[REVIEW} Lumintop B01 Bike Light

A Bike Light that takes 18650 and 21700 batteries.
I got this from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FDK43X7

When it was on sale for $19.99 – Thanks to the Amazon Deals thread!
It arrived in an Amazon box. Strangely it did not have the typical battery warning label on the outside like other battery included lights I have purchased.

The Instructions state that there is a 30 day free repair/replacement, 5 year free repair, and lifetime fix for coat of parts.

The light is IP68, 2 meters. “Designed with German standard, reduce the hazard of glare to oncoming people and traffic.”

The Lumintop box is quite nice and sturdy. Inside we find the light, Instructions, Spare O-Rings, 18650 battery (inside the flashlight), 21700 to 18650 adaptor, Handlebar mount, and the ever present lanyard.

The battery states it is a 2600mAh cell. Kind of wimpy in this day and age. Wonder if it’s an older battery re-wrapped. It came with a plastic disk to prevent discharge. The battery was setting at 3.58v out of the box. So a good voltage for long term resting.

The light measures:
Length: 115.3mm, 4.54”
Head: 37mm. 1.46”
Switch area: 33.4, 1.31”
Body: 25.49mm, 1.004”
Tail Cap: 27mm, 1.06”
Length of Body Tube between head and tail cap: 54.6mm, 2.15”
Weight with 18650: 4.8oz
Weight with 21700: 5.3oz
Reflector window size: 17.8mm (.7”) x 31.5mm (1.24”)

Compared to the Convoy S21 and Sofirn C8G

The tail cap has anodized square cut threads. So a quarter turn or so will give a mechanical lockout. It was lubed out of the box and there was no binding.
The spring is not very heavy duty but this is not a high power light so that makes little difference.

Looking down the rabbit hole - there is a spring contact.

The E-Switch is sticks out a bit. The Bunny is illuminated when the light is off. Good deal. Makes finding the switch in the dark easy to do. The Bunny goes dark when the light is on. I wish it was on all the time.

The front of the light shows a non-typical LED mounting and reflector. The LED is mounted in the top of an oval shaped reflector. The LED faces down.
The reflector is faceted to control the beam pattern.

The UI
The UI is simple (as a bike like should be). The UI has memory.
From off – Click to go to the last brightness mode (not including Turbo or Blinkies).
While on – Click to change cycle through the brightness modes. Low, Med., High.
From On – Press and hold to turn off the light (from any mode).
From on - Double Click for Turbo
From Turbo – Single click to return to last mode.
From Off – Press and hold for Strobe.
From Strobe – Click to change from Strobe to SOS.
Lockout – Press and hold switch for 5 seconds.

Measurements:
The Battery

The 2600mAh battery tested to: 2807mAh at 500mAh discharge.
The Button Top 18650 is really an 18700. I assume there is a protection circuit built in.
A flat top 18650 is just long enough to make contacts with the springs on each end.

Lumens
Mode: Spec, Measured
Low: 10, 10.7
Medium: 250, 217
High: 450, 453
Turbo: 850, 840 (brief at turn on), 770 – 790 (ANSI depending on battery)
So pretty close to rated specs.

In light Charging

Using the supplied Micro USB cable, The max charge rate was 2.25a for a brief time.
It settled down to 1.9a. The little bunny is red while charging.
The bunny turned blue but the light was still pulling .1a charge rate.
After the charge rate dropped to zero, I pulled the battery. 4.17v – Excellent!
The light got noticeably warm during the higher current charge times.

The Micro USB port cover is seated well into the body. Much less likely to get opened by accident. It’s also a snug fit to keep moisture out.

Beam Pattern
This throws an oval beam that is designed for road use. The wall shot doesn’t show the lower spill well.

