Cygolite HotShot Review

A new Cygolite Hotshot showed up today (it was $20 cheaper than the $42 they want today, so I must have caught a window of a misprinted webpage opportunity or maybe it was a loss leader?), best currently elsewhere, is about $31. At $22 it was irresistible.

Beam: Hot spot: 10 degrees, circular.
Output: Over 61 lumens* (I suspect about 100) on max & steady, completely adjustable
Runtime on max & steady: 4.5 hours claimed (unverified)

* Confirmed the output to be circa 60 lumens with Dnager Zones at 22-25, Radbot 1000 in the 30-32 range, the Turbp about 35 lumens and the DIY at 105 as before. The absolute values may be sightly off bu the relationship will be valid.

I will add pictures to this thread later. So how does it compare?

To what? Well it is a USB li-ion self contained light with a narrow spot optic, and a powerful LED. The Knog Boomer is much weaker (15 lumens = original PBSF + 20%, the Blackburn Flea 2.0 with four 1/4 watt LED's and no lens isn't a peer either. At less than $35 it is competitive with the Planet Bike Turbo in cost, intent, beam type and use and is king of the AAA tail lights in brightness. Too bad they don't make a AA version. It is nice to carry more runtime in your pocket.

The Planet Bike Turbo is supposedly about half as bright as the HotShot, by my first measurement. By the beam on the wall? No way it is that close. True the Turbo's hot spot is 50% bigger in height (same width) and that dilutes the power. The HotShot has a brighter spill, plus some fingernail clipping red spots from the reflector at about 120 degrees. Side output is superior to the Turbo as well, a strong red versus a reddish glow, again about 4 X by eyeballing it

The Narrow 10 degree primary beam means aiming it is critical. It should prove to be a great thrower at full power in daylight. This IS a light to back off at night especially if you are taking the lane and drivers will be directly behind you at times. Maybe highest power for low sun angles only. Many times brighter than a car's brake light. How much, I will measure or video. You can back it down to get 100's of hours of runtime, so it can be a meek little light, if you want. It cycles through levels holding the intensity button down. Dial an intensity. So you can back it off until your riding buddies are happy. Or on a longer ride as the sun lowers, it is a shot stop and button press to up the output, and as the sun goes down another easy press to back it down. This adjustment is available in all modes and those includes a 'zoom' or fade/brighten mode as well as several flash variants.

It weather permits, I will try for a test including riding into and away from a lowering sun. Worst case situation where the power and spot beam may be the ticket to help drivers see a cyclist. I purchased it to complement the 270 degree coverage that two Red Zone 4s provide. So far, it looks like a perfect pairing. Spread plus tunable throw. Like normal headlights and a NiteFLUX WZ 5 up front. I'll keep you informed.

BrianMc

Cool!! I look forward to the rest of your review - I am in the process of making a short list of my rear red lighting choices for my 'bent trike and the HotShot sounds like a definite top of the list light!

If the NiteFLUX Red Zone 4's on high power are just a bit more powerful than a vehicles' brake lights, and they are about 2/3 as bright as the center of a Planet Bike Turbo beam, and the Turbo is about 60% as much output as the HotShot, and the Hotshot puts that 40% more into a beam about 60% the size, we expect the HotShot to be a lot brighter than a vehicle brakelight, and are not disappointed:

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/5995/etal.mp4

It is. Even though brighter in a side by side comparison on video or in person, its small size in daylight doesn't make it stand out as much brighter in person. Though The camera is at SUV driver height and may not be catching the hottestpart of the beam.

So it's strength is it's power and down the lane focus so how ell does it work with a late afernoon (5:00 PM) sun EDT (at roughly 39.3 lat and -85.s long, inc ase you want to get sun angle, although the shadows will get you close).

The next video has the two Red Zone 4's at 45 degrees and the HotShot Sandwiched between and a bit higher. There is a Planet Bike Turbo on the helmet as a comparison. The camera is -2 stops to give a screen brightness that matched how I saw it.

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/1580/cey.mp4

Separating the Red Zones with one on the rack and one directly below the Hot Shot did not change the point of effective dissappearance. The video is less sensitive that the eye, so I think we can use where it dissappears on video as the point where it won't stand out, though it can still be seen by drivers. The first light standard is 200 feet from the camera and each in turn is 200 feet so it appears to be about 700 feet hafway between the third and fourth pole. In a separate video, the twin Red Zone 4s on Friday, same location and an hour earlier (DST) got to 500 feet.

