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夹肈: Review MBK mini bike light [ゴセ]
: niwalker    丁: 2016-11-17 10:37     夹肈: Review MBK mini bike light

セ┇程パ niwalker  2016-11-17 10:52 絪胯

This is the last light i received from www.theoutdoorsplus.com (link is external) for a review. Theoutdoorsplus is a new chinese webshop for premium brands such as Niwalker, Armytek, Nitecore, Acebeam etc.. I wasnt sure were i should post this review since there is no special category for bike lights but since this light has a fixed 18650 battery inside i think it is more than fitting to post it here.

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The MBK mini is a fair priced little bike light with a fixed battery inside, there are similar lights on the market which are build like this, for example from Fenix but most of them are higher priced and a bit brighter.

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The package came in a simple cardboard box, actually pretty much the same as the PalmStar EDC light. No stickers at all but very environmentally friendly.

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The light came with an USB cable, a bike mount, the manual and a little anti slip rubber 3M sticker for the handle bar/bike mount.

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Here is a little GIF to show the light from multiple angles. As you can see the light has very clear lines without any cooling fins, grooves etc.. A simple square shaped light with a single button and a smooth surface.

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A white MBK logo at the front and a "theoutdoorsplus.com" logo near the back. The logos looking clearer and richer as usual, im not sure if they are printed or laser engraved but they look much better compared to other lights. Another interesting detail is the kind of "faceted" front edge, its not anodized but polished which enhances the quality "fit and finish" of this light. It looks really well made and premium for 42 dollars and i wonder who the real manufacturer is. This is not the typical budget light look and feel with glossy black anodizing and machining marks. It is matte and perfectly beatblasted before the anodizing job.

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The back of the light with some laser engravings and four screws. According to theoutdoorsplus the light uses a fixed 18650 cell inside. I didnt tried to open the light but i guess you can just open the scews and solder in a new cell after some years of usage, of course only if you know something about electronics and soldering.

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This is where the bike mount snaps into place. That mounting bracket comes pre installed and its secured with three screws, you can probably remove it if you want to use the light as a flashlight but im not sure.

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Here is the bike mount for your handle bar, just unscrew the large plastic screw and remove the zip tie kind of thing and put it around your handle bar. Put the large screw back on and screw it tight. You should use the 3M anti slip pad before that procedure.

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At the front you can see a plastic diffusor lens with little honeycomb patterns. I have seen this before, for example the Fenix AD401 diffusor lens looks a bit like that. The most obvious and interesting feature are those transparent "neon yellow" inlets you can see above. One benefit of this construction is the side visibility when riding your bike. Those inlets act like cat eye reflectors and they shining yellow from the sides as you can see on the animated gif below.

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I will show another picture of this effect at night later in the review. A single CW Cree XPG2 was used behind that lens with a max. lumen output of 400 in L1 (3h), 200 lumens in L2 (7h) and 100 lumens in L3 (11h). Those steps make all sense in a bike light, you want the lower modes just to be seen in the city and the max. mode for real dark places like the forest. A moonlight mode or super low mode is not neccessary in my mind except you want to use it as a flashlight. The light has the IPX4 rating and 5625 lux according to the manual. However in my tests i got less lux but more lumens as claimed. PWM is visible at L2 and L3.

To the UI:



press and hold the switch for about 0.5sec. from off will start the light in L1 (400 lumens), there is no mode memory. Once the light is on you can click trough the three brightness levels and SOS with a single click. High>medium>low>SOS. A long press from on or off (2secs.) avtivates the strobe mode. Press and hold (0.5secs) to power off the light.

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The USB port at the bottom has a rubber port cover and the light charges with 0.67A which is ok.

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During charging you get a slow red blinking button, once the charging is finished the button is illuminated blue. There is also the possibilty to start the light during charging. The button also acts as a battery status indicator during your ride which is a nice feature especially in a bike light. Blue means 21-100% and a fast red blinking sequence means 0-20% as you can see below.

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The low voltage alarm in action. The light starts pretty early with that alarm which is not bad. Now lets look at the runtime of this light since the battery is fixed you need a good runtime or a spare light.

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As you can see above the MBK mini produced a good runtime with 2.5 hours of useful light (over 50% brightness). Enough for the typical every day usage of a bike, probably not long enough for large biking trips at night but i think you should use other equipment for that. The test was fan cooled to simulate the airflow on a bike but the light dosnt get hot at all with 400 lumens.

Lets see how this little darling looks on a bike as a size comparison

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Now some beamshots on a white wall

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Some outdoorshots in the forest at night

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As you can see 400 lumens is enough to clearly see your way at night in the city or the forest if you are travelling with moderate speed, however its not enough if you plan to do fast trails with your bike, you definately want a brighter light for that to see whats going on in the distance because of the higher speed. Some will say you can also attach a normal flashlight to your bike for that, yes you can, but this is more convienient and has benefits. For example you can easily remove it from the bike, the diffused beam which is great on a bike, the cat eye feature, the fixed battery which is immune against vibrations and wont have contact problems, the battery status indicator and llluminated button and finally the price, this is 42 dollar with the fixed battery and charging function which is ideal as a gift for non flashaholics as well. This is not the typical cheap bike light, looks definately premium.

Bear in mind that you have to pay attention to your local laws when using this light. This light is probably not allowed in some countries according to the road traffic acts, same counts for normal flashlights as bike lights.

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