With a morning commute suddenly shrouded in darkness and recent after-work mountain bike rides not much better, we were excited see Light & Motion’s latest arrive on our doorstop a few weeks back. Packing a blistering 1,200 Lumens into a compact 216g (claimed) package, the US-made Taz is what Light & Motion are calling a “crossover” light- equally well suited to road and dirt use. Skip past the seam for more details, photos, and some early impressions.
With no brackets or cables to deal with, the Taz is certainly well suited to outdoor-locking commuters and to switching between bikes. Thanks in part to the unit’s good balance, the simple strap has kept the little light steady on road and off, without needing to resort to the included adhesive-backed rubber strips.
The main button cycles the light between high, medium, low, pulse, and flash modes (1,200lm/90min, 600lm/3hr, 300lm/6hr, 300lm/9hr, and 300lm/18hr respectively). The second button cycles the amber side lights from off through solid, pulse, and off settings. The forward section and sides of the light are built out of aluminum, giving the light a nice substantial feel.
On the road and trail, the Taz 1200 lays out a relatively broad and exceptionally smooth beam. The lack of dark spots and rings makes clear the time and energy Light & Motion spend on their reflector designs and makes for a very nice riding experience. At speeds over 20mph, the Taz lacks some of the long-distance ‘punch’ of some lights- but makes up for it in breadth and even-ness of beam and should serve to keep light out of the eyes of oncoming traffic. The coverage is even enough that the 800lm medium setting more than adequate for commuting and even mountain biking when paired with a similarly-powered helmet-mounted light. That said,who’s going to say no to more light on shorter rides?
Connecting the included Micro USB cable to an iPad charger or wall outlet (2 Amps), the Taz 1200 should charge fully in roughly 4 hours. A lower-powered (1A) phone charger will take about 8hours and your computer’s (.5A) USB port could take 14. The Taz 1200 sells for $300 and it’s 800lm brother for $250. More as the nights get longer!
marc
