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Specialized
ProView Solo Alkaline
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Submitted by
PAUL
a Weekend Warrior
from TORONTO
Date Reviewed: May 8, 2000 | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Strengths: | Cheap, 12 watt bulb. | | Weaknesses: | Eats batteries like crazy! -you must use good (exspensive) batteries in order to get full brightness. | | Similar Products Used: | nite rider headtrip | | Bottom Line: | I like many users bought this because it was cheap. The first race I loaded the light with cheap batteries, needless to say it was not very fun. My light was very dim and my 4AA handlebar mounted light was doing a better job 25 mins. into my ride. What a difference when you use the good batteries (duracells and energizer). I got over 2 hours burn time and some good light coverage. Not a bad job at all this time.
I have since bought a Nite rider headtrip Nimh system. its only 10 watts but the light is so much brighter than the 12 watt pro-view even with new batteries. The alkalines must not provide enough juice to the light itself. The ProView light works a lot better when I attach the nite rider battery pack to the light. So perhaps the problem is solved by getting a better battery pack.
The light has a wider coverage than the nite riders focused beam making it great for a handlebar setup. This system was a good value play. In the end it gets exspensive replacing the batteries so one may have to buy a rechargable battery pack for the system like many other riders on this site have already done. If you dont do a lot of night rides this is a great inexspensive system to start out with. | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
ToddM
a Weekend Warrior
from ND
Date Reviewed: December 25, 1999 | | Favorite Trail: |
Sleepy Hollow | | Duration Product Used: |
3 months | | Strengths: |
Cheap $20 from performance on clearance.
great occasional use light blows other $20 lights away. | | Weaknesses: |
Horrible wiring, alkaline a poor choice for lights, iffy switch. | | Similar Products Used: |
nightsun, nightrider, turbocat, homemade systems. | | Bike Setup: |
Giant 890 | | Bottom Line: | For $20 and some D cell batteries if you only ride now and then you can't beat this light. However I know 3 guys that bought these and none of them have yet to get the stated 4 hours of run time on any set of alkalines. Retail I think is around $40-50 and for that price it's less of a deal. The stock wire is junk it was smaller than some 24ga I had around so I replaced it with some 16ga. I also used some 4.5amp/hr nicad's I had around those two changes improved the light consideralbly. I give it 3 stars stock with the ability to hit 5 stars with a couple adjustments. Mine now will rival a 15 watt niterider. | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Tracy
a Cross-Country Rider
from Elyria, Ohio
Date Reviewed: December 13, 1999 | | Favorite Trail: |
Hinckley | | Duration Product Used: |
6 months | | Strengths: |
Inexpensive, easy to install and best of all you can keep spare batteries in your camelback. | | Weaknesses: |
I haven't found one, it does what I need it to do. | | Similar Products Used: |
Cateye HL500 | | Bike Setup: |
My bike is my own creation made form bits and pieces of other bikes. It's blue. | | Bottom Line: | This is a great product. I now use high capacity NiCAD D cells 4500mAh and get two and a half hours of run time (heavy though) plus I keep a set of NiMH D cells 2200mAh (only 45 minutes of run time there) in a tube within my camelback just in case. Can't really do that with the more expensive lights. | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Eric
a Weekend Warrior
from Johnson City, TN
Date Reviewed: November 20, 1999 | | Favorite Trail: |
Blue Trail | | Duration Product Used: |
1 Year | | Strengths: |
Cheap, it works | | Weaknesses: |
It works for a short time | | Bottom Line: | Instead of alkaline, I run Nickel Metal hydride 'D' cells. They are half the weight and infinitely rechargeable. Don't run to Wal-mart looking for these batteries. I bought over the internet from a place in Miami. Type in nickel metal hydride on a search engine and hopefully the place will come up. One word of caution, the run time is only 45 minutes on a set of batteries. (So I have two sets) I ride trails with this light slowly, I look forward to having a bar mount to go along with this light. The helmet mount and waist battery pack work just fine. This isn't a 200 light, so don't compare it to one | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Mike S.