Note how well the ANSI vest shows up even a quarter mile away with a lowering sun to the back.

The next uses the high school parking lot so I can ride into the sun. I forgot to pace off the distance. About 3-400 feet. No road notch in the tree line so I could only take this so far. It appears that the camera lens is not polarized as that glare off the pavement should not exist for a driver with the windshield treatment and polarized sun or eyeglasses. Note that the camera overloads to black when the lights are in the glare. I would call that visible.

http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/2372/yec.mp4

That run had the Red Zones separated, one below the HotShot, one on the rack fastened over the reflector.

I had trouble with video of me riding down the glare. It obliterated most of my lower body and the bike on the video. So here is a run with the sun low enough to make less glare for the camera and me riding mostly to one side of the glare as I would expect to be seen through polarizing lenses. The lights go black through the glare then you see them just as I turn again.

http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/2372/yec.mp4

With the sun going down behind the trees, we get to see that the HotShot will soon need to be backed off some, and the nice change when the bike turns so the camera is out of the HotShot's beam and the Red Zone's show at the wider angle then back in the HotShot beam and back out. It almost looks like a turn signal. That is the adantage of the combination to pick up wider angles like drivers on corners behind me.

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/1256/36i.mp4

Conclusion: A powerful narrow beam tail light that will need precise aiming. Very flexible. You set power level in the steady mode, and that applies then to any flash mode, though some to the bright flash ones it isn't obvious until you compare a high and low power setting. The same right button is use in the flash modes to speed them up or slow them down. Getting the highest output is easy: just hold the down until it has had long enough. Unlike low poer you won't be able to tell 75% and 100% up close because it's too much.

To deal with the narrow beam, (comparable to the old PBSF) I suggest 5-10 degrees up and if you ride to one side of wide lanes with room for a bike and car about 5 degrees to the left. If you mostly take the lane, then straight back. I tried various flash modes into the sun at different selected rates of flash but the glare made those runs useless.

Mechbgon did the YouTube Videos and has beamshots here.

For night use I would suggest the zoom flash at 1/2 to 2/3 power as you remain lit and seeable and the zoom reduces average and perceived peak power, while being able to attract attention because of the motion-like zooming.

Hope this helps.

BrianMc

Wow!! Very informative review, nice selection of practical examples in the videos. Sheesh....a lot of choices for a well budgeted rear lighting system, but with folks like yourself giving us uninformed/less than knowledgeable types a good basic primer on rear lights, it makes selection a lot easier. Thanks for the time and effort you have put into this one thread!!

Three and a half years later, and the HotShot is still running well (getting near the end of it's expected battery life). I have lights for a broader output but the HotShot is my narrow beam light of choice. I have not tested its run time to see if that has decrease any.

One of my pet peeves with the original Hot Shot was the seat post mount. The hardware was hard to hold and matched nothing else use on my bike (no spares in my toolbox from other things). It did not hold the light well IMHO, and looked fragile though I never tested that to the breaking point and lose my light. I ended up metal screwing it to a Planet Bike mount losing its QR anti-theft feature.

Well at some point, Cygolite redid the mount and made a rack mount so I can move it to the errand bike. I ordered both mounts recently (finally?), and the seat tube one is all the mount I wished my first one was. The rack mount awaits my rebuilding the errand bike but as it is similar to the PB one on the errand bike I expect no issues.

Now available not only in the version I reviewed, but also in the SL (Stream Lined), and the Micro, all have 2 W LED, with a built in li-ion battery. These are not user serviceable, but I will have a go when that time comes. Mechbegon on MTBR (if I remember correctly), reports a wider output angle for the Micro making it a very nice rear helmet light. All can be backed off maximum output and have multiple modes.

I do not own stock in Cygolite nor did I get any special considerations for my reviews here.

I should have scrolled down to your review when I was looking for a daytime rear seatpost light.

Do you still have some of those road test videos to upload again? I'm particularly interested how it looks (the hotshot 2w) during daylight.

I used a cut out small folded piece of an old envelope to get the seat post mount higher, where the diameter of the post is narrower. Seems sturdy. So far my serfas thunderbolt on the seat stay ran dead on the 4th ride (1 hour rides), so I charge my hotshot and thunderbolt after 2 now. The hotshot charges fast (< 30 min), so the battery is definitely higher capacity.

ImageShack dropped all videos at some point.

They are not on my laptop. I expect they are archived. I have some commitments so it will likely be next week before I could find and load them to YouTube.

Brian