My un-romantic, but totally cool, Valentine's gift

[7rider]

Against all that we had discussed, my DH got me something for Valentine's Day. But, it wasn't due to come in until Tuesday. Actually, it came in today (Monday).
DH got me a Knog Gator 605 bike light.
He had been reading about it and was totally impressed with it. So of course, he had to get it for me!
After a super-fast charge of it light weight Li-Ion battery, it was fully charged and ready to roll. So, now that the sun has gone down, we took it out for a spin up and down the street.
The goods: Very light weight. Cool looks. Super easy mounting to the bike. Incredibly bright LED light. The two 3W LEDs put out a fantastic amount of light in a nice useful beam for commuting.
Not so goods: Nit picks, really. The battery-to-switch connection is very tight (actually, a good thing) and next to impossible to disconnect (the bad part). On the plus side, it's a simple male/female plug, so you can spin it to get it apart. Can't try doing that with the switch-to-light plug, however. Also, we couldn't really discern b/t the 12 degree "spot" and the 32 degree "flood". Put them both on, and there was also no discernible difference in the light on the road (from the cockpit). From the front (i.e., car) view, however, the light was very bright and obvious.
The worst thing however, is that we're nearly out of the "need to use a light" time for commuting! Argh....not a great time to get a new light! I'll have to either go in early, or stay late....neither is appealing!

[Blueberry]

The worst thing however, is that we're nearly out of the "need to use a light" time for commuting! Argh....not a great time to get a new light! I'll have to either go in early, or stay late....neither is appealing!

How 'bout leave at the regular time, and take the LONG route home

Enjoy!!

[divingbiker]

Very cool! Don't worry, when the time changes in a couple of weeks, it will be dark in the morning again. I'm going to have to check out that light sometime.

[Zen]

i can't figure it out. I need to see it on the bike. looks nice and small, though.
He would have gotten you that whether it was VDay or not.

[KnottedYet]

I think that's a very romantic Valentine's Day present! (I got a headlight for V-Day, too!)

[Trek420]

I think lights are romantic in a quirky cyclist way. I got a spoke nipple bracelet, some very cool reflective stickers, and a sculpture of tow gals cycling.

[7rider]

i can't figure it out. I need to see it on the bike. looks nice and small, though.
He would have gotten you that whether it was VDay or not.

You're probably right. Here are some pix of it on the bike.
DB...I totally forgot about the upcoming Spring Ahead time change! Thanks for the reminder.

Here's a shot of my crowded handlebar. The three-buttoned gizmo to the right is the remote switch unit - each button controls the correspondingly sized light bulb. The switch lights up to indicate what light is on, and at what level (high/low/blink (for the 1W LED only)/off).



Here's looking at the light, head on. The bottom light is a 3W flood (I think). The top right is a 3W spot. The top left is a 1W light with flash.



Here's the battery strapped to the top tube. It's unplugged in this picture. I've since re-positioned it, but note that it's pretty small (and light!).

[7rider]

I guess a downside is that it does take up a lot of real estate on the bike, and there are a gazillion wires about (but they give extra bungies to tie down errant cables and keep things (relatively) neat. But, it makes me glad I got that bike locker! It'd be a PIA to take on and off every day (twice, even!). Web sites say it comes with a "cloth carrying bag" but this did not. DH called the site where he got it, and they said they've gotten a bunch of calls about that. They think Knog may NOT be selling it with the bag now or here (U.S.). They said they'd investigate and get back to him. Bummer if it doesn't come with it. It would be nice to have one place to put everything when i do take it off the bike.