SpeedWolf Light First Look

First Look: Speedwolf IV Light

There are more high powered lights on the market than you can poke a glow stick at right now, so picking one that works for you can be increasingly difficult. Marrying low unit weight, long battery life, versatile mounts, a short charge time and a reasonable price together isn’t always straight forward.

We have recently received a set of Speedwolf IV 1500 lumen lights to play with. And play we will!

The bits and pieces

The Speedwolf IV comes well setup in a small zipped pouch. The head unit has a replaceable handlebar cradle attached directly to the casing, with two heavy duty O-rings with tabs provided to get the most secure attachment for your handlebar. It was a firm fit using the larger one on the tapered section of oversized handlebars, but it will take a rock garden hit at the wrong angle to say whether they truly hold.

There is also a helmet mount included, of the generic strap on variety. If your helmet has plenty of vents, you will have no problem getting this to fit comfortably. It has a faux handlebar shape to mount the cradle to, using an O-ring.

The unit itself is housed in a CNC aircraft grade aluminium body, which is fluted to assist cooling – plus it’s only just over 100g, which is worth noting if you mount it on your helmet.

The connection between the light and battery is a standard one pin plug, with a nice weather proof recess that offers a very reassuring connection. The light and battery together offer about 50cm of cord, more than enough for use on the bike with the battery on your frame. There is also an 80cm extension lead which should let you stow the battery under your seat (or lower on your frame for stability) or down in the bottom of a backpack if you use the helmet mount. The battery is about 320g, and you can take it out of the bag if you choose to run it in a jersey pocket. But you’d want the jersey to be a pretty trim fit, and the material quite strong.

Claimed run time is 5hrs on 1500 lumens, and over 12 hours on the low 500 lumen setting. With flashing too (20+ hours), it’s just those three settings that are available. No programming, just High, Low or Flash.

We’ll put the light to test and report how it holds up to mountain bike use.

From: Speedwolf.com.au

Price: $240, but currently $179