REVIEW: C&B SEEN City Slicker Twin XM-L L2 1250 Lumen, Wireless Front Bike Light

Skyraider59

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[h=2]REVIEW: C&B SEEN City Slicker Twin XM-L L2 1250 Lumen, Wireless Front Bike Light[/h]
A combo set of the City Slicker has been sent to me for review by C&B SEEN, a small UK company based in Kent.

Please note that despite the fact that this light was not purchased by myself, my review is done under the same format as the one I purchased.
In my reviews, I try to expose the lights weaknesses and strengths while being fair to its specs. There is no comparison to other products unless stated.
My reviews are done with other riders in mind who may be thinking of purchasing the same light.
The lights I review are not always a reflection of what I prefer or ride with. All I am doing is trying to give you un unbiased opinion of the product I have tried/reviewed here in the UK.


*
What's in the box
The City Slicker 1250lm front light is supplied in a blue display box with a viewing window to see the product.*
The packaging is very different to the one used on the two CAB single LED lights I reviewed last year.*
They have improved their user manual which comes in a neat tri-folded coloured instruction booklet.*
Inside the box is the lamp unit with pre attached quick release clamp, a micro USB lead and rubber spacers for the clamp.





Initial overview and feel **

The first thing you notice is its size and shape which is of a twin barrel light. The first sign of the City Slicker having been designed for cycling is its visor and lens side cut-outs. As mentioned: the light is is large but in keeping with twin LED/twin 18650 internal battery type lights.



The USB port is underneath just forward of the quick release clamp and is protected by a rubber grommet. The light is charcoal black with white etching for their logo and name.



The optic/lens appears to be made of plastic and are held in place by two Philips screws.



The body is quite plain with only a few shallow fins towards the front and rear of the light. There are no sharp angle to do any damage in a spill!


*The switch has a built in battery warning light using the well established traffic light method green, orange and red.
The power pack is accessible via the removal of the two rear screws and panel. I believe a spare battery pack can be obtained if you wanted to increase your ride time.



The light clamp is the C&B Seen standard clamp also sold as an accessory and is fitted to the underneath of the light by a brass screw.*The clamp come with rubber inserts to accommodate handlebars from 25.4mm to 31.8mm.




Manufacturer Data *(latest)
With regard to the materials used on the City Slicker, not a lot of data is shown on the C&B Seen website or is given in their instruction manual.
The body appear to be made of anodized aluminum with the optic/lens made of plastic.
The light is waterproof to IP65 standards.
The battery cassette contains 2 x Panasonic NCR Lithium-Ion 18650 3400mAh

961072d1422913807-c-b-seen-city-slicker-twin-xm-l-l2-1250-lumen-wireless-front-bike-light-data1.jpeg




Settings
The light has 4 modes - low, medium, high and pulse.*
To switch the light on hold the button down for 2 seconds. The light will come on initially in Low mode, single clicks will then cycle the light through Medium and High, and then back to low.
A double-click, in any mode, will switch the light to Pulse mode which is a pulsed-strobe effect with nearly continuous medium power beam. From pulse mode a single click will return the light to low beam.
Hold button down for 2 seconds to turn light off.

961057d1422913265-c-b-seen-city-slicker-twin-xm-l-l2-1250-lumen-wireless-front-bike-light-cbscsf-18-.jpg



Riding with CABS-1200
*
*The City Slicker has been tried during my commute to work on the road during daylight and at night. I have also done a two hour forest club ride and cycled on country trails around my home.
*This has been used on two different bikes and the fitting on my Specialized, which has the 25.4mm bars, required the fitment of a thin and a thick rubber inserts into the clamp. The long body of the light made the quick release handle difficult to adjust and close. I also found that on our badly maintained British roads, the light vibrated.



This did concerned me as to its behaviour off road. After scrutinizing the clamp and the method it is attached to the bar, I concluded that the light's weight and size was causing the two thick rubber pads to flex as they make contact on the bar in two small areas. The QR clamp need to close very tightly to stop the light vibrating and unfortunately this is difficult due to the body overhanging above the QR lever. An alternative to the thick rubber pads would be to use part of an inner tube or black PVC tape wrapped around your bar to give an all round contact with the clamp.*


Once fitted and turned on the City Slicker did gave a very bright and broad beam in a neutral colour. The medium power is more than sufficient on the road and I used their pulse during the day.
For its intended purpose as a City Light, it does miss a proper high output flash mode which is often used by cyclist in well lit town areas or during daylight!*
Their pulse mode, combining the steady lighting with a flash, is a useful mode for town riding and is around 400 lumens with pulse of about 500lumens.
*
I personally like wireless lights specially with a USB charging port. I find them very easy to use! Regarding mountain biking, I found out that I did not required any rubber pads on my 31.8mm bar which had been made slightly thicker with PVC black tape for another light. I was getting 100% surface contact and once tighten up, the light felt as one with the bar.
Like on the road the Cilty Slicker performed well on the trails giving a good wide beam ideal for a bar light. The neutral tint of the LED gave good terrain perception without creating harsh shadows.*
The switch was OK to operate, even with winter gloves and did give a positive click. The battery warning light had the right intensity. The mode switching is easy and intuitive and does start from low. The flash mode is out of the way and activated by a double click. I used the low OR medium while going uphill and on the wide trails and high on any single tracks.**
One of the downsides of lights with integrated battery back is the lower run time in comparison with lights with external four cell battery packs.
*For the high power, the 1h.55mn (100% to 50% output) is good.*
The light does not have constant regulation like their CABS single led, but the discharge curve is very steady and you do not really notice lumens lost until well into its run time.



As mentioned earlier, you can swap the battery pack for a replacement one to extend your run time, this requires the removal of two small screws and the back panel.*
I would recommend extreme caution while doing this on the side of the trail because if the small screws were dropped you would have trouble finding them!

Trying to replicate what the eye sees at night via photos is not easy, so to help with your perception of the light performance here are the setting used during the beam shots.*
Canon PowerShot SX320HS
Manual setting
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1.6 seconds
Aperture: F4.0
Focus: Manual
White Balance: Daylight
Quality: Jpeg High

The glowing item in the middle of the trail is my rucksack 25yards away.

High beam, photo taken on a different night






Home test
The C&B Seen City Slicker was tested with my homemade light sphere and a cooling fan was used between the readings.
Please note there will be a small margin of error for the readings as the light was removed and repositioned on the sphere for the various readings.*
As this is a homemade integrating sphere, I cannot make any true claims as how close my result would be to results coming out of a lab integrating sphere costing thousands of pounds,*
but this give a rough idea as to how the light performed and enables you to monitor the output versus runtime.
*
The test/monitoring was started 3 mins after initial turn on, which is in line with ANSI method of testing flashlights.
*All readings bellow are in LUX and x 100




Pros:
Close to advertised lumens
Wide beam with enough throw*
Side windows
Good run time for a twin XML internal battery light
Easy interface
USB rechargeable
Battery pack replaceable
UK warranty. (2 years on light and 6 months on battery)
Good price for a twin XML light which includes batteries and is USB rechargeable

Cons:
No real flash mode
Non detachable QR clamp make it difficult to tighten due to body overhang
No quick release devise to replace the battery

Good powerful light for the price and ideal for commuters who can recharge it at work via their PC or via phone charger.

RRP £86.01 including UK postage (01/01/2015)
I believe that for the moment they are only retailed in the UK.

Skyraider 59 UK​
 

swhs

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Oct 10, 2007
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Netherlands
Re: REVIEW: C&B SEEN City Slicker Twin XM-L L2 1250 Lumen, Wireless Front Bike Light

So is the drop-off in lightoutput from the heat of the lamp (LED regulated lower to prevent overheating) or because the electronics doesn't keep power to the LEDs constant when the battery pack gets drained?
 

Skyraider59

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Sep 17, 2009
Messages
178
Location
Sussex, England
Re: REVIEW: C&B SEEN City Slicker Twin XM-L L2 1250 Lumen, Wireless Front Bike Light

Because the drop is quite constant and not stepped, I would suspect this is down to not having a constant regulation.
I have taken Lux readings in my integrating sphere of my 2015 GLOWORM X2 which has been tested in MTBR review with professional equipment and is rated at 1500 lumens, from this I can estimate the front city slicker to be around 1100+ lumens. I don't think you could achieve a constant regulation of two XM-L running at approx 550 lumens out of just two 18650 batteries.
Again I would welcome your thoughts on this.
 
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