I'm not a critic but...

It’s product review time. I don’t know if it’s reasonable to discuss something after using it only once but, well, I’ve done lots of unreasonable things so why stop now? I managed a cross ride through the Pacific Spirit park near UBC last night. It’s been a long time since I’ve done a night ride and though I’m sure there are more glamorous places to ride a cross bike the train tracks run close to the shop and provide a decent alternative to bike paths and streets for a good chunk of the way to the forests of Point Grey. There are three requirements for a night cross ride, one being a cross bike, two being the sun should ideally be below the horizon, the third being a light. The first two are easy, this review is about the third.

The last time I did a night ride I was using a BLT Firefly helmet mount light and a battery that weighed as much as a small child strapped to my back. The light was incredible at the time and had people marvelling at how bright such a small unit could be but the downfall of that and other systems at the time was the size of the battery needed to run it and how quickly that battery would die (usually linked directly to how far into the forest you are, the further in, the more likely the battery to fade).

This night my eyes would be aided by a NiteRider MiNewt.X2. The MiNewt.X2 is an LED light powered by a Lithium Ion battery pack and the package is small, small, small. The package claims it weighs only 232grams. My digital scale shows 239grams for the complete unit with the middle sized mounting rubber band (it comes with three sizes of mounting band) I suppose I could have shaved a gram or two cutting down the battery mounting strap and removing the warning label from the power chord. The light’s demure size mounted easily onto an already crowed handlebar occupied by a Knog commuter light and cross interlevers and it stayed put during the whole ride. The battery straps to the stem and also didn’t budge for the entire ride. This is a far superior system to the old NiteRider mounts with cumbersome articulating brackets with wider clamps and heavier, larger batteries.

The light turns on quickly and is bright from start up unlike HID lights which need to warm up, and it stays cool during use where HID lights warn you to not stand still with the light on for too long because it will overheat without air flowing over it. There are three light modes, high, low, and flashing. On high it has a claimed burn time of 3.5 hours. I only rode for 2 hours so I can’t substantiate this claim. On low power, which by many standards is still quite bright, it’s supposed to burn for 7 hours. I tried it in both modes and in the complete darkness of a rainy BC forest the lower setting was plenty bright enough to negotiate the trails at a reasonable speed. I think I’d have a hard time riding in circles in the dark for more than three hours so I ran it at the brighter setting. How bright is bright? 92 Lumens on low and 150 Lumens on high. In laymen’s terms, bright on low, f’en bright on high.

Beefs? None really, or at least none that can be blamed on the light. I like the idea of helmet mounted lights for trail riding so that the light goes where your eyes do. There were a few twisty bits where I had to bleed off speed because the bar mounted light wasn’t going where I was about to and, well, trees hurt when you run into them. But that’s okay because for a few bucks ($45 to be exact) you can get a helmet mount and a power source extension cable so you can put the light on your head and the battery in your jacket or jersey pocket. For riding on the streets the bar mount is pretty much perfect

Overall it's a good light. Actually it's better than good, it's an excellent light. Lighting technology has advanced so much over the past few years but it's hard to imagine it getting any better than this. Light, small, bright, and cool. Unless they can come out with a hydrogen cell powered version (check David Scott's Smelling Land, it's not as far away as you might think) this is about as good as it gets.