Customer Reviews

Bell Night Trail Bicycle Light Set

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I purchased this to go with my new bike because I end up riding home late after work sometimes and in the city a light is a requirement. But this package comes with two products. The headlamp and a tail light.

Headlamp - This thing is great. I love the ability to switch between the Xenon bulb and the dual LEDs. The Xenon is very bright, more than adequate for night riding. The LEDs are a nice backup because the provide you with a nearly indispensable source of light as they use very little battery power. But if you find yourself running low it will automatically switch to a "Take Me Home" mode that uses less power for those long treks home (or unexpected detours). What gets me is a friend of mine purchased a much more expensive headlamp and this thing blows his out of the water.

Tail Light - This is why I gave the review four stars. This product at first seemed just as good as the headlamp. Plenty of options (on, blink, blink faster, varied LEDs cycling, and fast cycle). After mounting it I went to angle it down a bit and the casing came right off (the way your replace the batteries). The casing is rather poorly made, the bottom clip doesn't hold so well, it could be just mine but the design seems flawed. I had to remove it because a rough bump could easily knock it off and then it would be lost forever. A little bit of tape on the bottom solved this problem for me so it wasn't a complete loss.

Overall the products are nice. The headlamp made this purchase worth it for me since I already have a backup (reserve) tail light.

Best Wishes...

I found this lighting pair to be well made, so I'm not sure why others had trouble with quality. I highly recommend this lighting set for the price. You can set the front light to blink its two LEDs during the day -- a good attention-getter. The back light has a constantly-on setting as well as several blinking patterns, any of which are good attention-getters, too.

These lights work well. The brightest headlight mode will let you see well enough for night riding slowely. Not sure how long batteries will last on this mode. I use the led mode and it works fine for me at night. I see well in the dark.Some people don't. The led flashing mode is great at dusk.... Get's those drivers attention for sure. Now if they'd just watch the dam rode.....
The rear led light works great. Bright and battery life is good.
Neither is waterproof. I put a thin plastic sandwich bag over them for riding in the rain and secure that with a ponytail tie so the rain can't enter.
The headlight one is built very cheep so be carefull when changing batteries..... follow the directions to open it. DON'T FORCE THIS THING!! It is CHEEP.......
I am happy with these to date, but have only had them for a few weeks.

At first I thought this was a great light, very inexpensive, pretty bright, several modes and all. I bought it becuase I always ride home after dark, and I wanted to see ahead of me, and let cars see me. First of all, it isnt all that bright to see the road in front of you, but more than bright enough for cars to see me. Second of all, the day I bought it, I was riding home and as I was cornering,
it came right out of the clip that holds it and went underneath my tires and broke. I was very disapointed. The same day. What a piece of crap.
P.S. From all the use I gave it, the tail light worked great.

For the price, this light is hard to beat. Over the years, I have used approximately twenty different bicycle lights by brands such as Cateye, Cygolite and Planet Bike. While some of these were significantly better than the Bell, they were also three to ten times as expensive. If you don't mind the large mass of four AA batteries on your handlebars and have under twenty dollars to spend, the Bell Night Trail bicycle light is the way to go.

The real downside to having the batteries in the enclosure is the hazard created when the housing becomes dislodged during an impact. While this has not happened with the Bell light, it did occur with a Planet Bike light while riding through traffic in NYC. The distraction was extremely dangerous. Losing half of the batteries was not fun either.

Fortunately, the Bell light has a sturdy enclosure where the top half slides backwards to open. This makes it almost impervious to front and vertical impacts. However, the internal latches never quite give you a clear indication that it is closed. Rather, you must squeeze the top downward and push forward simultaneously until you can't move it further.

Much like the headlight, the taillight compares well to more expensive lights. Similar to competing products, it has various blinking modes as a well as an always-on setting. Due to the design of the lens, light escapes from the sides and top of the light. Such side lighting is crucial for riding in urban areas.

The build quality is good but not on par with the $100+ lighting systems. But again, the selling point of this light is overall value. Some of the nicer features include a bright Xenon bulb paired with miserly LED lights that can blink for hours. Unlike some of the MR11-based bulbs (parabolic track lighting bulbs), the lens assembly has two ports on the right and left sides. This spreads light perpendicularly to the path of travel, which is a nice feature when in traffic. These features combined with a very modest price make this light an excellent choice for the budget conscious.

Pros
Value
Brightness
Combination of LED and Xenon modes
Decent build quality
Side lighting on headlight


Cons
Questionable design of battery compartment (top half of headlight)
Bulky
LEDs could be brighter

Light is very nice that it has the four settings, and it switches to the more efficient setting when the battery is low. This is a very handy feature to let you know the batteries need to be changed. It takes four AA batteries, and it seems to last a while on them. The light is not super bright, but it lets the cars know where you are and it's good for everyday use. So far, it's been through the rain and there's been no problems. I now have two to add to the brightness and to have one on the flashing mode to really give cars a heads up on where I am.
So, overall, I'm very happy with it, and you can't beat the price.

Headlight was great - until it broke. The button pushes on a little circuit that switches between the various light modes - xenon high/low and LED solid/blinking. The little circuit died, and now the only way to stop the light is to pull the batteries out. Starting it sometimes works, sometimes doesnt.

The rear light was great - until the clip broke. Just a little too flimsy.

All in all- great light, but not very great execution. Mine lasted about 8 months, I ride about 3-4 times a week.

Even though I saw some of the less than enthusiastic reviews, I decided to go ahead and get 3 of these. My husband put them on everyone's bikes, with no complaints. Nothing has broke and they are working as said to be. I would recommend.

We use Ni-MH rechargeables, but the headlight does not play well with them. The batteries fit in the housing, but the upper, plastic cover has two ridges to help secure the batteries down; this is engineered for disposable alkaline batteries. I had to shave down the housing to create enough space for the slightly bigger rechargeable batteries.

However, the light itself is pretty good, and seems to hold up fairly well to abuse. In my urban, well lighted area, the LEDs are enough to see by and be seen by, so I can get a lot of use out of one charge. I pop the light off when I put the bike on the bus rack so that it doesn't get lost, but the holder is pretty strong.

Bell would do well to re-engineer this for Ni-MH/Ni-CD batteries.

Very poorly constructed switch. Press it just a little too hard and its internal glue breaks. After that it lets rainwater in to short everything out. Not a terrible unit for the price if you are very careful with it and never use it in the rain. Flashing mode is adequate for letting people see you, but not otherwise particularly bright. It's an inexpensive unit that may last a couple of months.