Solarstorm X2 bike light review

Here's my review of the SolarStorm X2. Please like and subscribe.
Music by the Librarians: / the-librarians
More info can be found here:
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[@Wasmachineman]

Wasmachineman NL from MTBR here, I also own a X2 and now a X3, and I LOVE THEM! Bright as hell and with a 18650 battery holder and a laptop battery pack, they will work long too!

[@ThespankedoneRidesReviews]

Which battery pack are you using mate?

[@Wasmachineman]

Can't seem to find it anymore, if I do get it found I'll get back to you.

[@Wasmachineman]

Found it: www.aliexpress.com/item/Rechargeable-Waterproof-2-x-18650-4-x-18650-Battery-Box-for-Bike-Light/1628382152.html

[@ThespankedoneRidesReviews]

Perfect thanks. Your the second one to recommend these battery boxes. And it makes sense to remove the weakest link (the crap battery) and replace it with some thing better. Can you still charge this from the solarstorm wall charger or do you remove the cells for charging?

[@Wasmachineman]

I use my SolarStorm charger and it charges fine with laptop battery pack cells.

[@DamianReed]

I love this light, nice and cheap and the build quality looks ok.

[@ThespankedoneRidesReviews]

It's a reasonable entry level light :)

[@HEADSHOTLEE]

Thanks just what I needed to make my mind up. 👍

[@alexanderpanaretos9364]

I used an phone app to measure lux and compare this light's output to that of a nitecore br35, witch gives 1800 lumen. The app measured 62 lux for the solarstorm and 161 lux for the nitecore. So if their ratio is 2.597, the output of the solarstorm x2 should be close to 700 lumen

[@vallenlarsen5519]

*Here's the scoop.* To start out, it's a great light. The light output is absolutely amazing. Its like a car headlight! The problem is that inside of this little bugger there is an aluminum plate the LED's are soldered to. This plate gets hot... Really hot. The heat is supposed to transfer from that plate to the black aluminum body and it does. It just doesn't do it enough. So... There are a couple modifications i made in order to effectively dissipate from the system. The first mod is really simple. Where the hot aluminum plate rests against the body, (it is pushed against a little lip on the inside of the body) I simply put some thermal paste all around the edge. That brings the efficiency of heat transfer up to close to 85%, where without it, the plate can get dangerously hot and greatly reduce the life of the LED's. Now the heat transfers to the body really well, but the body can and will get too hot to touch. I fixed that with a heatsink. The way i installed the heatsink was with superglue. First i sanded off all the nasty black stuff they coated the light with (it stinks really bad so you don't wanna breathe in the dust) and put a thin coating of superglue where they would go together, and i lightly and gently set the sink on the top of the body so i could position it before clamping it down good. To be honest, superglue reacts with the moisture in the air to set, so a few good hot breaths on both pieces before you apply the glue should really help the process. After i did all that, I replaced the plastic mount on the bottom with a Cateye H27 light mount by removing the foam and unscrewing the screw and then screwing the Cateye piece to it. Then a tiny dab of superglue later and i have a real amazing light. I made my own monster battery pack for it and it burns for four hours on high power before the pack shuts off. So... All that being said, I do recommend this light, but i recommend it even more if you wanna take some time and use some resources to make it better. I will probably have this light for many years and it will last a very long time *because* of the modifications I have made to dissipate all the heat the LED's produce. Without the modifications, well... You get what you pay for. A six month light.

[@teresarodger7850]

Any pictures of the mods?

[@dedskin1]

dont waste time . No matter what you do it wont last more then a year , 2 years max . And you have a warranty for 1 years . After that it is designed to fail . if it does not they have to pay fines . We have technology to make 100 year light , in 1900's. The reason lights fail in a year in 2000's is because they are designed to die . No matter what you do , you cant change that . Dont waste time it will die just after the warranty or somewhere around

[@vallenlarsen5519]

The Shabbs No, but I have pictures of my mom in the shower.

[@vallenlarsen5519]

Pavle Pavlovic And YOU are just an ass full of piss.

[@dedskin1]

Vallen Larsen i dont know why would you said that . i have the same light . I dont want it to fail , but watch the lightbulb conspiracy and youll understand .

[@stuartstuart321]

Awesome. Cheap super bright. Only decent light I’ve ever had. Good when power is out as well.

[@PORKCHOPPED01]

Great review thanks for it.It certainly helps with making the decision to buy.

[@eaniv1730]

Okay cheers mate as I have ordered one, nice channel mate, keep it up! 👌

[@ThespankedoneRidesReviews]

Thanks Earvin :)

[@freedom8480]

I like the look if the light. Looks like "johnny5" (nummer 5 lebt) Have one myself, made a bigger batterie-pack and its perfect.

[@jaysealenduro5618]

Mine is weird when...you know there's a 3 led indicator and only 2 is lighting up it means 50% mine will shut down and it won't turn on at 50% why is that?

[@ThespankedoneRidesReviews]

more than likely a dodgy battery fella.

[@AustinPetDetective]

Sorry didn't know the light went red until you plug it in to charge !!!.

[@AustinPetDetective]

Do you mean the green light goes out on the charger when it is fully charged ?. .

[@crallo10]

Could I use my 12V battery(3s2p) with this light?? Thank you!

[@dunchallas1]

They don't last. Mine blanked out with minimal usage. It charges fine just wont switch on.

[@JLEMUS30]

add a 7.4 lipo and this light rocks and kick ass all u need is get rid of the battery and replace it with lipo

[@SADilNikad]

I do not like this holder and all this cables. But for this money, it is the best you can find. By the way, I pay for this 30 euros ($36) in Southeast Europe.

[@eaniv1730]

How durable is this Martyn? Thinking about getting one as my light is very poor, Cheers!

