To be honest I bought this thinking it would be crap and I would return it. It's not crap, although it certainly isn't as good as the manufacturer claims. You can see it on Amazon here.
It costs $40 so I'm going to compare it to a 1200 lumen Cygolite front light costing $80. The Touhuhot compares well.
We will look at the front light first.
Let's start with the mount which is commonly the weak point of otherwise excellent lights. It's not bad, a bit clunky, but it is certainly strong enough to hold the light in place and firmly attach to a wide variety of bar diameters. This light is probably too heavy to attach with one of those glorified rubber bands. The weakness is the release button which I circled in red above. It's too flimsy and I think it will be the first thing that fails. You have to hold it in as you slide the light into place or it won't lock and the light will slide right back off again. This is not mentioned in the instructions. Quite a few people on Amazon are complaining they are having problems with how the light locks onto the mount.
While the mount will rotate vertically, it cannot be rotated horizontally which is a problem because I like to point my light slightly towards the center of the road so I can control how much light oncoming traffic sees.
The light is quite heavy - 225gm verses 185gm for the Cygolite. It has a solid feel to it with an aluminum body, which could use some cooling fins. The usb cover is poorly designed as it butts up against the mount stop which makes it a total pain to open. I'm thinking of just ripping it off. It has a USB C port for charging and also a USB A port so you can use the battery to charge other stuff. It's also quite large and takes up more handlebar space than the Cygolite.
The light is not 5000 lumens and I did not expect it to be. A true 5000 lumen light will cost over $500. However, using a lux meter and a 1200 lumen calibrated source, I calculated this light emits around 2100 lumens. This technique is notoriously inaccurate but I am confident this light is less that 2500 lumens at its brightest setting. A 2000 lumen led requires about 20 Watts (best case). This means it's pulling about 4Amps from the battery which explains the heat issues.
When operating at maximum brightness this light gets uncomfortably hot to hold - I would say over 100F. That's why it needs cooling fins or some other heat management system. I fully charged it and then set it on the high setting. After a while it automatically dropped to a lower setting and eventually died after 7 hours. Note, this was not 7 hours at the high setting but 7 hours is very impressive for a battery light. If the lights stayed on full brightness pulling 4 Amps from a 5200mAh battery it would only run for 75 minutes. Note the marketing hype on Amazon claims 15 hours. It seems they are doubling both the brightness and duration numbers.
When operating at the lowest brightness there is no heat problem. This would be perfect as a flashlight or for riding at less than 15mph (say, up hills). The lowest setting produces about 200 lumens and runs for about 20 hours.
There is a light on the power switch that gives you a rough idea of the battery condition and it works slightly better than the same feature on the Cygolite. The power switch lets you cycle through three solid modes by single-clicking and three flashing modes by double-clicking. One of the flashing modes spells S-O-S. The marketing claims 9 modes - I only found 6.
The Cygolite gives you the option to hot-swap batteries. I've never used this feature. The Touhuhot does not offer it.
The marketing says you can fully charge it in 2 hours. It took me nearly 4 hours on a charging block which is more than I expected, but not a big deal.
Like most battery lights it has a circular beam with a bright spot in the middle. This is not a good beam pattern because the bright center washes out the road close to the cyclist and the road beyond that is invisible. If you mount the light to push the bright spot further up the road you will blind oncoming traffic so they will use their hi-beams. A better beam pattern is to become progressively brighter further "up" the beam with a sudden cut-off at the very top. This illuminates the road evenly and doesn't blind oncoming traffic. However the mirror and lenses required to do this are expensive and not found on low end lights like this.
So how do the Touhuhot and Cygolite stack up?
Cost - Touhuhot wins at less than half the price of the Cygolite
Mount - Cygolite wins with a sturdy and flexible mount
Brightness - Touhuhot wins for maximum brightness even though it can only produce it for 30 minutes before dropping to a dimmer mode
Run time - Touhuhot wins even though it doesn't come close to the the marketing hype
Convenience - Cygolite wins for the battery hot-swap and usb port design
Size - Cygolite wins because it uses 33% less handlebar space
Beam pattern - a tie
Free tail light - Touhuhot wins because it has one
Summary - once you know what this light is really capable of it's clearly a good deal. It really doesn't need the marketing lies.
Interesting note - if this really was a 5000 lumen light that ran for 15 hours on a single charge it would need a 150000mAh battery but this light only has a 5200mAh battery)
Now let's look at the 'free' tail light
The free "$21" tail light is very similar to the CANWAY which sells for $16 on Amazon. This is not a review of the Canway - just an attempt to put a reasonable value on this tail light.
It is not very bright compared to a Cygolite 200 lumen spot tail light that costs $40. It's not visible in daylight or under city lights at night. It would be fine on a bike path or quiet road.
The mount is quite good, being a big rubber band that allows you to mount it to almost anything. You can also rotate the light from vertical to horizontal. The light attaches to the mount at a slight angle so if you mount to a seat post or seat stay you can keep the light pointing horizontally.
It has blue and red leds which can be alternated. Note it's illegal to have blue flashing light in some states - that's reserved for emergency services. Probably not going to get you a ticket, though.
Overall I would say the tail light is not up to the same standard as the front light. I've ridden Cygolite spots since they hit the market and this light isn't going to make me change my mind. The wide angle of the light and the blue options might make this a secondary light on one of my bikes.
Wow, this is the comprehensive review I was hoping for. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThe mount for the light did no last a month. Hard brittle plastic that raps around the handle bars and held in place by a metal screw that applies pressure to the brittle plastic mount to hold it in place. It literally fell apart in my hand after three weeks. Metal beats plastic every time and this is not well thought out. Love the light but without a mount it is just an expensive flashlight.
ReplyDeleteLove the light but cannot recommend as a bicycle light due to the poor quality of the mounting system material.