This is a mini review of the ThorFire BL13, it’s a mini review because I’m only reviewing the light itself rather than it and all of its bits and pieces!
The BL13 is a LED bike light from ThorFire.
The specifications speak for themselves, two Cree LEDs (XM-L2 and XP-G2), 800 lumens in high, 650 lumens in medium and 150 lumens in low. You turn on and cycle through the modes by pressing the button on the back, “medium” (the XM-L2 only), low (the XP-G2 only), “high” (both LEDs), strobe and one more press turns the light off.
At first glance its a familiar form factor, two LEDs shining out of the front, a clamp on the bottom for your handlebars, the switch on the back and an external battery pack.
What you may not notice until you turn it on is that ThorFire have done something a little different with the beam than most other lights. There are two LEDs and they point in slightly different directions. The XM-L2 points straight ahead to light up things in the distance while the beam of the XP-G2 points downwards and lights up things close to you and because the XM-L2 is much more powerful than the XP-G2, you don’t get glare from close up preventing you from seeing what is far away.
On amazon there were 2 other positive reviews but none mentioned the chargers as part of the review, perhaps people are scarred if they give any negative information they might not get any freebies to test.
The charger does not have the proper markings passing safety standards, the battery pack looks suspect without protection circuitry, or strain relief at the cable and the wrapper doesn’t appear to be water tight.
I think the light head itself is a clever idea with two leds, but I’d have to purchase a different charger and battery for my own peace of mind.
This story has been posted about on threads and fourms battery fire
I look at all these inexpensive lights very carefully,
Yes I’m familiar with the dangers of lithium ion cells. You are correct that the charger does not have the required UK safety markings. The battery pack does look very similar to the one in the review, although the battery pack plug connector does not have a screw thread. I was going to give the light away, but the concerns raised sound reasonable. I am aware of the reasons for hard cases for LiIon batteries in cameras and other consumer goods.
Would anything be gained from taking the battery pack apart and posting photos?
mudguts: Are you reviewer ‘light’ on the Amazon UK sale page?
