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Most folks who purchase light systems for bikes do so with the intent of doing either night time trail rides or 24 hour races, or so it seems. My needs were much simpler than that. It had been my intent to utilize this light system during the dark riding hours of my planned winter commute. Alas this enterprise never really got off the ground. The weather and a winter of non-stop colds conspired to dash my plans, thus saving me from myself, and coincidentally delaying the test of this product.
I had charged the batteries according to the instructions and then I brought the light system into the office in New York with the intent to ride home under it's illumination. Well it never happened. What did happen, is that several weeks later, (two months later really) I grabbed the system tossed it into my backpack and dragged it home. We had scheduled a test ride with other light systems as well.
What surprised me was the fact that lying dormant for those two months, the batteries had lost a minimal percentage of their charge. I would actually estimate less than 10%. This signifies a very high quality battery pack. I was impressed. I put the system back on charge to ready it for our test ride Saturday night. Torrential rains were predicted so we were psyched!
Proving to be no disappointment, Saturday night was a disaster weatherwise. The rainfall was measured in inches rather than fractions of an inch and we were out in it playing with mountain bikes, puddles, and lighting systems. The 10 watt Planet Bike System worked flawlessly. Plenty bright for my purposes, it provided adequate light for the road and oncoming traffic as well. Undaunted by the weather, all of the weatherproof switches functioned just fine and the system as a whole seemed no worse for wear after the experience.
The runtime test would wait for another evening. Fully recharged the modest little Planet Bike system was to be pitted against a Marwi two light system in a brutal side-by-side run time test scheduled for one of our regular work nights. We mounted the two lighting systems on chair backs and aimed them at a wall on Dan's porch. Now we are generally not partial to any particular products here or there, but... Dan was clearly rooting for his MArwi and I had nothing but quiet confidence in my Planet Bike! To make a long story (ah forget it, I can't write a short story)... The 25 watt Marwi had great coverage and with both lights burning, it clearly out shown the 10 watts of the Planet bike, but the battery pack on the Marwi was the size of a water bottle (it is literally shaped the same and fits into a water bottle cage on the frame) the Planet bike's pack is not much larger that a cell phone. Lighter and more compact you can literally toss the battery into a jersey pocket if you want and not notice it being there.
The lights shown on into the night for well over an hour and 40 minutes, but after that time Marwi lost it's glow and shut down (well over the "rated run time"). The planet bike was still going strong. I shut it off so I would have light for my bike journey home after our work session.
The little Planet Bike illuminated my return journey without incident and with more that adequate brightness. I sat down in my chair at home to catch some tube time and I left the light burning through the remainder of whatever mindless drivel I watched and it continued well into the 11:00 o'clock news when it finally extinguished itself without my notice. The last time I noted the light burning was well after a 2 hour and ten minute burn time! The little bugger is terrific! I recommend it without reservation as a basic light system for a road rider! (you might want a brighter system for rough terrain, but I have used this light on easy trails without any shortcomings, but I ride trails slowly).
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