I’ve been looking for a headlight for my bike that’s a bit brighter and when Dorcy contacted me about their 220 lumen headlight, I was all too willing to check it out. The mornings are still pretty dark when I get up to ride and my current Serfas USL-5 only puts out about 70 lumens. This sufficed when I commuted on roads with very little traffic, but now that I live in a more populated area, I want something that illuminates the road/path/etc in front of me more so that I can see and be seen better.
When I opened up the box from Dorcy International, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the light came with it’s own set of batteries. I’ve always thought that it’s cheap of companies to sell a product that uses batteries and not supply you with a set of batteries that is probably only going to cost them a couple of bucks (or less). Moving along, though.
The packaging is nice. Definitely something that you would expect to see sitting next to other bicycle headlights. I say this because Dorcy specializes in flashlights and hand held torches. Once past the cardboard and PET packaging (not much of a struggle), I was met with the final product.
My first reaction was to how heavy the unit felt in my hands. It’s solid. A nice feeling if you don’t mind the added weight on your ride. The whole unit (with clamp) is 185 grams. Quite a bit more than the 37 grams that makes up the Serfas light I’m using. The housing of the Dorcy light is machined aluminum and the do a good job of it. It’s got a nice design and when removed from the handlebar clamp, it actually feels pretty good in your hands. This is, of course, the second intent of this light. It will double (as most bike lights do) as a flashlight. This one just looks like a regular flashlight when it is off your bike. I think that this is something that Dorcy does well. This light transitions from one function to the other without looking awkward in either.
There’s a lot of wins for the Hawkeye so far. Depending on your perspective and the type of biking that you do the pros and cons listed so far can sway your vote either way. Here is where I feel that the unit falls short despite how you intend to use it. The handlebar mount has a notched pull strap and a screw tensioner to make sure that the unit is tight on the handlebar. This is where the overall weight of the design of this unit is a hinderance. Because the unit weighs so much and because you are going to be riding a bicycle (typically not smooth riding), the headlight is going to be exposed to vibrations. To accommodate these facts, Dorcy has to include two systems to make sure that the light stays in place. The nice thing about this design (and most headlight handlebar mount designs) is that you don’t need to remove any existing handlebar hardware to mount the clamp.
I’ll be using the headlight for the next couple of weeks and will update this post with my thoughts. Until then, check out more about Dorcy on their website.
Update:
I took a couple of night rides over the last two weeks to test out the Dorcy headlight and see how it fared against my current headlight. My initial impression when I turned it on was great. I was shining the light against my fence to see how bright it was and at 20 feet, the light was bright and lit up the necessary space in front of my quite well. I was liking it so far!
As you can see from the images above that the Dorcy light is much more focused. I was looking forward to a much better lit path. But, as I got started on my ride, the intensity of the light just didn’t seem as much on the trail. I’m not sure if my senses were dulled from the brightness that was cast on the fence or if the square light was changing my perception.
I stopped and took a couple of pictures of the light beam that was cast from both lights as a comparison.
As you can see, the Dorcy light puts a significant amount of light down on the path in front of you (albeit in an odd pattern). The Serfas that I’m accustomed to using just didn’t put down as much light as the Dorcy. And when you compare 70 lumens to 220 lumens, you would expect as much.
The square pattern was still something to get used to. I wish that I could see a Dorcy headlight without the square pattern to compare it to a more standard pattern. I think that it would be interesting to see the differences and to know why they chose the square pattern.
This light, being the beast that it is, will drain it’s batteries quite quickly. Dorcy is stating only 2.5 hours and I bumped up against this. I noticed the light dimming after extended use and will have to change the batteries for my next ride. If you have a set of rechargeables ready, then this won’t be an issue for you. For those of us that don’t have rechargeable batteries, this is going to have you going to Costco and getting the bulk pack to keep your commute well lit.
Overall, this is a great light. It’s got a solid build, a great design and lights the path up nicely. It’s going to cost you some batteries, but for running 220 lumens, this shouldn’t come as a big surprise.
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