Portland Design Works Spaceship 3 Headlight - Black

This light suits my purposes at a great price. My goal is making myself visible not having illumination of the road ahead -though it might provide some I rarely bicycle in the dark anymore. It is very easily installed and works perfectly so far.;

The best I have tried.;

This light would function even better if it were brighter but it's certainly adequate for my intended purpose. Overall it's a well designed and well made product offered at a fair price.;

This is a marker light for increased visibility and not a headlight for serious night cycling.

Although the advertisement copy claims that this light will "Cuts through the darkness of space by blasting 3 brilliant Japanese LEDs through a lens that focuses light into a strong beam" no part of this is really true except for the light having 3 Japanese LEDs. In retrospect the fact that the light output in lumens isn't listed should have been an obvious sign. I'd estimate that it actually produces somewhere between 20 and 50 lumens.

For night riding the beam isn't powerful enough to easily spot potential hazards or navigate dark trails. You will have to run a very mild pace off of lit streets. Expect transitions from well lit to dark roads to be problematic; you have to wait for your night vision to recover.

The mount also has a few issues; expect the light to rotate over rough roads. It would be a good idea to purchase the helmet / permanent mount or wrap the handlebars with some grip tape to reduce slippage.

With that said the light is clearly visible to oncoming traffic and will improve safety. The long 50-100 hour battery life is nice especially compared to a lot of the newer USB charged lithium lights that only last a few hours at high intensity.

The compartment does require a tool to open but the batteries last long enough that it isn't an issue. The screw is slotted so that a penny can be used to open the compartment.

I'd rate this 4 stars as a marker light. Reducing by a star or two because it doesn't really do what the ad copy claims.

If you want a AA battery powered light for night illumination I recommend  NiteRider Mako 200 Headlight  instead.;

Got it for visibility to oncoming traffic.
Flash mode seems very good.;