The Knog Blinder Road 3 is the Aussie firm’s brightest light yet, with a maximum output of 300 lumens pumped out by two Cree XB-D LEDs.
It’s an interesting design, with one LED emitting a narrow 15 degree beam and the other a wide 22 degree beam, and is the latest light to arrive at RoadCyclingUK for review. Both LEDs are housed in a polycarbonate body with an anodised aluminium face and it’s a compact unit (W53mm x H30mm x D75mm) with a claimed weight of 105g.
The two LEDs can be run individually or together, in steady state and flashing, and in total there are 11 modes.
And they are? Narrow low beam, narrow medium beam, narrow high beam, wide low beam, wide medium beam, wide high beam, dual low beam, dual medium beam, dual high beam, alternate LEDs flashing and one LED steady/one LED flashing.
Got all that? The Blinder Road 3 is controlled by two buttons. The left one looks after beam pattern (narrow, wide, dual, flashing) and the right button takes care of power (low, medium, high). Hold the left button for 0.75 seconds to turn the light on and do the same to turn it off. The two buttons are side-by-side, are quite small and are black (the same colour as the rear half of the unit) so we’ll see how easy they are to use in the dark while wearing thick winter gloves.
Claimed battery life ranges from one hour with both LEDs running on the most powerful setting to nine hours when flashing on eco mode. All 11 claimed run times are printed on the side of the Blinder Road 3’s packaging.
Knog describe the Blinder Road 3 as “a serious light that gives riders 100 per cent vision at night”. We’d generally recommend 400-500 lumens as a good starting point for riders using unlit country lanes on a regular basis but we’ll see how this fares out in the wilds.
The light itself attaches to your handlebar using a silicone strap with a stainless steel camber clip. First impressions suggest is a doddle to use, as Knog’s lights usually are, and they provide two straps which can be easily switched depending on the diameter of your handlebar. Only time will enable us to determine the durability of the silicone if it’s being taken on and off a bike, and therefore stretched over handlebars, regularly.
The light is charged by an integrated fold-out USB which means you don’t necessarily have to use a cable to charge it. The size and shape of the light, however, means you have to hang a laptop off the side of a big book or table to plug it in directly without risking damage to the USB. That’s not practical but you shouldn’t have to do that in the first place though as Knog supply the Blinder Road 3 with a USB extension cable (and a helmet mount). There’s a built in battery life indicator which turns from green to red when the light is low on juice, and from red to green when charging to complete.
All that’s left to mention, then, is that the light is available with either a black, grey, red or purple face, and as for price, it’s your for £69.99. We’ll be testing the Blinder Road 3 in the weeks ahead.
Price: £69.99
Website: Knog
UK distributor: Moore Large