a Cross-Country Rider
from San Diego
Date Reviewed: October 27, 1999 | | Duration Product Used: |
3 months | | Strengths: |
Cheap, for $29 at performance comes with a waist pack a helmet mount and a bar mount. | | Weaknesses: |
Not very bright loses power rapidly. battery pack weighs a ton. | | Similar Products Used: |
Nightrider | | Bike Setup: |
Vrx400 | | Bottom Line: | Cheap,works as a communting light. Not very good on technical trails. Good for low light demands, If you want to do any fast night rides save your money and buy a real light: Nightrider, Jet systems or performance brand lights. | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
John Silvey
a Cross-Country Rider
from Austin, Texas
Date Reviewed: October 26, 1999 | | Favorite Trail: |
City Park, Austin | | Duration Product Used: |
3 months | | Strengths: |
Price
Light head, bulb | | Weaknesses: |
under-sized cable
dependancy on D-cells (Alk or NiCad) | | Similar Products Used: |
none | | Bike Setup: |
Trek 970 w/everything upgraded | | Bottom Line: | At the close-out prices, the light head was a decent buy. After finding too much
voltage drop on the cable from the water bottle to the light head, I replaced the cable
with a length of 18 gauge black lamp cord, which fixed that problem. Then, I found
too much voltage drop across the batteries - alk. apparently have a relatively high internal resistance when attempting to pull 2 amps of current from them. I then threw
out the water bottle and bought a new 6V, 4.5AH sealed lead acid bat, wired it up, and
things work fine now - getting the full, spec'ed 12 watts of power and 1hr 45 minutes
run time.
| Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Alacritas
a Weekend Warrior
from Alabama
Date Reviewed: October 3, 1999 | | Duration Product Used: |
less than 1 month | | Strengths: |
bang for the buck @$29, makes a good helmet light | | Weaknesses: |
faulty switch | | Similar Products Used: |
my friends use Niterider | | Bike Setup: |
I have the alkaline and the nicad version | | Bottom Line: | I got the Alkaline version on Aug 31. I've used it for about 20 rides (both city and trail rides, which = ~20 hours & 12 battery cycles) as of Oct 3, and the switch quit working. In fact, I was still a long way from my house when it quit, and I had to rewire around the switch to get home. I haven't decided if I'll ask Performance to just replace it, or credit the $29 to a different light.
I bought that light to replace a homemade light that was starting to give me some trouble. I already had 5 high capacity D cells that were still pretty green. I tried alkalines in it once, and the light's brightness is the same with either set of batteries.
The light output is pretty adequate. It just looks like 12 watts. It's a bit brighter than a Niterider 10w, and less bright than a Niterider 15w. I actually like the light pattern better than some others because it has a spot beam with a bit of a flood ring; it's a great pattern for a helmet light, but I won't mind more of a flood pattern for the handlebar.
I've been using a Proview Nicad version as a helmet light for almost a year now, and it's given me no problems. I have no idea how many times I've charged it. The trick is to make sure you don't overcharge it. The bulb is really easy to replace--two screws unlock the wires from the back. Now that the switch just died on the newer alkaline one, I'm feeling paranoid about my older nicad one.
I have used the waistpack a time or two for city riding, but mostly I use it to keep the pieces together for storage. I put the battery in my hydration pack for trail riding & helmet mount.
Someone below commented that the helmet mount is cheasy plastic. It's plastic, but I skidded down a mountain for 10 yards on my head (and additional yardage on other body parts--ouch) and didn't harm the mount. The helmet mount doesn't fit well on a lot of helmets, however. You'll probably have to sandwich some extra rubber underneath it if you use a Bell helmet, so that the beam won't bounce around on the trail.
The bar mount is okay except that the bolt rusts quickly.
