Led bicycle lights by Gearoop

Tempo di lettura: 4 minuti

The latest products to review from the Taiwanese Gearoop, those I liked the most: the LED lights. This article comes late because I was waiting for an additional shipment to meet my personal request, which we will see at the end of the article. I simply titled them “LED lights” because we will see them in different shapes , but all sharing the exquisite workmanship and the undoubted originality of the chosen solutions, as it is this Company’s tradition. They are not all the lights shown in the catalog, but the greater part of them. For a complete overview, please refer to the official website. We will see here in order of sequence: a tail clamp light, a couple of handlebar lights, a tail light to be applied to our QR, and some QR lights kit including quick release titanium and aluminum ones, proposed from the company. A lot of stuff, we will have a long reading and a lot of images.

I start from the Circle Clamp Light that, as stated in its name, is a little light with a clip; but not a spring clip, it would have been banal. The system is with a screw and, believe me, is well done and with a tenacious grip. Like most of the products in the Gearoop catalog, this light too won its Reddot Design Haward. The light is delivered with a card bearing the QR code printed; inside we have the simple instructions for those who prefer the good old press.

The light is all aluminum and weighs a trifle; looking closely at the main body, we notice two metal rings. The first one, with spaced dents, serves to unscrew the top to insert the battery. The second one, with close dents, controls the opening/closing of the clip.

The dimensions are tiny; here below as per comparison, I used a one Euro coin.

The clip has a complex design, with three joints and an extensive internal knurling. In the pictures here below you can appreciate the small screw controlling it. In practice the combination of the closure system (not a banal spring that tends to loose tenacity in time) and the clip shape allows a firm grip on any surface, both because its material than its shape.

Power is supplied from a single button battery Cr1632, whose housing is reached unscrewing the top.

There is any O-ring to seal from the water; this despite the manufacturer guarantees it as waterproof, and I do believe it because the manufacturing is so accurate (it’s rare to find some threadings so well done on such a soft material), that is perfectly plausible.

Two small LED lights, luminous and powerful. They are useful to be seen and they come out well, even from a considerable distance.

Where can you apply this little light? Everywhere. On your jacket, your shoulder bag, on a bike sheathing and so on. I photographed only a couple of classical uses, let’s call them like that. As a back light for the helmet, and I didn’t feel any discomfort from the clip, or on the classic clamp present on almost every under- saddle bag.

The second light system is an handlebar one: two red spotlights to be inserted instead of the handlebar plugs and with expansion fixing system. This is the only product of this company which I had in my hands that did not surprise me, because it was not “re-interpreted”, as they always do. But I cheered up with its perfect workmanship. Because yes, I must admit it, I do love beautiful, precise, clean workmanships, calibrated to tenths of millimeter. These Handlebar End light are available in different colors and in two versions to suit all types of handlebars and bikes. Wight ridiculously low, just 20 grams.

They also come with the instructions card and the two light are attached to a plastic tube.

The main body is in aluminum, the LEDs are protected by a transparent screen. Guaranteed waterproof.

The clamping system is the classical expansion one, with the seal elements fixed by a thin elastic.

In this case too a Cr1632 battery is required, to be lodged under the cap which is screwed to the expansion body. In detail, we can see inside the small 3 Allen screw that controls the system.

Installation requires just few seconds; just pull the handlebar cup, insert the expansion part, tighten just enough (without exaggeration, the mechanism is very sensitive and exerts a considerable pressure, be careful with carbon folds) with a 3 Allen screw, install the battery and screw the whole thing. By simply pressing the LED the light will turn on, another press will start the flash mode and a last press will turn it off.

Each light is provided with a pair of LED.

It is not easy to create indoors the right conditions for a decent photo, at least for my little skills, but I think I managed to do justice to the effectiveness of these small lights.

And now let’s see my favourite ones: the lights to be fixed to the quick release. In two versions and different configurations. I start from the simplest one, the QR Tail light: a single rear light to mount to our QR, substituting the standard screw. Same packaging, instructions inside.

The light is composed of three elements: the spotlight, the base that serves as connection for it and as the screw’s lodge and the screw itself.

Removing the cap with the LED, we have access to the battery compartment, for Cr2 format; they have also a rechargeable version. Just as you can choose the single light in a smaller size, identical to those we will see later.

The dimensions remain compact; comparison with the usual one Euro con.

The body is in aluminum made from solid with lightening folds; of the line more than the weight – which is almost nil – I measured 15 grams without battery. At the rear, the mounting syringe system, the same one we saw in the Luggage 2.0 Rack’s article, which is equipped with two small spotlights.

And with a “small” type spotlight I wanted to compare this Tail light, to highlight the different size.

The brightness is always great, thanks to the two red LEDs.

