With the ‘fall back’ portion of Daylight Savings now behind us, bicycle commuters are left literally in the dark, and in dire need of lights. Luckily, Princeton Tec is one of the companies out there who’s got us covered, and I recently received their Push headlight to review. Read all about what I thought, plus the details on the light, after the jump…
When I pulled the Push from the package, I was immediately struck by how well constructed it was; not as cheap and plastic-y as a lot of the lights out there. With the sturdy, adjustable mounting bracket, I easily affixed it to my 31.8mm road bars opposite the stem from my 150-ish lumen rechargeable battery-packed light and went on my way, commuting to and fro.
My initial reaction was one of surprise, given how much light it spits out on AAA batteries. It was nearly as bright on high beam as my other light was on low, which is quite a feat given the huge difference in battery power. After fiddling with the settings for a couple days, I settled on using this one as a flasher, due to its unique flash pattern and battery life. It’s a seizure-inducing fast pulse on low, with an intermittent high flash. And with the claimed 63 hours of flashing run time, after weeks of use I had yet to change the battery. The light also features side panels that flash red, regardless of what mode the front bulb is on. While this is a wonderful idea in theory, in practice I found them to be poorly placed and too dim to have much effect.
Since I had yet to be hit by a car (especially from the front), I considered the light to be successful in its task. But it would live to surprise me once more… The week before Christmas, Los Angeles experienced a huge storm. An epic storm, some would say. As a native of Wisconsin, I didn’t think it was that bad, but it was definitely the worst weather I’d seen since moving here. I rode two consecutive days in the storm, for a total of 73 sopping wet miles. On the first day, at around 8pm on the way home, my “fancy” light died. Waterlogged to death. So I turned the Push on high beam and was surprised that it actually let me see my way home, a rarity for AAA powered lights. It basically saved my life that night, and earned a spot on my bars any day. I live by the creed, “there’s no such thing as too much lights,” but if you could only afford to have one light on your bike, you can’t go wrong with the Princeton Tec Push.
The Details:
Running time(s):
High: 4 hours
Low: 14 hours
Flash: 63 hours
Specs:
POWER: 100 Lumens
LAMP: 1 Maxbright LED
BURN TIME: 14 Hours
BATTERIES: 3 AAA Alkaline or Rechargable
WEIGHT: 115 Grams
MSRP: $49.99
