Gloworm Lights X2 2013
Reviews / Lights
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At A Glance
Designed in New Zealand the Gloworm X2 is designed to be as inconspicuous as possible, until you turn it on. It is a tiny unit, about the size of a matchbox and it is hard to believe it can pump out a whopping 1200 Lumens! The light attaches to a Lithium Ion battery in a hard case that uses high quality Panasonic cells. It uses a remote switch to control the light, which is powered by 2 Cree XML U2 LED emitters. One of the LEDs is pushed through a spot lens and the other a flood lens to ensure a good spread of light. The battery takes just 4 hours to recharge, perfect for those days you forget to charge it and get called up by friends wanting to go on a night ride. The light comes in a hard case with all the accessories you would ever need including mounts for the handlebars and your helmet.
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On the Trail
The X2 comes pre-programmed with 4 settings, Trail, Commute, Adventure and Bush. The Trail setting is designed for off road riding and uses the maximum 1200 lumens on high within that mode. Gloworm call it Intelligent Mode Technology and initially when you look at the instructions it can seem a bit baffling. But once you get the hang of the “press” and “click” functionality of the remote switch it is easy to switch between the modes. The X2 is a very bright light, especially on the high setting, the light is white and the spread offered by the multi lens system is fantastic. We loved the low profile of the helmet mount too, meaning you can wear it on top of your lid without it being too obtrusive. The handlebar mount is the now very popular O-ring affair, which works well, but perhaps a sturdier bolt on mount would be better. The O-ring works fine and the light doesn’t move, but I find I am quite good at losing the O-rings. The remote switch is great, especially when mounted on your helmet. The light comes with Velcro patches so you can stick the switch to your lid, this is perfect and saves you fiddling around on the back of the light to change the setting.
Overall
A very bright and powerful light with some well thought out features. The battery is excellent we especially liked the powerful spread of light that the X2 provides. The handy remote switch is very well designed and if you use the light on your helmet this makes even more sense.
Run Times: 2.5 hours on High – 1200 Lumens
Lux Test
5m: 192
10m: 47
20m: 10
Weight: 282 Grams
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This review was in Issue 21 of IMB.
For more information visit Gloworm LightsRelated
By Rou Chater
Rou Chater is the Publishing Editor of IMB Magazine; he’s a jack-of-all-trades and master of none, but his passion for bikes knows no bounds. His first mountain bike was a Trek 820, which he bought in 1990. It didn’t take him long to earn himself a trip to the hospital on it, and he’s never looked back since. These days he’s keeping it rubber side down, riding locally and overseas as much as possible.