The installation is simple because the base of this spotlight replaces the screw of our quick release. So you have to remove the screw, replace it with the little base supplied with the LED light, and then secure the spotlight in the provided notch using the syringe attack. Which is tenacious, it endured my usual paved road without running away….

Just remember to properly orient the little base each time you remove the wheel, but this is the only cautiousness; mounting and removing the spotlight from its base is an instantaneous operation. Turned on and mounted, it looks very very good.

Finally the QR lights but with quick release also manufactured by Gearoop: they are the QR Square lights, present in different variants and versions. The quick release has always the titanium axle, but in one version the levers are aluminum/titanium, in the other one only aluminum. The lights can be of two types, namely the version for Cr2 battery and the one for Cr1632 battery; and then there is the version with rechargeable spotlights. Finally we can have or the combination with two rear red LED lights and nothing in the front, or one rear red LED light and one front white LED light. Using the light I requested for myself, I was able to create a three spotlights combination: two rear red LED and one front white LED. But let’s see these Square lights, with their original packaging bearing on its back the various combinations.

As I mentioned, there are two standard possibilities, namely two rear LEDs or one in the front and one in the rear.

I added a third possibilty, with two spotlights in the rear and one in the front.

The seats for the spotlights are an integral part of the QR; in detail we see the one which must be mounted on the screw’s side and the one that, instead, must accommodate the lever; the latter easily recognizable by its plastic concave seat.

However, I add, it is inserted in a base identical to the opposite one; thus getting the plastic litthe base and the seat, you could get to have two spots in the front and two in the back. Too many? I don’t know, I always liked the double light…. 😀

The spotlights are the “little” version, that one for the Cr1632 battery; body in aluminum made from solid, millings for lightening and a syringe attack. All in just 7 grams without the battery.

The brightness always excellent, however the LEDs are common to the various versions. The white one is really bright.

And here are the minimal spotlights mounted to the rear, here in double version; for the single version, I remember that the light is placed to the right, ie the pinions side.

In a more “elevated” acceleration you can better understand the limited encumbrance, even the side one. There is no danger to entangle them somewhere, just to make myself understood

Once lit, you can see them very well, even at distance.

In the front we can have any spotlight in the version with QR Gearoop that, needless to say, are really well manufactured.

Or have a single white LED light to mount in place of the screw, with the same system we saw for the rear lights.

Always indoors I tried to convey the offered brightness.

All the spotlights, the latter ones and the single one shown before, are available in different colors; they are operated using the LED according the sequence fixed light-flashing light-light off. And they are all guaranteed waterproof.

And now, at the end, a request of mine to Gearoop, to which the very friendly Stanley promptly responded. They understood I liked the LED lights, the small version is my favorite. I was looking for something for Ellesar, but I didn’t want to replace the quick release Velo Orange, with their classic design, with these in titanium and aluminum that, undoubteldly very beautiful, they would have clashed with the lines of my bike.

I then asked for four spotlights, because you know that I prefer the double light, strictly in silver version; unfortunately, however, the little base, the one where you mount the light, is on sale only in the black version, but Gearoop fulfilled my request to receive the bases polished too.

Using the threaded bearings of the front rack, I could put these two little eyes on the front.

Even though I received the QR screws together with the spotlights, I preferred to give up their use; in order to be able to guarantee a certain margin to orientate them, I used the classic system of the concave and convex washers, a practice of V-brake. No shortage of processed Allen screws, with the millings matching the chassis.

Double light on the rear too, obviously. Because their body is identical to the rear ones, and you realize only whe you turn them on if the LEDs are white or red, so to differentiate them and in order not to waste my time, when I mounted them I gave a coat of color (the same color of the chassis, I kept a little of it, given by the painter) to the milling in the middle zone. Even though, after all, it’s a useless precaution because the LEDs don’t fear the vibrations as the filament lights bulbs, I still wanted to interpose a leather washer. I didn’t use the rubber ones both for aesthetic reasons and there are already some leather washers on the bike, and I don’t like to mix up.

There is still some detail to be fixed, but for now it’s okay.

A short video to see all the led lights.

Well, a long article, but the peculiarity of some solutions desereved so many images; my preference goes to the QR lights and the clamp one; that I had snubbed at the beginning, and then I appreciated their usefulness thanks to their restraint screw system, really impossible to lose. I devoted a considerable space to this factory to which I asked a pedal stand, finding myself after few days with a box full of everything they had in their catalog. In the practice, of their production I have left out the bells (so lovely!), crowns and pinions and various systems to mount cyclocomputer/smartphone/lights to the handlebar.But even though I didn’t put my hands on them, after so many weeks I used their products I can feel secure of their quality without hesitation. Unfortunately there is any Italian distributors of their products, but if you contact Gearoop through their Fb page, I am sure that the very patient Stanley will help you. In English, because he doesn’t speak Italian, but to help you to understand, as already done by somebody before, you can insert the link to the article to the blog talking about what are you interested in.

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