[@ThespankedoneRidesReviews]

It works. Although its durability is hit and miss. This ones been fine so far although several people on Peterborough mountain bike riders have had batteries issues. That being said they've all had replacements sent out to them. but it's darn inconvenient when your light dies on you leaving you in the cold dark out doors. Basically it'll do the job. But how long for I can't say.

[@tome4846]

TheSpankedOne Those battery packs are always hit or miss. Some may be decent, but some are almost useless. I recently ordered this light, and I already plan to make my own battery pack with 4 good 18650 cells. I will reuse the plug and the pouch, and keep the 4 cells to use in our household flashlights, where reliability isn't as important.

[@Munzer1977]

what's the name of the song at the end?

[@JamieMale]

Can someone tell me what output is the charger for these? I got this light without a charger so unsure how to tell when battery is full

[@alexanderpanaretos9364]

It is 8.4 V 1A. Positive center

[@jameshone1000]

can you do a vid of the x3 that's come out

[@ThespankedoneRidesReviews]

+jameshone1000 I current have no plans to review the x3

[@47f0]

Meh. I've ridden for several years with an old-style "MagicShine" clone single-LED light, so I was excited to get this one - After all, it had twice as many LEDs so it had to be twice as good, right? Well - not so much. First, a word about Chinese lumen claims: They typically exceed the spec sheets for the LEDs they profess to use. Actually, they typically exceed the spec sheet for any LED known on this planet and several nearby civilized star systems. When combined with the claimed run times, it takes only a little math to realize that this humble battery pack, which at first glance looks like a handful of bin 2 or bin 3 18650 reject batteries, is actually a cleverly-disguised quantum point source energy harvester. That, or the claimed lumens and run times are bollocks. Always. Nevertheless, I was eager to compare it to my old MagicCloneShine light. After all, 2 LEDs vs 1 LED, and they have to have done something clever with the optics, like making one side a little wider, near-field beam and the other side a distance spot. Or maybe they did something neat with the electronics - like a strobe mode that toggles between the LEDs. Or maybe, one LED could strobe with the other steady, or... well, actually, never mind. They did nothing clever at all with the optics. Aimed at my garage door, the beams of the MagicCloneShine and the SolarStorm were identical in coverage, typical Chinese pencil spots, with the only difference being that I noticed, for the first time, that my old MagicCloneShine had a slight yellow-green tint - something I'd never realized. So a slight edge to the SolarStorm for color. On the road, cycling through the modes, they had also done nothing clever with the electronics - both LEDs do much the same thing in all modes. Both the MagicCloneShine and the SolarStorm lit up reflective road signs a half mile down the road about equally well. Otherwise, no real functional difference. There are a couple areas where the MagicCloneShine wins - in its lowest setting, compared to the lowest setting on the SolarStorm, the run time for the MagicCloneShine is about 2 hours longer - a bit over 7 hours vs a bit over 5 hours for the SolarStorm, something I had occasion to test during the Hurricane Irma power outage, using my bike lights around the house at night and charging them at a neighbor's who had a generator during the day. Swapping the chargers and battery packs made no difference; the SolarStorm simply eats electrons slightly faster at both units lowest setting . The MagicCloneShine also has a slightly more narrow slot for the mounting rubber band than the SolarStorm. In practice, this means the rubber bands are more likely to stay with the MagicCloneShine than they are with the SolarStorm when tossed in a pannier or seat bag. Other than that, there's no clear winner. I suppose the only significant difference is appearance, and in appearance, the SolarStorm bears an undeniable resemblance to Johnny 5, the star of the movie, 'Short Circuit'. That may be all the reason you need to get this light.

[@tshepp89]

Nice one bro! lol.

[@GernotKlingler]

Does it remember the mode after disconnecting and reconnecting it from the battery? E.g. if it's switched on at medium intensity, will it continue to shine at this setting after I disconnect and reconnect the battery or do I have to switch it on and select mode again. I'd like to turn the light on/off with a custom handlebar switch by simply switching the power supply.

[@superiority7158]

The cygolite pro 1100 is better then any cheap solar storm

[@jaysealenduro5618]

dude how many lumens?

[@ThespankedoneRidesReviews]

Impossible to know. Some will be brighter than others. and I don't have a test rig.

[@mariogarciaramirez7410]

all lamps use the same led CREE U2 XML LED that is like 2000 lumens

[@tome4846]

It is definitely not that bright. Maybe 7-800 on high. Still very bright for such a cheap light.

[@nuraftaninoer322]

Harganya brapa?

[@sherifYZFr1]

What is the battery life like?

[@ThespankedoneRidesReviews]

The issue with these lights is that the battery quality varies so much. Several people I ride with have had them last a few hours, others have had them fail after 30mins. The guy that now has the light I tested in the video has told me that he charges his battery every 3 days. He uses it mainly on flash and commutes 30 min each way. He's also reported that the charge indicator has started to act up.

[@user-yv2cz8oj1k]

So even though it's cheap it's actually rubbish.

[@bicycle2250]

Anyone who thinks that this light or light beam is good is really sad. Nice spot on the rider's ass up ahead. Try a magicshine 906 with 5 LEDs and see everything.

[@user-lb5mk8yp6d]

купил себе такую

[@Rafal2783]

Mojta tym jak amator

[@jechtdrako5422]

Wtf 5 segundos de prueva en terreno ni siquiera se vio si era la camara... No me cuentes tu vida tio muestrala en terreno y fin yo quiero ver la potencia con Los ojos no con tu voz

[@mirdallke2]

to jest podróbka

[@user-yv2cz8oj1k]

That beam is far too narrow, bet my 50 watt halogens piss all over this.

[@stevenetienne1442]

Kkk!?😳😳

[@lovedogs1996]

amateur instalation