Monday, October 29, 2007

Got my DiNotte!

I got my DiNotte 200L in the mail today, and was able shake it down a bit tonight on the Monday night ride.

With 3 different flash modes and 3 different brightness levels, it's versatile. The beam pattern is simply a wide, sharp-edged round flood with a very intense spot. The DiNotte 200L seems about as bright as my NiteRider Evolution was before I upgraded the bulb (10W Halogen) with a bluish-white color. It's probably a bit dimmer if you use a light meter, but the vibrant color of the beam makes things pop out of the darkness more.

Running the 200L in tandem with my 15W Halogen bulb on the handlebars is like riding by daylight. The 15W halogen bulb is noticeably brighter than the 200L, but with a run-time of merely 90 minutes on a 9-hour charge, there's a trade-off. I'm interested to see how my helmet-mounted solution holds up, especially paired with my halogen.

It looks like there's a lot of extra weight on my helmet, but the mars 3.0 and the DiNotte light engine are surprisingly lightweight. The 4 AA batteries probably make up the most weight, and my initial test with everything attached to the helmet isn't the least bit uncomfortable.

A proper full review is coming soon. I need a week or so to compare this with my halogen setup.

1 comment:

Chuong Doan said...

You shoulda got the taillight too. Holy crap is that thing BRIGHT. Heck if your headlight ever runs out of batteries, you really could ride using the red to illuminate the road.

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