On the left is the beam pattern with the light flat in normal operating position.
On the right is a shot with the light sitting sideways. Up is to the left of the image.
Beam Pics

Run Time
The High mode runtime was done using the included 18650 battery
The Turbo runtime was done using a 4000mAh 21700.
You will note in the Specs, the Turbo runtime is almost identical to the High mode runtime.
Both runs were done with fan cooling as this is a bike light after all.
Turbo steps down at 3.5 minutes.

The included 18650 starts dropping off at 2h 5m. The 4000mAh 21700 starts to fade at 3h and ramps down to a little past 3h 55m.

The little bunny starts flashing green when he thinks the battery needs a charge.
Then the light keeps burning at a very low level. The 21700 was still going 13 hours later (dimly). And the Bunny was still flashing green.
I pulled the battery and it was sitting at 2.54v. I wasn’t going to let it discharge further than that.
So it looks like the light does not have low voltage protection.

Current Draw
Off, with the Bunny glowing: 0.09mAh
Low, 0.02a
Medium, 0.4a
High 1.03a
Turbo 2.34a

PWM
A light with crappy PWM is useless as far as I’m concerned. The BL01 has none.
Modes Low through Turbo all is see is a DC offset with some high frequency noise from the driver.

Strobe
The Strobe runs at the High mode (400+ Lumens) with a spike at the very beginning of the waveform.
It has a frequency of 12.44Hz with a Duty Cycle of 48%.
So basically a steady 12.5Hz on/off pulse.

This is not my favorite. The low freq. strobe is useless to light the way. Other than running during the day time as “Hey See Me Now” type of thing.
I would much rather have something like a steady light with a series of very quick pulses every second or two. This lights the way and still gives something different/strange to attract the attention of motorists.

The Mount
The light clips into the handlebar mount from the top. The mount is adjustable side to side to some extent. The flashlight clip part is attached to the clamp via a single screw. Does not leave me with the greatest confidence of staying put over time.

The Handlebar mount can be cranked down fairly tight. BUT the inside of the strap area is just smooth nylon/plastic. So I don’t expect this to stay put with any great deal of vibration - like for riding a bike.
I think some foam or other kind of sticky (double sided tape?) would make things more permanent.

Impressions
The machining is very good as is the anodizing. The E-Switch is easy to find in the dark. The beam pattern if pointed down keeps the light out of oncoming drivers vision.

At 450ish Lumens it’s not the brightest light for illuminating a trail. For Mtn. biking I’d want to add a helmet light and more Lumens out the front.
For street use a taillight need to be added to the mix.

Still for $20 + tax & Free Shipping - I think it’s a good deal.

All the Best,
Jeff

I have one and you’re right, the mount is slippery because the inside of the strap is so smooth. I’ll probably put a strip of inner tube rubber between it and the bars.

For city cycling, at medium mode or higher it works decently to illuminate where you’re going. The beam has a good span, it illuminates the whole street without wasting lumens in the air.

The one issue I have with the light itself is the press-to-off. It takes over a second of holding for it to shut off. I just unscrew the tailcap when I’m done, as this also locks out the light.

Yeah, the press and hold to turn off gets me too. I always end up just clicking and changing the mode. Then I remember to press and hold.
The replacement light only has a 1600mAh LiPo battery and not easily replaceable.
With a 5000mAh 21700 in there, way more run time.
The current control certainly holds a constant brightness very well.

All the Best,
Jeff

UI sounds a little bit bogus but the hardware is an amazing value at the price you mentioned. I think I paid about $70 for my roughly comparable Fenix BC21. (Edit: fix typo)

Actually, I’ve been thinking about this light for months now. I wanted a real bike light to go with the S2+ ! was gonna mount on the scooter bar for road level close-up views up to the medium distance. I research other lights and researched some more and thought about it somemore. Then the other day, I thought…wait a minute, these are for pedal bikes! With the speeds they go, this light would be just enough. But the thing is I go up to 60KM on the scooter so looks like no BL01 light for me and most likely 2 S2+ on the handlebars instead. Hmmm maybe even a Convoy C8 too. :smiley:

500 lumens is equivalent to an old school car headlamp, so I’m sure this light is plenty bright for your scooter.

