IB15: Cateye blazes the trail with Volt 6000, the World’s Brightest Light

Written by Trey Richardson Sep 23, 2015 9:00 a.m. ET

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When a legit company is claiming that they have a soon-to-be-produced 6000 lumen light on hand, you make like a moth to…. well, a light. No joke, Cateye, once again almost 20 years after shocking us with the ahead of its time Stadium light, aimed another “brightest of all time” light at us with the Volt 6000.

Maybe more impressive than the 6000 lumens is the fact that the light stays cool to the touch…

Not many realize that it was Cateye that first introduced us to bike specific HID lighting with the Stadium Light. The stadium light used a metal halide gas filled bulb that produced an arc, that put out about 85 watts…. well, that’s before “lumen” was a common enough term, but compared to Nightrider’s top of the line Classic light (that had 12 and 20 watt bulbs), the Stadium light was like a blue sun going down the trail.

The Volt 6000’s light unit comes in at only 100 grams while the combined control unit and battery weigh in at 550 grams. The light mounts to their simple yet effective HP Flextight handlebar and HP helmet mount which also fit numerous other Cateye lights in case you have a commuter or back up light like their new Volt 800.

What appears to be just a bunch of cooling fins at first glance turns out to be the housing for a very silent fan that adjusts its speed according to the light’s output to keep things cool. The fan draws air into the sides of the unit and out the back to keep it cool, even when not moving thus making it safe to touch, (the Stadium light was NOT safe to touch), and surely improves its efficiency.

The Volt 6000 comes with a wireless control switch to keep switching between the unit’s 6 modes simple. The unit’s battery takes about 5 hours to fully charge and contains the control unit to keep as much weight as possible off the light unit. Retail on the Volt 6000 will be $800.

Run times are as follows:

6000lm – 1 hour – Dynamic Mode
4000lm – 2 hours – High Mode
2000lm – 4 hours – Middle Mode
1000lm – 8 hours – Low Mode
500lm – 12 hours – All Night Mode
2000lm – 11 hours – Hyper Constant

CatEye.com

Trey Richardson

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22 Comments

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8 years ago

I guess that’s race stuff, most led builders tend to go for 4hrs and 2-3000lm, and balance that against the battery weight. I’m guessing 100g doesn’t include the full attached kit, just the head unit.

Paul

8 years ago

Very nice.

But what about cold weather performance.

Take a fully charged battery from a 70 degree house, put it on a snow bike and start riding at 20 degrees F, how long will the light output last in each setting?

Would love to see one of the bicycle magazines do a competitive test of various lights in cold conditions.

Matt M

8 years ago

The Trail LED Halo has put out 6,000 lumens for almost 2 years now. The Halo also has a 2hr life at full power and recharges in 2hrs unlike this light which only lasts 1hr and then takes 5hrs to recharge.

Ryan

8 years ago

I agree with cold testing. I use my light WAY more in cold weather since the days are so short.

parkcyc

8 years ago

I think what Cateye is speaking about Matt M is a true 6000 lumens.

The problem with lights and light companies is they claim say, 1000 lumens. But it may only be 1000 lumens for 10 seconds and then drops off. What is called the waterfall. Cateye may be claiming their light is 6000 for 1 hr straight vs 6000 lumens for a minute or two or whatever.

Until everyone uses LumenSpheres for testing, and then INDEPENDENT testing is done, no one will know what is really going on.

ptkk

8 years ago

is that a carbon headset spacer?

B0wz3r

8 years ago

What about water-resistance/proofness? How big is the battery pack? What about the beam pattern? What tint is the emitter? Who is the emitter manufacturer and what is the emitter classification?

I’m done with external battery packs and angry blue LED lighting. My lights use Cree XML2 emitters with a sunlight neutral tint. They run on 18650 li-ion rechargeable cells and I get hours of run time at outputs of 1,000+ Lumens.

