BYOB Headlight

This is a great light! I found it to be exactly as advertised. What it is: The beam pattern is great for city riding or even gravel roads without a lot of undulation or rapid tight turns. When aimed correctly it provides an even light on the road and lets you see far enough ahead to ride at your normal pace. With the beam pattern putting light to the road and not to the sky you won't blind on coming traffic or have to worry about glaring yourself out with your own light. It also saves some battery life by only putting light where you need it. The beam pattern is not as wide as some generator lights, which you'll most notice when turning. I like the fork crown mount and found it gave me enough adjustment to avoid the dreaded tire shadow. What it's not: It's not a trail light, nor is it advertised as one. Asymmetric/cut off beams in general are not great for trail riding, gravel roads with a lot tight turns, aggressively rolling/hilly terrain, or shining on your garage wall to complain about the beam pattern. This light is no exception. If you're riding off road get a flood light with a symmetric beam pattern. If you ride in a city, get a cut off beam. What would make it better: Adding an on/off switch and reworking the wire so it's not so close to the mount would get this light 5-stars. A little wider beam pattern would be nice, but I wouldn't trade more width for less depth. Overall I think it's about 85% of what's good about a generator set up for a lot less money and with more flexibility. I bike commute through PNW winters and find myself riding my heavy commuter more than I want to just because it has a generator light. I put this light on my "go fast" bike to mix it up and couldn't be happier.

Right out of the box, I had major dislikes with this light. The bracket for mounting it to your bike is cheap plastic and didn't work for two of my bikes. The online documentation from PDW was horrible- no pictures of it being used in the dark. Lot of flaws with this light, it needs to go back to the drawing board. (I'm guessing they had a surplus of Kepler lights and decided to put a BYOB sticker and new mounting bracket on and sell it as something new). The light pattern is very hard to make useful as your only light. It would be nice if it was more of a flood option than a directed spotlight. I'm going to try taking it apart and reshaping the light focuser... We'll see. I've already had to make a new bracket for mounting this light. I guess if you're ONLY riding on pristine city streets with help from street lights, it's fine, but if you ride in areas without street lights or any trails, you really can't see enough with this light. The cable outlet is very poorly placed in that it will hit the mounting bracket each time you take it on and off. Overtime this will break the power cable. My $.02, buy an e-bike or dynamo light that you like that's rated for the power output of a battery bank and learn to solder a USB plug. I need to do a little research on whether this is possible, but I'm pretty sure it's all PDW did. I have even emailed PDW a long feedback email as I couldn't find any in depth reviews before buying. They basically offered a refund and defended all of these design flaws- er I mean design choices. Oh well. Not the quality I expect from PDW. I've happily used their fenders and baskets for years. Hoped this light was worth the gamble.

First the construction of this light is solid, it is made to last. However IMO the design is lacking and need of some significant tweaks. First it needs on/off button or even better a switch multiple brightness settings. The idea of plugging and unplugging your battery seems silly and really cumbersome, I can not quite imagine a situation when you would not have to stop riding in order to turn on your light. Second the light pattern is strange (see picture) and way too focused, it produces plenty of light in the space where it shines but beyond that it is very lacking. Also the light pattern does not allow you to mount the light upside down off of you bars. I find this unfortunate. Lastly, admittedly a very small thing, the point where the cable come out of the back of the light is directly in line with the mounting platform. The long term result if you are moving the light from back and forth from two bikes is unnecessary wear on the cable at that point. I'm returning this light to my LBS but hoping PDW upgrades this design it is the only thing like it on the market.