Customer Reviews

CatEye Bike Head Light HL-EL500

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I made the mistake of hoping this light would be enough to light my way, rather than just get the attention of motorists and pedestrians. The beam is too narrow and not bright enough for anything but really slow riding in the dark. I think it's okay for being seen, but only okay. It doesn't blink, if you're into that, and the narrow beam spread means only folks directly in front of you will see the light from afar. Check out CatEye's excellent, compact, 3xAAA- and 3 LED-based HL-EL400 for something that blinks and has a wider angle of beam visibility. For a battery-based light to see with, I found Planet Bike's 5000X to be a much better value.

This is extremely bright - it's amazing for only running on four aa batteries. I do a lot of "night biking" around 5-6 AM for exercise, and safety on city streets is a big thing for me. This seems as bright as a motorcycle headlight and is supposed to run 30 hours on four AAs (I haven't had it that long yet). It doesn't flash. It has a very focused beam, and I was concerned whether drivers at the side would see it. Somehow, it doesn't really cast light on the ground to the side, but I was happy to notice that if you stand at almost a 90 degree angle, you see the white point of light pretty brightly for drivers to notice you. Easy to take on/off, easy replace batteries. This is gonna be a lot brighter than any older "flashlight" type headlamp, but doesn't take you into the investment of a $150 system with a separate brick-sized battery pack. It's rated 1000 candlepower and the mid-range lights in this brand are around 300.

I bought this light for my military duty here in Iraq. This light out performs any comparable light at 1/3 the cost. Not only does it illuminate objects at great distances it uses AA batteries, not those expensive camera batteries all the other lights use. I am recommending this light be issued to everyone in my unit. Great job design people!

I think for a battery powered headlight, this one is one of the best. But I believe the useful run time to be exaggerated. It may indeed last 30 hours and continue putting out light, but in my experience once the batteries have reached about 8 hours, the light output drops enough that it becomes pretty hard to see by. So I'd say that if you're just using it to be seen by cars when riding at night, then you probably can get 30 hours out of it. But if you actually need it to illuminate the road, then 8 hours is probably about the maximum use you'll get out of the EL500 before needing to replace the AA batteries.

With fresh batteries, I've found it to have enough light to ride on country roads with potholes, roads with absolutely no street light. It's probably pushing it to ride over about 15mph in those conditions, however. To ride faster, safely, I believe you'd need to add another EL500 or one of the much more powerful (and expensive) rechargable halogen lights.

As of this writing, Cateye has released the EL530 which claims to be 50% brighter. That may be the way to go unless you can get a super deal on the EL500.

This light is also probably useful for people who have a rechargable halogen but need a backup light, since most of the rechargables have run times not much over 3 or 4 hours. The EL500 would be very good for that purpose.

Overall, a good product.

It is a great light. I only wish the side views were brighter. Its more like a spot light - very bright, but dims quickly toward the perifs.

I went away to college in a city where bicycling is ubiquitous and there is little in the way of street lights due to light pollution concerns. Since I figured I'd have a lot of late night classes and I wasn't willing to spend lots of money on some expensive rechargeable system, I went with this because this was the brightest AA light in the bike shop I went to. I quickly learned that this light was inadequate for riding down a street with no lights at night, but oh well. One day, I accidentally knocked this light off my desk and it fell about 3 feet to the ground, which was covered with carpet. The part where the head screws into the body was cracked and the entire thing was rendered useless. I went and bought a replacement EL500, which fell victim to the same thing a few months later. This thing really isn't that durable at all.

I later discovered that you can get a whole lot more bang for your buck if you get one of those new Cree LED flashlights from China. I'm currently using a Fenix L2D CE Q5 premium 2xAA flashlight that is WAYYYYY brighter than this, throws much further, costs about the same, and is quite rugged. Don't waste your money on this (or any dedicated plastic bike light) and go the LED flashlight route instead.

It is good to use in dark areas but in semi dark places it is not great but OK (for instance a street with some lamps here and there). Pretty easy to mount.

Nice light. Very easy on/off. Very bright but am considering getting one more for the other side of the handlebars for extra light when I need it.

This is an excellent light, whether for bike riding or as use as a regular flashlite. I am recommending it to everyone.

The CatEye HL-EL500 has great battery life with 4 AA alkaline batteries. It is easy to mount on a bike handlebar. The on/off switch (keep your pants on, there is no "flashing" mode) is nice because it operates with a magnet through the light's case -- contributing to waterproofness. However, I've noticed it is not too hard for the light switch to be activated when I throw it in a bag. The HL-EL500 is a great light for being seen by auto drivers. I like how there are holes on the side of the light's body for the light bulb to shine through (for side visibility). However, as many other reviews have suggested, it's not bright enough to provide enough see-the-road light between streetlights. On rainy nights, it's practically useless for seeing where I'm going. Re: Durability -- I dropped this light once, and it caused small cracks on the sides, where the silver LED reflector housing screws into the black battery housing. As a result the light didn't work without a bunch of duct tape pressing the two light parts together. I told CatEye about the problem and they had me send the light in -- and mailed me back the newer version of the light, the HL-EL530. The EL530 has a brighter LED, but it wasn't *that* much brighter. I have been considering a brighter light, with a rechargeable battery (such as the CatEye Double Shot HL-EL710RC), but they are generally pretty expensive and have unwieldy external batteries. Side note: CatEye's U.S. customer service, located in Boulder, Colorado, is great.