Serfas TSL1000 Light Review

My first night ride after the time change was last night at Paris Mtn. State Park. We've been selling these new light sets from Serfas pretty steadily for the last few weeks, so I took our Demo Unit along to see how it performed. I'd always used halogen and HID systems, and occasionally a small LED light, but this was my first ride with a serious high power LED system.

First, the specs: This kit comes complete with light head, dual adjustable helmet and bar mounts, lightweight lithium ion battery pack, extension cable for helmet use, wall charger and a durable padded multi-pocket storage bag. At $289.95, the TSL1000 offers significantly more lumens per dollar than comparable high end lighting kits from the L&M and NR brands, as well as a better warranty: Lifetime on all components except the battery (1 year).  Equipped with cutting edge Cree LEDs, burn times are also significantly longer-

 

Although there was a full moon last night, the remaining leaves in the park kept things pretty dark. I started with a long climb and set the light on low (175 lumens). This proved to be plenty of light at climbing speed. The light pattern was nice and wide, allowing lots of light to cover upcoming turns without having to turn the handlebar. The stretch from the bike to the brightest spot of the light pattern was consistent, with no dark spots. When I got to the top and powered up to 1000 lumens, the whole trail opened up in front of me. This  is by far the brightest, most consistently patterned bicycle light I've used.



This picture was taken with an iPhone without flash, so it's not the best clarity, but you can get a pretty  good idea of the nice spread of the light pattern. The blue halo surrounding the mode button was a little distracting at first, but I didn't notice it after a couple of minutes, and it makes the button really easy to locate. Another thing that impressed me about the TSL1000 was that it was not at all effected by being mounted to the handlebar of a full rigid bike (see previous post). The steel fork transmits a good amount of shock to the bar, which would have caused my L&M HID light to turn itself off on just about any of the descents.

This is an exceptional light! Serfas has always offered top notch products and customer service and they've outdone themselves on this one. Click here for more details and reviews on the Serfas TSL1000, (Demo available at Sunshine).

http://www.serfas.com/product_details.asp?ID=898