Two of our favorite local companies have just announced new products: Portland Design Works has a new headlight and North St. Bags just went big with a whole new line of duffel bags.
PDW’s new City Rover comes in 400 or 200 lumen varieties and cost $65 and $49 respectively.
Here’s a photo followed by the company press release with more details:
Portland Design Works launch City Rover USB Rechargeable Headlights
Portland, OR – Portland Design Works (PDW) has introduced two new City Rover USB rechargeable headlights, aiming to provide certified lumen power at a competitive market price for urban commuters.
City Rovers are available in 200 or 400 lumen models and are micro USB rechargeable. Like the Lars Rover headlights PDW launched in 2014, the City Rovers include a CREE LED and Texas Instruments integrated circuit. The City Rover lights offer an updated hood design that includes side cut-outs for increased visibility.
The City Rover 400 model has 5 power modes with up to 11 hours run time: 400 lumen runs for 2.5 hours, 200 lumen runs for 5 hours, 100 lumens runs for 10 hours, pulse runs at 7 hours and fast-flash runs at 11 hours. The City Rover 200 model has 5 power modes with up to 20 hours run time: 200 lumen runs for 4 hours, 100 lumens runs at 9 hours, 50 lumens runs at 18 hours, pulse runs for 12 hours and fast-flash runs at 20 hours.
Both City Rover models were independently tested by the Labsphere Illumia Light Measurement System. “The Illumia system allows us to test our lights for the most accurate readings of consistent lumen output and actual burn time,” Mark Mollenkopf, National Sales Manager for PDW explained. “The test results helped us design a high power/energy efficient commuter light that you can rely on.”
The Rover provides 15 minutes of low-power safety mode after the low-battery indicator light comes on. The lights fully charge in 5.5 hours with the included USB cord. Both City Rover models come with the Mission Control 2.0 quick-release rubber mount.
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And North St. Bags has launched a gorgeous line of new bags called “Scout.” Unlike their existing panniers or backpacks, the Scout is a duffel bag. They come in three sizes and range in price from $59 to $99. Here’s another photo and a few photos and more details:
Made from tough 1000 denier Cordura® nylon and lined with waterproof X-Pac™ sailcloth, the SCOUT Duffle is the ultimate solution to keep your essentials intact and dry when on the go.
Made to order in three sizes, the SCOUT 11 ($59), SCOUT 14 ($79), and SCOUT 21 ($99) are also available as combined set for $225. Our premier travel companion, the SCOUT Duffle is a rugged, yet refined luggage line made for travelers who value durability as much as style.
Portland is home to many great companies that sell bikes, parts, and accessories. Keep track of them all via our Industry Ticker archives.
— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org
Posting info about the new PDW lights with no mention of this adorable kid out trick or treating? Shameful!
https://www.ridepdw.com/video/2015/the-city-rover
PDW Rover = waterproof?
I ask because I need a backup light for when my 800-lumen main light gives out on the dark and rainy night I know it will pick to give out…
I’d recommend that any backup light be powered by Alkaline batteries that are available from any convenience store. In the event that both systems are drained, at least one can be remedied quickly without having to wait for it to be recharged.
I’ve thought about that, and keep wondering whether I’d be able to remember to “top off” a back-up rechargeable often enough to keep it viable. I’ve had a AA-powered backup before and it was such junk that it only survived a couple of uses and wasn’t very waterproof (though I didn’t really expect it to; it was a cheapo Bell from Freddy’s). Any recommendations for a reasonable quality alkaline-powered headlight? I might get one for a back-up back-up.
I don’t carry a backup headlight. I also don’t carry a backup helmet or backup shoes.
@ El Biciclero . . . you have a very good idea to obtain an alkaline powered backup (if you aren’t going to purchase a dynohub). From my personal experience these two are both excellent back-up choices:
2 AA powered ~ 240 lumen flashlight: http://www.amazon.com/FOURSEVENS-4Sevens-Finish-Brighter-Lumens/dp/B00EWSCY4G/ref=pd_sim_sbs_121_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=3192OdPagPL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR112%2C160_&refRID=1N8A1GP4H0APWB354F2E
**This can be used as a main light (I used mine as a main for 1 yr. but carried two extra long-life 2400mAh re-chargeable AAs with me at all times)
1 AA / OR 1 CR123A powered ~ 365 lumen headlamp (detachable flashlight): http://www.amazon.com/HL50-Headlamp-extension-EdisonBright-alkaline/dp/B00LGYO3SE/ref=pd_sim_468_4?ie=UTF8&dpID=514EOAOyz6L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=0QCY5GGKB97WEB979Y4Z
**This thing is amazingly bright for its size. My HL50 is always left in my bike bag as a back-up, but is pulled out for use around the apartment when things need fixing.
Hope this helps!
I’m all tricked out with a fancy german dynohub light, but if I were to get a USB-powered clip-on, I’d want to know two things:
1) Does the lens shape the beam so that most of the light goes on the road, or does it shine everywhere?
