Knog Cobber shines almost all around with 330° of front & rear light

Written by Zach Overholt Mar 28, 2019 2:30 p.m. ET

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Being seen on a bike is great. It means you’re hopefully a little less likely to get taken out by a driver that claims “you came out of nowhere.” Lights are a great way to increase your visibility – even in the day time. And lights with increased visibility from more angles? That’s even better. Which is why the new Knog Cobber light family is interesting. With 330° of visibility and the typical Knog features, the Cobber looks like a great addition to your ride.

Using Chip On Board construction (hence the name, Cobber), the light set provides up to 470 lumens in the front and 270 lumens out back from the Big Cobber.

There are also the Mid Cobber and Lil’ Cobber models with 320/170 and 110/50 lumens respectively. Each is available individually or as a set. Depending on the bike, the shape allows these to be mounted to your handlebars, seat post, fork legs, head tube, or anywhere else for that matter.

All of the lights are 100% waterproof and feature an integrated USB charging tab. You can even customize the light modes by connecting the light to your computer. Pricing ranges from $49.95 for a single Lil’ Cobber, to $149.95 for the Big Cobber Twinpack.

knog.com.au

Zach Overholt

5,630 articles

Zach Overholt is the Editor in Chief of Bikerumor. He has been writing about what’s new in the bicycle world for 12+ years. Prior to that, Zach spent many years in the back of a bicycle shop building and repairing nearly every type of bike, while figuring out how to (occasionally) ride them.

Based in Ohio, Zach is now slowly introducing a new generation to cycling and still trying to figure out how to fit the most rides into a busy schedule as a new dad.

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Edward Ng

5 years ago

Are the straps for the big front cobber long enough to work with really fat, tapered alloy head tubes?

-Ed

Collin

5 years ago

Reply to Edward Ng

The first picture on the giant which has a modern fat headtube, it appears there is a band and mount on the headtube but the light itself is mounted on the bars.

The 120 hrs of dim flash is huge. Assuming there isn’t a fair amount of battery drain between uses, you could only have to charge the thing a few times a year.

Seammy

5 years ago

Did they ever fix their straps so they don’t break after 1 month? I have a drawer full of broken ones that have zero use now.

typevertigo

5 years ago

Unlike the Cat Eye Rapid X line of lights, these have a hidden mount you can leave on the bike while the Cobber itself slides on and off as needed. Neat.

Mid Cobber seems like the sweet spot.

Freshmn09

5 years ago

the downside to all knog front lights i have had except the blinder is that when mounted to a handle bar they will blind the cyclist, this just makes it worse, only the mid or lil would work on 90% of head tubes by the looks of it, but would till want the big one on the rear…

brian

4 years ago

Reply to Freshmn09

Agreed. This is a massive oversight in the design of all but a few lights. It blows my mind that more people don’t complain about this, and that more light designers don’t address it! Even a small amount of glare from a headlight can reduce visibility by probably 50%.

Exodux

5 years ago

Are the bands replaceable? ive had other Knog lights that when the band broke, which didnt take long, the light was pretty much useless.

Richard

5 years ago

in ‘Strayan (Australian for those who aren’t from Down Under), “cobber” is a simile for “mate” or “friend”

#straya

Morgan

4 years ago

from knog website “The large strap provided will fit tubes and head tube profiles of a maximum circumference/perimeter of 200mm”

Head tube is where you want the front light to be, you certainly dont want 330 degrees of lighting mounted vertically around your handlebars as that means its going to be right in your face burning out your retinas as someone noted earlier. I personally hate lights on the handlebar anyway and have all mine below my garmin mount on a go pro 3 prong. The bike lighting industry really needs to adopt a standardized mounting system as its really painful at the moment eg I have a bontrager flare rt mounted on a pro stealth saddle, nice clean looking option which keeps straps off your seat post so avoids any rub issues however I needed a pro saddle go pro mount then a bontrager go pro light mount to make it happen. Go pro 3 prong seems to have become the de facto standard so I dont know why manufacturers dont just include an adapter as standard with their lights, I got a Moon Meteor-X which had a 3 prong adapter included which was simply brilliant! Its way more reassuring (particularly when you’ve dropped a fair bit of coin on a high end model) having your light securely bolted to your bike rather than tenuously attached with what is essentially a rubber band.