Nice work Cateye. But I’ll stick with the new bike lights being made by high end military/law-enforcement lighting companies like Fenix; they’re at least a year ahead of any dedicated bike light manufacturer.

Dsand

8 years ago

Modular lights please.

Sean P

8 years ago

@BOwz3r. Have you checked out the lights Dinotte are putting out? Not sure how they compare to Fenix, besides an external battery, but I absolutely love their lights. Just wish they would make a 6 cell battery. Other than that I have had not one single issue. I’ve ridden through pouring rain, freezing temps, you name it, never a problem in over 10 years. Their new XML 3 is one amazing light.

MikeInAZ

8 years ago

What’s this beast going to cost? There comes a point where it doesn’t matter how bright or how well it performs. I found one website posting the price at $825. I’m not spending that on a light. I got a nice and bright light (claims 2800 lumens) on Amazon for $26, works great, lasts 3-4 hours. If it breaks or I lose it, I get a new one for $26. Sure it gets hot, but so what? When you’re riding at 103 degrees in the dark (in Phoenix), what’s a few more degrees?

Let’s compare. Get 2, $26 lights for $52 = 5600 Lumens. Or get 1 $825 light = 6000 lumens.

Here’s the better choice folks, don’t waste your money:
http://amzn.to/1FfMTTo

Charlie Best

8 years ago

It weighs 1.5 lbs!

archie

8 years ago

Yeah, right. $800. Its got a fan and its great for. blinding forest wildlife and fellow riders (inevitably pissing them off) and participating in lumen competitions. Srsly, you’d be better off with one of these Uncle Laos creations that you’ll easily find on those Chinese webportals , about 1000 lm for about $80, I have one, 7 years and going strong. Oh, and its cooled by the oncoming air, ain’t that genius?

Will

8 years ago

$800 for a light….
Think I’ll stick to my 2800lum light that I got off eBay for $50 three years ago and it’s still going strong..
Put that $800 towards…… Well anything but a light…

PsiSquared

8 years ago

FYI, it’s not called a LumenSphere but rather an integrating sphere. To hell with lumens, companies need to specify their lights in terms of lux (lumens per meter squared) at a given distance as lux tells you how good the beam quality is.

Brian

8 years ago

Very cool design. I like CatEye. But $800? Youch!

Darryl

8 years ago

Lux cannot distinguish between a tiny super-focused light and a hugely powerful large spread light.
Useless for anything and just a way for shit lights to post a high number.

Lumens tells you how much light is actually produced.
Looking at a beam pattern will tell you the rest.
Lumens per watt is useful or at least the battery capacity so we can calculate it.

Darryl

8 years ago

Looking at the beam photo it looks like it has both good colour and pattern.
Cateye has in the past been honest or more than honest with their lumen ratings.
Unlike your super amazon light that is lucky to make half or less of what is claimed.

PsiSquared

8 years ago

Lumens per watt Darryl? Really you find that useful? All that really tells you is a little bit about the light’s spectra, especially since all a lumen is is watt scaled according to the eye’s response to a given wavelength of light. Lux tells you about the quality of the beam pattern, and it’s the intensity of the light (of which lux is a measure) that people really notice. As for “tiny super focused light”, that’s what small sensors and sampling with high spatial frequency are for.

UncleRobot

8 years ago

Great – now we will have bike commuters blinding others or mountain bikers flushing out wild animals. Excess is not necessary.

MArk

8 years ago

I think for that 800 bucks a powermeter is far more important and worth the investment on a bike. You find great lights at 50 bucks but no great powemeters below 800

eric OB

8 years ago

Light and Motion… Dive Photo and Dive Video, ENG and Video Broadcast, Outdoor, USA made, FL-1/NEMA rated, Intergrated-Sphere Lumen baselined, real constant output values, best-in-class patterns…blah, blah. yep…the real deal! Check out the Sidekick accessory lights for GoPro Hero low-light use. And the Stella Pro Video collection. Talk about authenticity!! No wonder they own dirt and urban to-be-seen units!