2) Are the ‘power’ and ‘mode’ functions on separate buttons so that I can turn the light on and off without cycling through the various modes?
The lens shape is a spotlight, like any handheld flashlight and most “bike lights” sold in this country. It is barely in the same category as shaped beams on dyno lights, only considered for bike use because it comes with a handlebar clip.
There is one button to perform all functions.
With the end of daylight savings time and a shift in my work schedule to a later departure, I need a new front light, but want one that keeps a focused beam on the road. I really dislike those lights that are so bright and wide, you’d think it was a train coming at you.
Seconded! With darkness comes the season of riding straight at people with 500 lumen searchlights pointed RIGHT IN YOUR FACE on the Springwater. Even modestly-priced likes like the one in this article are now absolutely dazzling on dark trails. The ONLY thing the oncoming rider can see when that happens is your light – POINT IT DOWN!!!! (and as for 500 lumens on flashing mode along the Springwater, don’t get me started.. how anyone can bear to ride around in a disco like that I have no idea and I’m glad I’m not epileptic when I come across it). If the tree canopy above you and fence alongside you is well illuminated, you can be sure that anyone coming the other way is blinded.
Would be great if more light manufacturers would stop simply putting clips on flashlights as someone said above and build something with a better shaped beam. Some of the Busch & Muller dynamo lights do a great job of handling daytime be-seen visibility using arrays of smaller forward facing LEDS with powerful DIPPED beams that illuminate the road/trail in front of you for seeing where you are going at night without blinding everyone else.
Yes! I had a near miss with someone on the MUP recently, just after dark. One guy riding with a huge spotlight pointing right at on-coming traffic, and the guy next to him (they were chatting) riding with no light. The no-light guy riding in the center of the path and was completely invisible to me since he is behind the spotlight on his friend’s adjacent bike. We grazed handlebars. not fun.
Point your lights down on the MUP!
I’m starting to call out these folks, most don’t realize what they are doing. Aim it down, please! I actually shield the light with my hand out on the trail when approaching another rider.
If only bikeportland had someone who could do product review 🙂
I’d volunteer for that
On occasion, Nathan Hinkle posts comments about bike lighting, to bikeportland stories. I don’t know whether he’s doing it for pay, but he does test and review bike lights, and has a website. His reviews suggest to me that he studies each light tested, with a very critical eye, and has tested lights, including Serfas that use light focusing lenses. I read some on his site last night. Here’s a link to his review of the Fenix BC30, a light that’s designed to reduce some of the stray light common to many bike lights:
https://www.bikelightdatabase.com/fenix/bc30/#reviews
Designing and marketing a good, cutting edge bike light for a competitive price, has got to be tough, especially for a small outfit. PDW’s light looks ok in the pictures, though there’s not really any info about its beam pattern on their site. For 400 lumens, the price is very decent, if in actual use, the light produces good illumination in the right places on the road ahead.
@wsbob . . . Thanks for the link to Nathan’s website! Reviews of bike lights are too often written by fair weather recreational riders, but that site appears to be more aware of the nuances bike transport people want to consider.
Congrats PDW! Though how well does this lamp work other than its output?
I would suggest that PDW take a step back from the “lumens race” and pick a new path…to think about working towards the StVZO design that adds a beam “cut off” and focuses more light onto the pavement. [They would likely be the first US vendor designing lights to adopt StVZO.]
Now that more and more bicycles are on the road in Portland with brighter and brighter unfocused headlight beams it can be pretty blinding on major bike routes. Just take a seat on the Hawthorn Bridge one night and see for yourself…how many commuters have poorly adjusted and designed headlamps (from most if not all US brands).
I have a 1800 lumen Serfas light and love it. Though I usually never run it higher than 1200 lumens. I can see everything.
Thanks for kicking it down a notch…
Yeah, I have a co-worker with a similar light set up…it is so bright that he likes to use his two lights to warm up his hands when stopped at stop lights, he says. I can just feel the heat when standing in front of the lamps when he turns it on in the office. LOL.
I’ve never been blinded by a bike head light on the Hawthorne bridge. I’m also glad that no one in the USA has adopted car-centric StVZO standards.
Car-centric? The cutoffs in StVZO compliant lights benefit anyone in any mode. You can still see that there’s a bike there,(t’s probably easier to see what’s behind the light because you’re not being blinded by it.)
But, in the past thirty years, in this continent, with the laissez faire business political trend of few regulations, it’s unlikely that there would be similar regulations in the States or Canada so not to worry. But what bugs me is that we don’t even have a choice. Pretty well every light in most stores are doing the lumens arms race thing and just adding fancy disco blinky modes and a different case. That’s not a choice. I want more variety including ones that comply with StVZO standards on the store rack.
I was speaking as a pedestrian (or a stopped cyclist looking back into the bike traffic)…similar to the discussion of the MUP scenario.
