Lumintop B01 Bike Flashlight Review

The Lumintop B01 Bike flashlight runs on an 21700 cell, has a beam shaped for bike riding, and includes onboard charging.  Read on!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Lumintop B01 Bike Flashlight product page.

Versions

There’s only one version of the B01.

Price

These are going for $37.90 right now.

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Short Review

This is a neat light and I really like the mounting system.  For the price, it’s hard to beat.

Long Review

The Big Table

Lumintop B01 Bike Flashlight
Emitter:	Cree XP-L HD
Price in USD at publication time:	$31.99
Cell:	1×21700
Turbo Runtime	High Runtime
LVP?	Yes
Switch Type:	E-Switch
Quiescent Current (A):
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Chargetime
Power off Charge Port with no Cell?
Claimed Lumens (lm)	850
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	814 (95.8% of claim)^
Claimed Throw (m)	210
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	497lux @ 4.849m = 11686cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	216.2 (103% of claim)^
All my Lumintop reviews!

^ Measurement disclaimer:  I am an amateur flashlight reviewer.  I don’t have $10,000 or even $1,000 worth of testing equipment.  I test output and such in PVC tubes!!  Please consider claims within 10% of what I measure to be perfectly reasonable (accurate, even).

What’s Included

• Lumintop B01 Bike Flashlight
• Lumintop 2600mAh 18650
• 21700 to 18650 plastic sleeve adapter
• Charge cable (USB to micro-USB)
• Spare o-rings (2)
• Small split ring
• Lanyard
• Bike mount (1)
• Manual

Package and Manual

Standard Lumintop box, standard Lumintop manual.

Build Quality and Disassembly

Nice build quality on this little light.  It’s intended to be held in place on a bike, so how it is in hand is not all that relevant.

That said, I really like the knurling, and that there are completely smooth parts of the body.

The head has ample fins for cooling.

The tailcap has a big spring, but it’s not a tightly wound one.

Note below that the threads on the body are big square-cut threads, and anodized.  Mechanically locking this light out is as simple as a very small twist to loosen it.

The head also has a spring – shorter but also tighter.

The bezel unscrews easily, and the lens comes out too.  The reflector here is of course very specialized.

Size and Comps

Officially: 110.2 x 37 x 25.4mm, N.W.: 101g (excluding battery)

 

And here’s the light beside my custom engraved TorchLAB BOSS 35, an 18350 light.  I reviewed the aluminum version of that light in both 35 and 70 formats.

Retention and Carry

Aside from the obvious bike mount, there’s also a hole in the tailcap for a lanyard (included).

Also included, and the primary way for mounting the light is a novel mounting system.  On the left below is the device together.  On the right is a better idea of how it goes over a handlebar.  It’s very simple, and also requires no tools.

Here’s the mount on a bar.  This is a versatile mount, and will fit many different size handlebars.

The light slips into the mount.

With the switch facing upward, the beam is just right on the trail.

Power and Runtime

Lumintop included an 18650 with this light, so despite it accepting 21700 sized cells, I tested exclusively with this included cell.  Having springs on both ends, it should work with even the shortest 18650s, and also long 21700 cells.  Protected/unprotected, flat top/button top; shouldn’t matter.

The included cell is a button top.

The adapter is just a plastic sleeve – no aluminum or other.  It’s just a diameter adjustment.

Turbo steps down after 3-4 minutes to around 475 lumens, which it holds for over 2 hours.

High looks the same, except it starts at ~475 lumens and holds it for over 2 hours.

In both runtimes, the light shut off with low voltage protection, at around 3V.  On bench power, the switch flashes green at 2.5V (it’s off long before that with cell).

Charging

There’s also built-in charging.  It’s by a micro-USB port in the head, opposite the switch.

Lumintop also includes a USB to micro-USB cable.

Charging is a bit weird, with an extremely short CC phase, and a long drawn-out CV phase.  This makes charging take around 3.5 hours.

The switch is red during charging but turns blue when charging is complete.

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
Turbo	850	2h20m	814	2.74
High	450	2h30m	476	0.95
Med	250	5h55m	231	0.38
Low	10	88h	12	0.01

Pulse Width Modulation

No PWM at all.

For reference, here’s a baseline shot, with all the room lights off and almost nothing hitting the sensor.  Also, here’s the light with the worst PWM I could find.  I’m adding multiple timescales, so it’ll be easier to compare to the test light.  Unfortunately, the PWM on this light is so bad that it doesn’t even work with my normal scale, with is 50 microseconds (50us).  10ms.  5ms.  2ms.  1ms.  0.5ms.  0.2ms.  In a display faster than 0.2ms or so, the on/off cycle is more than one screen, so it’d just (very incorrectly) look like a flat line.  I wrote more about this Ultrafire WF-602C flashlight and explained a little about PWM too.

User Interface and Operation

The switch is a silicone e-switch in the head, with a Lumintop logo and an indicating LED.  During normal operation, the green color makes the Lumintop rabbit light up nicely.

Here’s a UI table!

State	Action	Result
Off	Click	On (Mode Memory)
Off	Hold (3s)	Strobe
Off	Long Hold (5s)	Lockout^
Strobe	Click	SOS
Lockout	Long Hold	Unlock
On	Hold (1s)	Off
On	Double Click	Turbo
On	Click	Mode Advance (LMH)
Turbo	Click	Previous Mode

^ Yes, to get to lockout you must go through strobe.

LED and Beam

The emitter is a Cree XP-L HD.  The reflector of course is very specialized, making a beam profile suitable for biking on trails or city bikeways.

These beamshots are always with the following settings:  f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure.

Tint vs BLF-348 (KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b version) (affiliate link)

I compare everything to the Killzone 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!

Conclusion

What I like

• Nice complete package
• High output of 475 lumens is very steady
• Novel bike mount is easy to install and switch to other bikes
• Mount fits a wide range of bar sizes

What I don’t like

• Weird on-board charging
• UI is a little hard to get used to

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Notes

• This light was provided by Lumintop for review. I was not paid to write this review.
• This content originally appeared at zeroair.org.  Please visit there for the best experience!
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