Got the privilege of getting the pre-production sample to test, torture, and review. Found only 2 flaws. Pwm frequency is too low and rear door latch could prove problematic down the road. Both have been addressed and fixed for production units.
But we have discussed similar lights and their short comings. Self contained meant lacking output especially in USB chargeable. Some can or can’t be removed easily via a slide lock on the bar mount so light could be used as a flashlight as needed. USB chargeable usually meant can’t change cells.
Wiz20 1500lumen (claimed, actual appears pretty close, no sphere yet though)
-USB chargeable via bottom port. But rear door opens to be able to change cells. Light available with or without cells, $99 or $129. Runs at 8.4v with emitters in series, over 2 hr run time, on my used LG 3200mah Keeppower cells I got 2:26 before cut off.
-user programmable driver. 2 or 3 mode UI with hidden mode. Normal modes programmable 10-100% in 10% increments. Hidden mode is programmable from default 5% solid or choice of 4 flash styles. My favorite is 50% solid with a 100% flash about 1 second intervals.
-mount is qr style bar mount with light head also on slide lock for quick on and off the bars for torch use.
-optics are easily available from leddna and fasttech if you want a wider beam pattern. Stock is 10deg optics.
-simple small button on top that’s blue from 100-20%, red after that. Red is about when it drops out of regulation. Not blinding, honestly not noticeable during use instead of fenix and their big display.
This isn’t your normal “manufacturer”, quality is top notch, they want to know what the market wants, and get it done without being over priced. They are very active on MTBR and getting help from several of us “light geeks”.
Enough “talk” let the videos really do the talking. But I will say, I dont like self contained lights…well didn’t till this, my bc30r is just buried on my shelf cause I grab this light for any riding I do.
Here’s the ride video. Sadly one camera doesn’t do as well on auto as other 2 after dark, didn’t have time redo the first half of the video so all 3 show the tint correctly.
One thing that’s always a pain is winter time and li-ion cells. They don’t like the cold. And I noticed on my last ride my helmet light was being effected by the end of the ride. Acting as if cells were almost dead, though they shouldn’t have been anywhere close. Wiz29 never exhibited this behavior. Realized being as I had been running the Wiz20 on high the entire time that it was generating enough heat to keep cells from bring effected by the cold temps. When I got back home and came back to check cells in both the wiz20 and for my yinding on the lid, voltage the yindings pack was only .15 volts lower. 7.46v and 7.61v. But my yinding was acting “dead” lol. The Fenix case doesn’t feel them warm for more than about 20 minutes…
So found a nice upside to a good output, self contained light. They keep the cells “warm” in winter conditions.
Thanks for the review. I am considering this or the yinding. Which do you prefer? Also, being self contained, does the weight of the light caus eit to bounce around on the handlebars at all?
Do you have any other suggestions for bike lights that could work on road and off road?
No the weight isn’t an issue at all. Really not that heavy.
Theirs a massive list of options for lights. But this is the best self contained, USB light that’s not way over priced. Especially when it’s not fully self contained, the cells can be changed at will instead of the light being junk once the cells wear out.
That said, sharing a bit of “inside info” these will be available in the US (as in selling/shipped from, with full service and warranty support) later this month. So no having to weight to arrive from overseas, none of that for spare parts or warranty service. All will be handled at one US based location.
Thanks for pointing that out, Ituo has STRICT MAP (think fenix level rules). Dont think Ituo is going to be happy about that.
And I know for a fact they dont have them in stock either. Wiz20 wont be ready for about a week at least. And wiz1/2 are a few weeks out I beleive (soemthing about an updated version I guess)
Oh and got the info for the US location. There is an online dealer in the US but the full “US location” is www.ituolights.com. Guess well find out when exactly that will all become available. Hopefully soon.
First is the issues I saw in the first version are gone. Much better rear door design. First one worked fine but a crash or something could have caused it to pop open. This works much better IMHO (ill get pictures loaded in a bit, having issues getting them uploaded)
Second big one is they fixed the PWM issue. Could see it really bad in any mode besides 100% ON CAMERA ONLY. Nothing at all now regardless of frame rate.
Also, learned what cells are included as the updated version came with them. Ituo branded sticker but they are Panasonic NCR18650BE 3200mah Protected cells. Shocked to hear that one. They definitely didnt skimp on quality.
I have both the original and new version. Original is still going like brand new even though I have abused the crap out of it. Mud, snow, rain, crashing in the snow none of it bothered it in the least. Loved it for cold weather riding as on high it was still generating enough heat to keep the cells from getting overly cold. Got some optics from LEDDNA that I tired in this light to get a wider beam pattern. I like it a lot that way. 45 or 60deg optics (depending on where Im riding)is nice since i use a helmet light with about the same output.
Now for the information everyone likes, the lower prices. Pricing limited to the US only at the moment (some promotional deal for their US location):
Just FYI this isn’t a flashlight. The $100 price includes 2 Panasonic cells. And this isn’t some cheap, hope it works for more than a day, stuff from China.
There is cheaper (but much lower quality) and more expensive (by far) lights out there. Like anything have to decide if functionality and reliability/quality matter more than saving a few dollars.
From my perspective you can do good with the right cheap flashlights. But for bike lights it’d a total crap shoot when you try to be cheap. I won’t ever buy cheap lights for my bikes again after having this and now a set of gloworm lights. Just not work the risk, hassle, and poor performance. Thankfully here helps you build amazing flashlights for cheap. Bike lights on the other hand…