What you call “poorly adjusted” might otherwise be called “please see me, motorists”. I fully understand why people buy lights that scatter light and why others aim their cut-off lights a bit high; they’re aiming to get into the eyes of the tigers. It doesn’t take much skill to avoid being blinded by these, even on overly-narrow bike paths.
Exactly. I produce far less light than car headlights. Do people stare straight into those too?
Yep, that is exactly my light’s purpose 90% of the time when riding.
It also doesn’t take much skill to point a light downwards when on a path (and turn off blinky-mode); for me at least.
Sadly many lack your skills and thoughtfulness!
Give me a break. You can still be seen while not aiming your light right into someone’s eyes. Being visible to other road users does not require blinding/annoying them.
Same to you Mossby and your 1200 lumens. In the city?! 1200 lumens?
Not everybody is on MUP’s. And many inner city streets are still covered by leafy trees or do not have those bright LED street lights. 1200 lumens can get sucked up pretty easy by dark wet pavement.
I’m sorry but when you are riding straight at someone for hundreds of yards on a bike path and presuming you are actually looking in the direction you are going (it’s advisable..) there is NO WAY to avoid being blinded by these lights. My pet fear (oh the puns they are good today) is that one day someone will have a dog alongside them that I won’t see because I’m blinded by their owner’s light.
Really? “hundreds of yards” eh?! so your literally saying that bike lights are blinding you from at least 2 football fields away?
You realize that for a light to be blinding from hundreds of yards away it would need to be at least 2000 lumens… similar to stadium lights, how ironic.
No, I just made it all up for fun.
I’ll be sure to measure the exact distance at which I just can’t see where I’m going and get back to you.
“…I fully understand why people buy lights that scatter light and why others aim their cut-off lights a bit high; they’re aiming to get into the eyes of the tigers. …” b carfree
Deliberately shining bike lights into the eyes of other path and road users is an unbelievably bad practice. And if the people so blinded, should happen to lose control of their vehicle, veering towards and crashing into someone using this practice, will the person with the bike light accept responsibility for what they’ve done?
There’s no law saying a bike or its rider can’t be equipped with more than one headlight or tail light. More lights, properly directed onto the road ahead, and still visible to approaching road users, is a far better way to accomplish ‘see me’, than is trying to do that by obnoxiously and dangerously shining the light directly into people’s eyes.
Yes!
stVZO stands for (translated) German: Road Traffic Licensing Regulations.
which is the same as the DOT in the U.S.
suggesting that a bicycle lighting company lead the way in adopting a DOT (stVZO) regulation design is a good point except your understanding of DOT (stVZO) regulations is completely incorrect.
Fair enough…I was using the term as a shortcut to avoid going into too much detail. DOT or CSPC etc…the lamp beam cut off is the key for bicycles as transportation.
We US cyclists are stuck with regulation by Consumer Product Safety Commission vs having headlights certified for on-road use by the Federal DOT.
I’d agree that conventional round flashlight beams are unacceptable on shared paths once you start getting past a few hundred lumens. The reason people haven’t complained to you about it is you usually pass by too fast to hear them. When I made my own homebrew lights, even with a well focused beam, i definitely heard a few comments once I passed the 1000 lumen mark or so. I added a shroud (extended hood) to the top of the lights to help reduce this effect.
Upgrade time again this year, so I’ve finally gone and bought a Busch & Muller USB-recharged headlight. It cost me about $80 but I don’t blind people on the bike path (and now that I’m in Minneapolis, I ride on MUPs at night quite a bit). The light actually HITS THE ROAD and little else, and its shaped beam throws more light further out than close to the bike, resulting in very even illumination without a bright central hotspot drowning out the rest of the beam. Oh, and to help make you more visible there’s also a fairly bright chunk of the beam directed out to the side at eye/driver level. And even though most of the light is hitting the street, it still has a fairly large lens (1″ tall or so) and appears bright enough from a distance to get noticed, without dazzling. If that’s still not enough conspicuity, get a blinky.
The light output of the headlight I bought (50 Lux, not the same thing as 50 lumens) would be inadequate for my former Portland commute, bombing down the West Hills in the rain, but is sufficient here in Minneapolis, with few big high-speed descents, rain a rarity and high ambient light conditions (due to snow on the ground) most of the winter. I believe B&M also makes an 80 lux model, which would probably be enough for most Portland commutes except those that include a lot of high speed downhills.
All hands at PDW and North Street are attractive and regularly bathed. TRUTH!
Not sure why PDW is one your favorites. They don’t make anything in North America and they pretty much specialize in unsafe blinking lights. Yawn.
By “unsafe” I assume you refer to strobe modes that can trigger epileptic seizures and the alleged “moth effect”. In fairness to PDW, their Danger Zone model has a nice alternating-pulse mode that doesn’t suffer from those problems, and is one of the reasons I’ve considered buying one.