Well, I doubt that there's much more to tell about this light. Happy trails. | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Josh
a Cross-Country Rider
from NH
Date Reviewed: August 29, 1999 | | Duration Product Used: |
tested or demo'ed only | | Bottom Line: | If someone could email me and let me know how many batteries this light takes i would greatly appreciate it. jschoef@hotbot.com | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
PAUL
a Cross-Country Rider
from CALI
Date Reviewed: August 29, 1999 | | Favorite Trail: |
ANTHING W/DIRT | | Duration Product Used: |
tested or demo'ed only | | Strengths: |
LOW PRICE | | Weaknesses: |
NOT TOO BRIGHT | | Similar Products Used: |
NIGHT RIDER CYCLOPS | | Bike Setup: |
HARD TAIL | | Bottom Line: | I HAVE THE NIGHT RIDER AND MY BUDDY HAS THE SPECIALIZED. THERE IS NO COMPARISON, THE NIGHT RIDER OUT SHINES THE SPECIALIZED BY 2 OR 3 TIMES!!!ALSO, I DON'T THINK AN ALKALINE SYSTEM IS BETTER. WE'VE GONE ON MANY RIDES AND MY BUDDY HAS ALREADY REPLACED THE BATTERIES MANY TIMES WHICH ARE ADDING UP THE $$$$$$'S. ME ON THE OTHER HAND ARE STILL ON THE $100'S THAT I SPENT ON THE NIGHT RIDER CYCLOPS 15W. WITHIN A FEW MONTHS MY BUD WILL HAVE SPENT MORE THAN I HAVE AND WILL HAVE AN INFERIOR PRODUCT. THE SPECIALIZED IS GOOD FOR THOSE WHO DON'T RIDE TOO MUCH AT NIGHT AND ONLY WANT ENOUGH LIGHT TO SUPPLEMENT THE STREET LIGHTS AND BE SEEN BY MOTORISTS. THERE ARE TIMES WHEN MY FRIEND HAS OUT RIDDEN THE CAPABILITIES OF THE LIGHT ON FAST DESCENTS. THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION. BE CAUTIOUS AND ONLY BUY THIS LIGHT FOR THE REASONS I MENTIONED ABOVE. | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
thummin
a Cross-Country Rider
from out there
Date Reviewed: June 7, 1999 | | Duration Product Used: |
less than 1 month | | Strengths: |
Cheap; core system is really well made | | Weaknesses: |
Cheesy accessories; short battery life (?) | | Bottom Line: | I bought this light for $30 from Performance. Shipping, currency conversion and tax brought the total up to about $65 Cdn. The light is well made, with flashy red rubber gaskets that probably seal out water effectively ( I haven't tested). The water-bottle battery holder is sturdy, with the power cable leaving at an angle to reduce stress (nice touch). The power switch is rubberized, on the top of the light itself, which seems cleaner than the high-end convention of putting the switch at the end of a wire that fastens elsewhere on the handlebar. The helmet mount is kind of cheesy, just a big chunk of plastic and Velcro straps. The fanny pack for the battery is cheesier yet, and useless for general use (well, you might carry a water bottle in it).The handlebar mount is almost exactly like a Cateye portable mount, only incompatible. :( If you put the Specialized mount on with the little arrow pointing toward the front of the bike, the light will point backward. Is that not counter-intuitive?I haven't used a lot of good lights so I can't compare the light quality, but I will say that I can definately outride the lighted distance on a on a road bike riding a paved trail. Much better than aforementioned Cateye but it ain't no headlight.I put Kodak alkaline batteries in my light. I've gone on two night rides (1 hour total light use) and the low battery warning light has already come on. I'm not particularly happy about that; you're supposed to get 4 hours of light. Maybe the warning light comes on really early. Maybe Kodak batteries suck.Overall, I think this light is a really good value. If you're not constantly riding at night, alkaline batteries are a good low-cost alternative. I expect to pay $10 year to take a night ride every 2-3 weeks from April to October. | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Ben Brown
a Racer
from Blacksburg, VA
Date Reviewed: April 29, 1999 | | Favorite Trail: |
Brush Mountain | | Duration Product Used: |
3 months | | Strengths: |
Price, run time, design, quality, versatility. | | Weaknesses: |
Coiled cords. | | Similar Products Used: |
NiteRider, and TurboCat | | Bike Setup: |
I have one setup on the handlebar, using my frame mounted bottle cage for the battery, and the other on my helmet with battery in the provided waist pack. | | Bottom Line: | Can't beat this product for the price! It is solid, and does the job. Though it isn't as bright as the $200 lites out there it provides plenty of light for those high-speed technical downhills, and lasts about 4 hours, though if you nurse them by turning off one on climbs, or both on bright moonlit nights you can ride longer. I could not have justified a fancy $200 system to ride at night no more than I do, this was just the ticket! I got two sets each for myself and a friend at Performance on sale for $29 per light. A steal! They usually go for $59, which is still reasonable if compared to other options. I lucked out and hit the sale the week before our first 12HR race of the season. 5 X 10 chilis flambeau for the quality and versatility of this product at this bargain of a $. | | Overall Rating: |
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