I decided to make a return visit earlier this week with some camera gear on board. I figured I'd try to catch some various random shots of the riders doing their thing. Leave me a comment and subscribe for updates on future content if you like this sort of thing!
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The City of Altamonte Springs hosted it's annual Fourth of July Red, Hot & Boom fireworks & concert show this past Tuesday night (July 3rd). The weather turned out to be fantastic despite a threat of light rain forecasted earlier in the day. In typical fashion, the fireworks show was first class and spectator attendance was high as to be expected. Most of the roads surrounding the show's venue at Crane's Roost Park were either restricted to one-way traffic or closed off to motor vehicles altogehter.
Note that I said "closed to motor vehicles". But not bikes!!! With all the road closures and crowd congestion there was no better way to get around than on my bike. I have to admit that all the congestion etc. made for a pretty fun and technical Urban Assault riding environment as well! The fireworks show was scheduled to begin at about 9:30pm so I set out about 2 hours earlier to get a bit of riding in and check out the location & spots. I took my camera & drone along as well to get some various shots of the area.
I arrived at the Crane's Roost area around 7:45 and rode all around the area until 10pm without really stopping except to launch the drone for a moment a couple of times and once to chit chat with some police officers for a quick moment.
All in all it was a fun ride with some great sights & sounds.
Peace.
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The DL06 is the second XANES brand bike light I've reviewed. The previous one being the XL07 model, which I reviewed about a month ago and can be seen here. The XL07 is a single LED, USB-powered light. Prior to that (over a year ago), I reviewed another bike light - a non-branded light that is also single LED and also USB powered.
I really like USB powered lights mainly for their versatility in terms of how they can be powered. When I'm out bikepacking and adventuring, I usually have several electronic gadgets (mainly a couple of smartphones used as a camera and for navigation) that I need to keep charged. Having a bike light that runs off the same batteries that I use to charge my phones is a huge plus - It eliminates the need to carry proprietary, model-specific batteries for the light and also makes charging simpler when the need arises since all I have to worry about are a couple of USB power bank style batteries (which I run everything off of).
The DL06 is a little different in this regard. First off, it's a USB rechargeable light, and not necessarily a USB powered light. In other words, the DL06 has it's own built-in, internal battery which is comprised of two 18650 Li-Ion cells that are rated at 6000mah. As a result, the light is a fully self contained light system that is about three times larger (and heavier) than the two lights I previously tested, minus their batteries, of course. Secondly, the DL06 has dual CREE XML T6 LED's, while the lights I tested previously only have single LED elements. The entire system is housed in a finned, black anodised aluminum heat sink casing that is IP65 rated for water and dust resistance.
The light has 4 operating modes: The familiar low, medium, and high brightness settings, and one steady flash mode. By default, the light powers on to its lowest brightness setting, and each successive press of the rear-mounted switch increases the brightness. If the power button is held down for 2 seconds in any mode, the light enters a steady flash mode. Press the switch again and the light will exit the flash mode and return to the previous state/ mode that it was in. Like many lights, the DL06 has a "clicker" style power switch on the rear of the housing off to the left side. Next to the switch (near the center) are 3 small LED battery level indicator lights. To the right of those is a micro-USB charging port, covered by a water resistant rubber cap. The DL06 can be plugged into an external power source while it is in operation, so technically it can be charged while being used, provided that the power supply delivers more juice than is being consumed by the light itself. The power switch illuminates red when the light is being charged, and then turns off when charging is complete. The battery indicator LED's remain lit corresponding to the battery's charge level. The battery itself takes roughly 5 hours to fully charge from empty using a standard 2.4A USB cell phone charger.
The light comes with 2 handlebar mounts and attaches to each mount via a familiar and simple slide-click mechanism. The mounts themselves are basically plastic pieces that wrap around the handlebar and clamp in place with a thumb screw. The mounts are made to fit 34.9mm dia handlebars and the light is supplied with rubber shims to adapt the light for use on a smaller diameter handlebar (eg. 26.4mm) if necessary. One of the mounts is a dual-clamp design which straddles the handlebar stem, positioning the light over the stem exactly in the middle of the handlebars. The other mount is a narrower single clamp style with a rotating slide lock for precise aiming of the light.
This light is bright! While it doesn't throw a beam quite as far as the XANES XL07 I previously reviewed, it is definitely as bright or brighter and casts a wider pattern with more even illumination from the center out to the side edges. The beam pattern makes it a great all-around light for any use ranging from off-road technical singletrack to road riding. And since it's fully self contained and easily detached from the bike, it can be used as a great flashlight off the bike as well - no dangling cords or external batteries to mess with.
I tested the run time of the DL06 by first fully charging it, then turning it on high and leaving it running overnight next to a timer on my laptop PC. The light ran for 3 hours 45 minutes at full brightness before the first LED battery charge indicator went out. After that, the light ran for another 3+ hours before the final battery indicator started to flicker, at which point I ended the test at 7 hours. In spite of this, the DL06 still had some juice left in the tank to keep going. Once again, the light ran for 3 hours, 43 minutes at full, maximum brightness. It should be noted however that as the battery charge level decreased after this point, the brightness of the light gradually decreased ever so slightly until the test was done. In spite of this, it still had more than adequate output brightness to be useful throughout the entire duration of the test. It should also be noted that I did not test its run time on the medium and low settings. Based on the run time I got on high, I am confident that the DL06 should easily run at least 2-3 times longer on the lower settings. That's about 14 hours on medium and 21 hours on low. Pretty impressive.
The XANES DL06 is available from Banggood.com for $23.99.
