Lezyne

I grew up with shrader style tire valves so when I got my Trek FX3 5 years ago, Presta valves took an adjustment period. I bought a $30 Serfa pump from the local store. For a long time, I thought it was my fault that my fingers were getting smacked when the pump head handle would snap back. And I didn't understand why it was so difficult to get the pump head to seat properly on the valve. After learning that I needed to replace bent valve cores, I decided it was time for a better pump.

I shopped around and picked this one. It's a major improvement. It's so much easier to screw on the chuck head, pump it to exactly the desired PSI and unscrew the chuck. Inflating tires is much easier and pain free.

I ride a race bike on semi-rural roads in Northern California and use a both flashing taillight and small rear view mirror attached to my glasses. Occasionally oncoming cars will enter my lane to pass and it's clear they either don't see me or don't care that I'm there. This light addresses the former drivers. It is quite bright even in sunlight. It is also small and virtually weightless. My mirror saved my life once, so I am aware that there are.both homicidal as well as distracted drivers out there. This light helps minimize the threat from the latter.

Overall, these work as they should for my tubeless setup. Was able to remove the valve core easily with the cap (nice feature, btw), add sealant, and it holds air. The thick collars are easy to tighten and look nice, but ended up being too thick for me to fit a pump head onto the valve. I have 50mm wheels, a fairly common depth, and figured the 60mm valves should work. They do, but I had to use a standard collar from a spare inner tube. If the valves were around 65mm they'd probably work without issue, and would be 5 stars.

I have a hard time making decisions, and spend forever reading reviews. I never really found a review that stated exactly how long this light lasts, and never fully trust manufacturer stats. I needed a light that could last all day (10-12 hours), and ideally all week for bike tours.

I finally picked up this light, charged it as soon as I got home, and then tested how long it would last. I put it on pulse mode, since I figured that's the mode I'm likely to use the most. It claims 80 lumens and 14hrs. Well, the numbers are wrong. I could not get it to die! It ran for about 18hrs in pulse mode, and then interestingly switched itself into femto (5 lumens) when the battery got low. Without waiting for forever, I could never get the light to fully die. It lasted at least 10 more hours in femto mode, and then I happily gave up.

Charge time after approximately 28hrs of running, was about 3.5hrs. I imagine it would be significantly shorter if you charged it sooner than that.

I finally used it outside yesterday, on a gray but mostly non rainy day in Portland, on gravel/mud roads. It definitely got wet and muddy, but it still worked and could be seen very far away, even during the day (cars coming from behind gave a little beep pretty far back letting me know they were coming, and I was impressed with the distance). I also asked my friend if he could see it from a distance and he said 100%, nice and bright.

Overall, after 1 day of testing outside, I think this is going to be a great light. The only downside for me is I'm short, and have a small bike (48cm). The space under my saddle on the seat tube is limited, and mostly taken up by my saddle bag. I can fit a very small light below it, but unfortunately no space for this light, which is quite long and only has one orientation (would be great if they made a horizontal option!). I opted to put in on my seat stay, and I think it still worked out pretty well.