Fresh Gravel: Blackburn Central 700/300 Lights

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Fresh Gravel: Blackburn Central 700/300 Lights:  It is getting to be that time of the year when I start digging around for my old light set ups, and when you compare things that are even just a couple of years old to what you can get today, it is readily apparent that lighting technology is moving along so fast that my old lights seem obsolete now! Blackburn has just released details on a couple of new self contained lights for cycling, and these look pretty good on paper, at least. Let’s take a closer look here….

The Central 700 gives you a clue as to its rating. Yep- 700 Lumens, but that is not all here. It is waterproof and weighs a measly 172 grams with its internal Lithium-ion battery and mount included. Here’s the specs:

• Micro-USB rechargeable
• LED fuel gauge/charge indicator
• Charging cable included, no tools required
• Lithium-ion battery.
• Waterproof to IP-65 standard.
• 6 hour recharge time
• Lumens: High 700 , Med 400 ,Low 200 , Pulse 150 , Strobe 150
• Runtime: High 1.25 HRS , Med 2 HRS, Low 4 HRS, Pulse 16 HRS, Strobe 9 HRS
• Distance: High 131M, Med 98M, Low 69M, Pulse 60M, Strobe 60M
• 172g / 0.38lb

Kudos to Blackburn for listing all the run times for each lighting level. That’s something I always look for, since out on gravel roads, you can see pretty well with around 200-250 Lumens of light. So, that looks like about 4 solid hours of ride time according to the specs. Plus, it is nice to have that short, more powerful blast of light when you need it.

Of course, you’ve probably already figured out by now that the other model tops out at 300 Lumens. Yep! It is dubbed the Central 300, and it has some specs as well which look something like the following:

• Micro USB rechargeable
• LED fuel gauge/charge indicator
• Charging cable included, no tools required
• Lithium-ion battery
• Waterproof to IP-65 standard.
• 5 hour recharge time
• Lumens: High 300, Med 150, Low 80, Pulse 80, Strobe 80
• Runtime: High 2 HRS , Med 4 HRS, 8 Low HRS, Pulse 20 HRS, Strobe 16 HRS
• Distance: High 108M, Med 76M, Low 56M, Pulse 56M, Strobe 56M
• 162g / 0.36lb

These lights have just been announced, so look for them to hit retailers shelves soon. Expect to pay $99.99 for the Central 700 and $59.99 for the Central 300 when they do. Both models meet the ANSI FL-1 Standard and have a small built in LED light which indicates the battery level, dual beam pattern for clear visibility, replaceable battery, and conveniently charge via any standard USB port.

There is talk of having one of these in for a review, so stay tuned on that.

Note: Information and images used for this post were provided by Blackburn.

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