out. Plus a GoPro on your helmet to record any bad behaviour by motorists. Motorists have dashcams too, for similar reasons.

Other EU countries use bikes for everyday transport, quite different, I wish we could reach that stage soon.

Please sign me up for one light.

Thanks to everyone who worked on this light!

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Apologies, I’m sorry.
I need to edit list.
Greetings.

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Would like to be added on list for 1, if still available. :slight_smile:

From the first post

Have the prototypes an AR coating? If the FW3A gets the 90CRI Samsung it would be better without, or?

It is indeed quite different over here (densest cycling country in the world, on average 1.3 bicycle per person).

In the early nineties at least in the cities despite the rules no-one had any lighting on their bike and enforcement of the law was sporadic. Then those 5mm led lights came on the market, and although the output of those early leds was very weak and did not comply to the official requirements for bicycle lighting, the government was very pragmatic about it: little light was better than no light, so strategic checkpoints were setup by the police and cyclists with no light got expensive fines by the mass unless on the spot cheap led lighting (that still did not comply to the rules) was bought straight from the police :party: . The result was that within two years most cyclists in the cities actually used front and rear lights and were at least somewhat visible in traffic. Since then, led lighting for bicycles has improved immensely, and because cyclists are now used to the habit of using lights on their bikes, most have adapted the better quality lighting too (and many still use the 1-led dangling mini-lights with almost depleted 2032 batteries).

So over here the law is clear about minimum requirements for bicycle lighting, but the law is not enforced: anything that produces a minute amount of light, as long as the front light is white and the rear light is red, is fine.

Why am I not surprised?

Still not surprised…

Sign me up for one light.

Thanks for your work… :+1:

So the right hand side (4000K) photo looks more accurate to me.

An Xrite Colour-Checker might be another way to make comparisons that any BLFer could reproduce.

Cheap clones are available.

A colour checker would at least free us from endless quoted mentos pictures :person_facepalming: