The Photon Max is a strong, versatile and ultra reliable light with the latest in LED lighting technology.
The intensity of the 3 x 4 watt LEDs working at full power fills the visual area with light that is much whiter than any halogen system and the LED emitters last 1000 times longer than an equivalent halogen lamp.
Step it down to half power for more than adequate lighting around town or use the power saving 3 watt steady or flash mode.
Whether it be racing or commuting, this light will handle any situation.
NiteFLUX's cutting edge headlight design has resulted in a flow through 'heat-sink' headlight housing creating a world first in LED lighting "Forced Air Cooling" The cool air flow created from the natural movement of riding is forced into the front the headlight through the deeply finned alloy body allowing heat to be rapidly removed from the Hi-
Intensity LED's with the hot air escaping out the rear of the headlight. This maximises and maintains the LED's light intensity, to take unrivaled thermal management one step further we integrated a temperature sensor into the main heat transfer wall, the sensor constantly relays the current temperature readings to a "electronic brain" that will automatically reduce power to the LED's if they do get to hot. Mtbr Bike Lights Shootout - over 50 bike lights reviewed, photographed and measured here.
Submitted by
redshift
a Weekend Warrior
from Scottsdale
Date Reviewed: October 20, 2010
Strengths: Decent light
Weaknesses: Horrible battery and customer service, case is a piece of junk
Bottom Line:
Used this light less than a dozen times. Started having battery connection issues early on. Now can't connect to battery at all as the female connection (Battery side) has failed. Sent back to NiteRider and they refuse to do anything but sell me another battery for $160.00.
Also have a MOAB lite. Battery failed on this as well after very little use. NiteRider says they discontinued the battery completely, but I can buy another type of battery AND charger for $244.00 but the battery has only half the run time of the original (long battery life was the whole point to the Moab!) . So - after a very significant investment, I'm stuck with a bunch of useless parts.
EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED. I thought NiteRider was a better company than this. There are too many choices out there to offer such inferior products and high prices and lousy customer service to top it all off.
Bike Setup: Yeti 575 / Talas / RP23 / Spinergy Xyclones / Sram XX
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Submitted by
gadget1
a Cross Country Rider
from melbourne, victoria
Date Reviewed: May 11, 2010
Strengths: awesome bright spot, long throwing beam, solid mounts, great head unit if a little high on the head. Seems brighter than other similarly rated units.
Weaknesses: the switch is on the battery, not the light. cable is attached to battery meaning you can't replace it easily or use a shorter cable when mounting on the bike. heavier than ay ups but seem to me to be brighter.
Bottom Line:
I'm happy with the light, though the price to power advantage it had when i brought it seems to be diminishing.
Submitted by
mhinde
a Cross Country Rider
from Manchester, UK
Date Reviewed: October 22, 2009
Strengths: The power from this light is pretty damn good. On night rides I constantly get sent to the front of the group, which means I get to see more wildlife as my lights saturate everybody elses. I initially used it on the handlebars, but the narrow beam coupled with some narrow twisty singletrack, meant scrubbing speed off far too regularly. I've since started using the helmet mount, which is where this light belongs. It's a little heavier than some other lights, but positioned and angled correctly you'll have it set up perfectly. Fast charger is pretty damn quick. Think a full charge is about 3-4 hours. The 4 different light settings are very handy. The lowest beam setting is usually enough for all but the most technical of off-road trails. Used on the road bike gets some pedestrians stopping in their tracks to marvel at the brightness of this thing. Lightweight battery. Odd how it attaches to your bag strap when used as a headtorch, but there's no other way to do it. Get used to it after a couple of miles.
Weaknesses: Stiff on/off button, which is hard to operate with gloves. My first battery stopped switching on after about a dozen rides, despite being fully charged. Sent back to shop who sent back to Niteflux who swapped it after a month of no nightriding :-(
Bottom Line:
Overall a superb light. I only ave it a 4 as i'm still kind of expecting the battery button to fail me again like the last one did, which means I need to buy and carry a spare light. When the light works it's flippin fantastic, but may piss off your mates who have lesser systems. If your ride incorporates many pub stops, it can be a pit of a pain in the arse taking your pack off with your battery still attached to the strap, but you'll get used to this.
If you want a super bright headlight and don't mind a bit of fiddling, then get this.
Similar Products Used: NiteRider - Ni-Cad & Ni-Mh batteries both gave up after a few dozen rides. Held very little charge.
Smart (Halogen lights) - Only 10 watt halogen bulbs but very good. Transformer/chargers gave up before the light did.
Bike Setup: Identiti Singlespeed, Marin full suspension, Marin Rocky Ridge, Fort road bike.
Strengths: light weight, cheap, customer service, designed by actual cyclists, performance.instruction manual is easy to read and detailed.
Weaknesses: none.
Bottom Line:
i won my last 24hr state champs with this light. it rained all night and lots o mud. my support crew could swap batteries easy. it mounts on and off quickly.
Similar Products Used: cateye stadium, moonshine, vision stick 10w.
Bike Setup: sworks epic carbon
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Submitted by
klavnick
a Cross Country Rider
from london
Date Reviewed: February 26, 2009
Strengths: bright but brightness does fade after an hour.
Weaknesses: weak button. broke after 4 rides! rubber button became depressed in housing and exposed all the circuit boards. needless to say I didn't hang about in sending it back!
Bottom Line:
not good. good if you poodle to the shops and carefully press the deep set button with due diligence. but surely XC lights shouldn't need too much namby pamby care? they are, after all supposed to be tough?!
Similar Products Used: now running a seca race 700. more reliable, but more money! but what's the point in saving a few bob if it goes wrong?!
Bike Setup: I ride Klein
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Submitted by
Dennis Sutherland
a Weekend Warrior
from Sydney,NSW,Australia
Date Reviewed: February 4, 2009
Strengths: Light weight, mind blowingly bright, extra wide beam
Weaknesses: So far its awesome, can’t fault it
Bottom Line:
f you buy it you will love it, it is just completely mad bright.
The head unit is been fully optimized to be the best possible heat sink, if your read some of the info that LED manufactures make available you will quickly understand that the cooler you run LEDs the brighter they are the thermal management of LEDs is very important.
NiteFLUX call there headlight a Forced Air Heat Sink, it weighs a scant 115grams and when you pick it up it is freaky light weight, top and bottom covers are there to focus and duct front air pressure from the front of the light through a deeply finned heat sink, air is allowed to exit through exhausts ports at the rear of the light.
It works like top end bicycle helmet but instead of your head getting cooled the LEDs are getting cooled.
The switch and the power control electronics for the light are built into the top of the battery this keeps the headlight light weight and also means the headlight is not cluttered up with bulky switch or power electronics, adding the switch to the headlight would compromise the flow through thermal design of the headlight.
I would also imagine that these potentially fragile electronic parts are better situated away from the extreme heat and the knocks and bumps that headlights do get on the trail.
When helmet mounting I strap the battery to the shoulder strap of my hydration pack this positions the switch close to my body and it easy to change modes if I want, this works better than any other lighting design that I have used while helmet mounting.
Reaching up to your helmet is not ideal and having to fit a remote switch somewhere is a pain and in the past remote switches have not been reliable for me, so I actually find the switch in the battery perfect.
Who should buy it any one who wants a smoken hot light with 5 power modes and a programmable race mode which allows you to toggle between the 20 wattt High Beam and second beam of your choice makes it ideal for racers, commuter and trainers.
I actually bought a y-cord and spare charger as well this allows you to link 2 chargers together via a y-cord to recharge the battery in 2 hours instead of the standard 4 hours, this allows you to recharge faster than you can discharge, if you are charging up between laps in a Enduro team race situation. NiteFLUX call this piggy back charging, so for the cost of y-cord and charger you can negate the need for buy a expensive second battery.
I think it also worth mentioning that NiteFLUX is one of very few companies that claim to have AAA Gold Standard Charge control, when you buy a rechargeable light one of its most important features is that it reliably recharges without any danger of over or under charging. NiteFLUX have proprietary charge electronics called Intelligent Charge Control, that apparently automatically analyzes the battery cells every second of the charge cycle for temperature, voltage and voltage balance between the cells.
Unlike most lighting companies NiteFLUX give a full 12months warranty on the battery and charger where 3 months appears to be standard for other lighting companies.
I also believe you can leave the NiteFLUX batteries on the charge for as long as you like and once the batteries are charged the system goes to sleep mode and doesn’t use any more power than a DVD player on standby.
Anyway riding my favorite trails with a light that just rocks when the trails are nearly empty is just the best.
very bright light, very nice. Spread is good. I heard that the first gen. model had a narrower spread than the 2nd generation. I must have the second generation or a different perspective on the whole thing 'cos it's more than adequate.
White light means things look less indistinct if a little harsh. It penetrates mist well and copes well with roots and fast singletrack.
Haven't tried the helmet mount.
Would recommend this but you should expect a couple of quirky things - firstly the switch button feels a bit soggy and unreliable. I am told it isn't broken, that's just the way it is! Secondly you have to detach the whole unit when you park up if you want to keep your light and not have it nicked by a marauding chav. this means you have to readjust the beam everytime. I guess it's made for racing or some pursuit where you don't have to take it off very often.
Long term reliability is still unknown but niteflux do a year warrenty even on the battery so that's a good thing! (considering replacement battery costs around £146!
As for bang for your pount, this light is king.
Bike Setup: Klein Attitude XV w/XTR & Thompson throughout & MAVIC xc717's
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Submitted by
ebkid
a Weekend Warrior
from Devon UK
Date Reviewed: January 21, 2009
Strengths: Bright Bright Bright
Weaknesses: Difficult to operate switch if waring gloves. Mount not great. To small to fit in bottle cage to big to put else where. Mine failure after a 40minute ride in heavy rain. Shop said I was'nt the only one they had had this problem with.
Bottom Line:
Don't use in the rain or take extra measures to prevent the battery getting wet.
Submitted by
TCW
a Cross Country Rider
from norman, ok
Date Reviewed: January 16, 2009
Strengths: really bright, great color rendering, white beam not tending toward blue or yellow - just neutral, perfect beam spread (newer model), works best as helmet light, good burn times, fast recharging
Weaknesses: weird shape, if used on the helmet with included mount it could stand a little too high, cylinder shaped battery, power button is stiff
Bottom Line:
I received this as a gift from the wife for X-Mas. I confirmed that it is the newer model that has a little more spread, probably around 15 - 20 degrees. It still has massive punch if you wanted to use for commuting or flying down straight fire roads.
I own a Giro Hex helmet and am able to mount the light head directly to it without using the helmet mount. by doing this the light head sits really low on the helmet. All I had to do is pick up a longer screw for the base. The screw goes through the middle vent where a washer secures it on the other side. The vent is perfectly sized to accomodate the bottom of the light plus its power cord. I tried it on my E2 helemt with helmt and found it sits much higher and can be felt due to the higher center of gravity. The match with the Hex makes for awesome synergy between the two products. I'll post pics in the forum soon.
Awesome product for my needs. Best beam and brightness I've seen thus far. Never seen a Betty in person.
Similar Products Used: lots of halogens including DIY, ARC HID
Bike Setup: Full suspension cross country rig built a little on the burly side, i.e., dual coil Marzocchi Marathon up front, XT components, Cane Creek wheels
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Submitted by
dochendo
a Weekend Warrior
from Raleigh, NC
Date Reviewed: January 14, 2009
Strengths: Good Golly it's bright! Great run time. Battery is light, not that big. Solid construction. Good response from manufacturer on questions.
Weaknesses: None yet
Bottom Line:
Holy Mackeral!! Even taking in to account the fact that I have been using 10-15 watt halogens for commuting, with 45-minute battery runs, this thing is amazing. When they say don't shine it at people, they mean it. In five dark commutes, I've now had two oncoming cars blink their brights at me. In a morning rain run, with it in the flashing mode, cars were slowing, I guess thinking I was some kind of emergency vehicle.
Really, this is a top-notch light, without reservation. I can't comment on trail riding, though with its blow-torch light it should be great. As a headlight for commuting (which the company says you shouldn't do because of "dazzling" people), it's as good as I've ever seen, including HID's.
When I bought this light at the time I was deciding between this and the Hope 4 LED - I was in Wales at the Whites Level at the time - I plumped for the Niteflux.
Basically this light is bright, very bright but a bit narrow on the beam. However, when mounted on the helmet and bombing down technical singletrack this is where it's best. As a bar-mounted light, I find it a little narrow as I prefer a wider flood.
I've also found a little issue with the power button. Mine has a habit of staying depressed when I click it which is a bit of a pain when I need to up the power when just beginning my descent.
I've read a lot of people having issues accessing the button when riding. I find the best place to hook the battery pack is around the shoulder-strap of the rucsac. I hook mine aroung just above the chest strap near my camelbak spout - try this, easy to find and weight does not knock the bag off-line as well.
Overall, for hardcore-singletrack, helmet-mounted with a lower handle-bar light is where this light is at it's best (albeit a little heavy on the helmet)
Favorite Trail: Anything that gets me out on my bike
Duration Product Used: 1 Year
Price Paid:
$225.00
Purchased At: ChainReactionCycles
Similar Products Used: Cateye Single-Shot, Exposure Maxx-D 2009
Bike Setup: Commencal Meta 4.2
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Submitted by
Pemz0r
a Cross Country Rider
from Newport Beach, CA, USA
Date Reviewed: November 21, 2008
Strengths: Just got the light today (had to order it at Sport Chalet through J and B imports) and used it for the first time tonight. This light shoots nothing but amazing :D. It comes with a carrying case that houses, the battery, charger, two mounts; one for the handle bars and one for the helmet. I mounted it on my helmet and placed the battery in my Camelpak. The light coverage is stellar, it covers single track easily and fire road. The light has four modes, flash, and three modes of brightness.
Weaknesses: Setting it up took 20min but once that's set it was good to go.
Bottom Line:
Great price for 800 lumens. Cheers to the Aussies.
Bike Setup: Cannondale Jekyll with Fox 36 Talas. Love this bike!
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Submitted by
HuckaBarryHound
a Weekend Warrior
from Auburn, Wa
Date Reviewed: October 24, 2008
Strengths: Good helment mount, Bright full coverage, very good LUX per dollar.
Weaknesses: switch is not ideal
Bottom Line:
I tested this on a technical 3.5 hour ride that I have been doing with my L&M HID all fall. I’ve used the L&M on my helmet for the past several years. The ride has tons of steep, fast, and technical downhill single track and some ripping downhill fire roads. The trails are covered in roots and this time of year they are wet and treacherous if you don’t see them clearly. The Photon Max was far better than the L&M HID.
Beam and Brightness.
I’ve read that the beam in narrow, but I suppose that is all relative. The L&M has a fairly small spot surrounded by a uniform, much dimmer flood. The Photon max has a much bigger bright spot. With the L&M I am very aware of EXACTLY where my head is pointed because it needs to be exact in order to light the correct spot. With the Photon I found I wasn’t even thinking about it. It lights a huge area. The difference between high and medium seemed minimal. I did the ride on medium so that I wouldn’t have to worry about battery life. Even on the high speed fire road I didn’t outrun the light. On the medium setting this light was far superior to the old HID on high. It was as bright and it lighted a bigger area. We did an informal brightness test with my buddies Lupine Betty (800 lumen) and I couldn’t tell the difference.
Mounting.
The helmet mount is similar to the L&M HID. I don’t like a light that hangs on the front of the helmet because it makes a heavy lever up there that tends to move your helmet around. This one mounts on top center so it is well balanced and light. The light head is about the same size at the L&M HID. The vertical adjustment is pretty course compared to the L&M but it wasn’t an issue because it wasn’t so critical due to the large beam.
Switch.
The switch kinda sucks. I understand that there is no room for it on the light head due to all the cooling fins. Having it on the battery eliminates the possibility of putting the battery in your pack and forgetting about it. I tried it in both my baggie pockets and my jersey rear pockets. It fits nice and is not too heavy, but the switch is a difficult. You have to have a very good grip on the battery to depress it. It is recessed in a hole that my thumb or gloved finger can’t (at least not easily) fit into. There is no way I could change modes while riding (ok, maybe with some practice and technique, but it will never be easy). I’d like to see a pigtail from the battery like the Lupine has the pigtail from the light head. Having said all that… Since the light was more than ample on the medium setting (5 hours) I will leave it on that setting the entire ride and don’t expect to deal with the switch often.
I am shocked and a blown away by the quality of the light produced from these LED’s and the build quality of this light. I really didn’t expect it to compete with an HID. Based on the LUX levels on the mtbr light review pages, this light far exceeds any other light in the price range and competes with the expensive Lupines (actually a bit brighter according to their measurements). At this point I’d recommend it wholeheartedly to anybody looking to move into the LED world.
Similar Products Used: Nite rider and Marwi halogens, L&M HID
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Submitted by
Loobster
a Cross Country Rider
from Glasgow
Date Reviewed: August 31, 2008
Strengths: Immense light output, 4 modes, light weight, good battery
Weaknesses: Helmet mount, bulky head for helmet mounting, selector switch on battery
Bottom Line:
From the second you switch this light on, you know it's the real deal. It really does give an awsome beam, first saw it in a showroom in daylight and it was still way bright. Intense light output on max, even with 1000 lumen Hope on the handle bar, this light outshines it with its tight superbright spot. Probably a bit of a tight beam compared to some, and the head is a bit bulky when used as a helmet light, but still by far the most impressive light I have switched on. Available for £150 in the UK, half the price of the HOPE. I wish I bought this fit could have save myself a wad of Cash.
Similar Products Used: Hope 4 LED, Cateye triple shot and triple shot PRO, Cygolite TRIDENX.
Bike Setup: Airborne liberator hardtail, R7's, Magura louise, XT
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Submitted by
Derek
a Racer
from Melbourne, Australia
Date Reviewed: June 4, 2008
Strengths: Very Bright in all 3 static settings Excellent in flashing mode in Traffic Good Battery Life - Simple to use
Weaknesses: None yet identified
Bottom Line:
I ride to work everyday in traffic in Australia's 2nd Largest City (Melbourne). I have noticed that since I have been using the Photon Max on flashing mode even in broad daylight, cars, pedestrians and even other cyclists give me more room and think twice before cutting / turning in front of me.
If you travel at speed in congested areas and want to be seen this is a must have - the extra safety margin it provides is worth a lot more than the price of the light.
I can now confidently ride at speed in all but the worst traffic conditions knowing that I am very visible. As an example on blinking mode, the light reflects off road signage that is over 300 metres down the road - this is not a mis-print 300 metres!!!
Fantastic product - I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to commute to work at speed and be able to ride confidently and assertively in traffic.