It’ll be okay for smooth long stretches of paved roads going at a relaxing pace. I also go off-road, rocky trails, grassy trails, etc where there are no street lights at all. And because I do night riding a lot too, I have to watch for the night critters like coyotes, racoons, bears, cougars etc. I might get the BL01 for the easier going rides but for the other rides, I need all the light I can get. I even have sidelights so I can see hopefully see the critters I know are hiding in the bushes scoping me out. :smiley:

UPDATE: I did it like I said I would. The piece of rubber between strap and bars really does the trick: the contact is much more firm, and eliminated all wobble from mine. Now it stays put through almost anything I’ve put it through… although I don’t hit jumps, so it needs more testing by someone else.

Allow me to post a Beamshot.

I forgot to take a reference photo but it would have been almost pitch black anyway. (Except for the window on the right).

1/13 sec, f1.8, ISO 1250 (Samsung Note 2 Ultra)

My bike has a Busch+Müller Lumotec Eyc Plus.

I do mostly city riding and i keep the B01 always mounted. It just has a better beam pattern and is definitely brighter than the B+M light.

Using it with a Samsung 50E i get about 2.5-3 hours of usable light. After that it steps down and doesn't feel bright enough anymore.

My handlebar is slightly conic and the mount kept slipping "outwards" pointing anywhere but the road. I used some leftover rubber from a bike tube and that fixed the problem altogether.

I would have bought this light if it came with a 21700, instead of the 18650.

I should also point out that one possible reason why this thread has so little traffic is because the model in the title is wrong. It’s B01, not BL01.

Mini review:

Overall, its a very nice bike light for the price. The emitter appears to be 4K tint, which is a bit on the yellow side for my liking while on the move. But that’s just a personal preference. 5K-6K provides better contrast to visually identify targets and terrain, and I find the differences in perception to be quite noticeable while at speed. The beam cut-off and oval beam pattern is perfect for urban riders wishing to avoid blinding oncoming traffic and I highly recommend it. An additional benefit of the wide beam pattern is that is offers adequate side illumination to hopefully grab the attention of inattentive traffic. The visual difference between high and turbo modes are negligible, so I run mine in high mode. Turbo mode generates a lot more heat while greatly reducing run-time. The battery is supported by a spring to each end, which kept the cell firmly in contact while traversing rough terrain. This kept the light from flickering and changing modes under extreme vibration/high G impact loads.

For areas without traffic, a C8 or similar offers better throw and a narrower beam with marginal spill for side illumination. For redundancy and to become more conspicuous, I always travel with 2 lights on my handlebars. IMO, this B01 along with a C8 is the perfect versatile budget light combination for bicycling.

BTW, my main bike light is a modified SRK (3 x XM-L2 @5A to each emitter), with a DIY remote cell pack using 12P x 18650 cells. Once heated up, I get about 3600 continuous lumens. But I still keep a secondary light illuminated for when the SRK goes down. It doesn’t happen often. But when it does, its always at the worst possible moment!

I have put an elliptical lens in my S21A SST-40 6500k.
Brilliant wide beam with not a lot of throw but excellent for urban riding on level 3 or 4.
Using Olight FB-1 bike mount.

Oops…
Just Fixed it.
Thanks,
All the Best,
Jeff

Amazon link is now dead.

Unfortunately they have replaced it with an all in one design that runs on an internal LiPo that is 1600mAh
Not changeable.
Slicker design. But not as versatile.
All the Best,
Jeff

Ew.

Wellp, I’m glad I got mines when I had the chance.

They seem to have their own store on AliExpress but now $42 CDN!

Lumintop B01 bicycle flashlight

Looks like it’s been upgraded to Type-C charging, and it comes with a 21700 cell instead of an 18650 like before.