Liars and Lumens

My wife surprised me last week, riding up behind, and then along side me while I was riding home on a major thoroughfare. She was returning from an errand on the other side of town, checked her iPhone to check out my satellite trace on Garmin LiveTrack, and decided to see how much lag that system had.

Once along side, approaching a stoplight, she reported she'd seen my light a couple miles before at some distance, but NOT the new Lezyne StripDrive Pro 300, but the CygoLite Dice TL50 light I have Velcro-ed to the back of my helmet. Imagine my surprise :O

The very next morning I was just starting out and was hailed by a cyclist who complimented my wonderful taillight. I of course started telling him all about the new StripDrive. He stopped me and told me it was the light on my helmet he was responding to. Imagine my chagrin.

The bottom line is this, I have been amazed at how effective the 50 lumen TL50 is, weighing less than 1oz with the Velcro mount, while the "300 lumen" StripDrive has been a poor substitute for the Lezyne Laser Drive it temporarily displaced. Particularly surprising because the lens on the TL50 spreads its light out horizontally, so it can be seen from extreme off-angles, or when you turn your head and it's mounted on your helmet. This weakens the beam from any given vantage point to achieve a wide field of view. 

Disappointed with the battery-life of my Lezyne Laser Drive taillight in DayFlash mode, I bought the Lezyne StripDrive for its 5hr battery-life in that mode. Rated 300 lumens, vs 250 lumens for the Laser Drive, it should be brighter. In fact, it's nowhere near as bright. I assume for 1-2 nanoseconds one of the StripDrive's LEDs is pushed to 300 lumens (by some mathematical calculation) but to the human eye, the (duration * intensity) is somewhat less than the Laser Drive's 125 lumen mode, which is once again my go-to light. Sometimes though I want its full 250 lumens, even though it shortens battery life to just over 2:30hrs - despite the nonsense on Lezyne's website.

I've found a solution to the problem of lights and phones running low though, I carry a small LIPO battery powered USB charger and a 3-way split chord in my saddle bag (two for $9), or if I have lights and the USB charger to charge up AT THE SAME TIME, I have found a small, lightweight USB charger with a USB-C port to charge the LIPO battery, and a USB-A for the 3-way splitter to charge my lights & phone. There are combined devices, BUT, they can either do something useful for you, OR, charge their own battery. I wanted to do both at the same time, so WA-LA.

They stack like chord-wood

Folding plug's a big plus for stowing

AtTom 3,000 mAh charger is slimmer than my phone

AtTom charger. Who is Tom anyway?

Amazon marvel. They're the Radio Shack of today

Center cable is data + pwr. L & R just pwr

The Yilon AC charger will charge up an iPhone and iPad at the same time with just a bit of warming. It will charge my headlight, taillights, phone and AtTom without breaking a sweat. You probably can't weld with it, but who cares. Either charger will charge up the Lezyne Laser Drive in 45 minutes, about the time you need to regroup at the 100km point on a Century ride.

If you wake up raring to go and find you forgot to charge your phone, you can head out the door and AtTom will charge it while you ride. Nice. These things are really cheap at Amazon Shack. You might want a USB-C to micro-USB cable as well so Yilon can push power to AtTom. Something short and distinctive you can find back in dim light. Oh, I should warn you off the Nekmit USB chargers - they're HUGE. The pics on Amazon are very deceptive.

So, now you can start your own mini power grid and you don't need to mess with FERC. With social distancing putting a damper on being indoors, plugged into a donor AC outlet, having the LIPO-based charger is a game changer. The Yilon might make you a Starbucks hero and even get you laid! Happy days!