We received the Super Flea, a lightweight commuter light from American company, Blackburn, in a delivery of kit from our friends at Madison.
It’s a super small, metal topped, plastic bodied light that pushes out 105 lumens for just over an hour on the high setting. The medium setting offers a run time of 2.5 hours, while three hours of continuous use are offered with the flashing mode.
The beam is focused, with a bight spot in the centre and fairly narrow spread. This leaves you with a choice: either illuminate the ground appropriately in front of you, or angle the beam further in front to warn oncoming traffic of your presence.
This is definitely an urban area commute light, and should only be considered as such.
Unfortunately, we felt that the manufacturing quality of the Super Flea fell a little short of the high standards we’ve come to expect from Blackburn. The crinkled metal top is sufficiently robust, but the plastic feel of the main body may provide cause for concern; commuter lights are often stored at the bottom of bags. That said, Blackburn have sufficient confidence in the durability of the Super Flea to offer a ‘no quibble’ lifetime warranty, and, given its capacity and ease of use, we’d be happy to have our concerns about build quality proven unfounded.
A frustrating design issue lies in the need to remove the silicone backed velcro strip that attaches the light to the bike to charge it. It’s a minor hassle, but we felt that the bonded junctions holding the velcro strap together might not last more than a couple of winters, even with delicate handling. Balancing the light on the USB charging dock is fine, but it does mean that you have to remember to take the tiny docking station with you when you travel; another item to lose or break.
The Blackburn Super Flea is a good ultra low weight (34 grams), adequately bright commuter light; just be careful with it, and learn to work with the minor design issues. A separate mounting kit offers helmet attachment.
