Ravemen Lights: Quick Review Part 1

Ravemen Lights: Quick Review Part 1 – by Guitar Ted

Note: Riding Gravel purchased a suite of Ravemen lights to test and review. This review is being broken up into three parts to give these lights a fair shake. Please look at the other two Quick Reviews on the Ravemen lights for more. Links will follow at the end of each review. Thanks!

The Ravemen Lights introductory post introduced you to the range of lighting we chose to feature in these Quick Reviews. Check that post out for all of the technical features of each Ravemen light we will be featuring here.

For this round of the Quick Review I will be featuring the Ravemen PR1600 torch and the CL06 rear blinking light. These are arguably top-of-the-range lights from Ravemen and have the most features of the lights we chose to test. I bundled these together partially for those reasons and also that these represent probably the pair of lights most riders would choose for longer, more arduous rides.

Ride Performance: The PR1600 unit has a lot of options. High mode, low mode, different levels of lighting, and the charging options as well. There is a LOT going on here and that may be one of the downfalls of the PR1600. The key to making sense out of all of this is the remote wireless switch and the LED screen readout.

The remote is nice. Big enough to find with clumsy fingers or with gloves on and it can be positioned in such a way that it is ergonomic to use. The profile of the button is flatter and that makes it easy to get along with. But function is king, so how does it work?

Well, you will quickly learn that the ‘big’ button toggles the PR1600 between High and Low beam settings. (On both the unit itself and on the remote, by the way) In other words, you can have both lenses blazing on High or just one with Low. Within those two ranges you can toggle between lighting levels with the smaller button. Toggling back and forth between High and Low takes you from whatever settings you had on Low and the maximum setting on High. So, you could run the Ravemen PR1600 in such a way that you use a lower, longer run time setting on Low and hit the High beams when you really need it, say on a descent, for instance.

The LED screen augments this by showing you a little red icon for Low beam settings and a green one on High settings. The numerical display shows you run time left on each setting as you toggle through them. So, once you’ve become acquainted with the functionality of the Ravemen PR1600, it starts to make more sense. I ended up setting the light up on Low where I could see relatively well and saved the High beam for speedy descents.

The unit was rock solid in its mount, which swivels a tiny bit to accommodate swept back bars. It is worth noting here that the mount that comes with this particular light is only for 35mm or 31.8mm bars. If that doesn’t suit you, Ravemen sell other mounts as well separately. Also- the other Ravemen lights mounts also interchange with this PR1600, so you can mix and match mounts also.

The light seemed to have a wide swath and covered my roads with good light to see by. The throw of light on the highest setting is impressive! It rivals any car I’ve driven for seeing the road. However; you probably are not going to be in that energy sapping mode long, so the good news is that the lower, longer run time settings seem to have more than enough punch to get you down a gravel road at night safely as well.

CL06 Rear Light: This square rear blinker has a feature which is supposed to take the light into its highest/brightest and most eye catching mode when car lights are sensed from behind. While I could not verify that myself while riding, I was able to trigger this by using another torch and flashing it on the CL06 briefly and then taking that light away. It seems to be a feature that works, for what that is worth.

This rear light has several modes and run times. I like the slow, pulsing modes myself for when I am riding with others. That crazy flashing many other rear lights do can drive following riders kind of crazy. Especially if you were to use this CL06 in its “Rapid Flashing” mode, which I call the “Berserker Mode” due to its manic flashing. Pulse Flashing mode is much friendlier, and it lasts for a claimed 12 hours. Plenty of time on tap there.

The CL06 comes with a slightly beefier rubber-stretchy band and rubber block affair as a mounting system which is good, but the rubber is stiffer and more unyielding than some others I have used. That said, this mount is about 1000 times more robust than what the other Ravemen tail lights come with. Fortunately, as with the front lights, the Ravemen tail lights share a similar mounting clip, so you could always swap to this more robust mount.

At The Finish: The PR1600 light is a feature rich unit with plenty of run time options, a very nice LED readout, and a sweet remote switch which makes using the light a very nice experience. The light is quite chunky and perhaps a bit too heavy for some folks at a claimed 230 grams. It also may have too much going on for some folks, but for a rider looking for options which are fairly easy to use while riding, this light could be your winner. The mount is sturdy, but only fits two handle bar standards, so if you are running something other than 35mm or 31.8mm, you’ll need to purchase an appropriate mount from Ravemen. The good news is that the mounts allow interchangeability between different Ravemen lights or for moving one light to different mounts.

The CL06 rear tail light is similar- Feature rich, lots of options for pattern and run time of the light. The square form factor is a bit unusual in rear lighting and the mount is robust, if not a bit too stiff to use. The feature which allows the light to enter the “berserker mode”, (my term) when sensing an approaching car’s lights, is a nice thing, but nothing matters if the driver is impaired or not paying attention, so….. Anyway. Another subject.

My take on these two lights is that they would be great for the serious night rider who is out in the dark on a regular basis. The PR1600 is pretty much a light that can go toe-to-toe with anything out there now in terms of the lighting quality, run times, and user interface. The price of $140.00USD MSRP is amazing when you consider what you are getting here, and it all is packaged in a robust case that looks like it should hold up well for quite some time. The CL06 is unique and may be just what you are looking for with that high flasher sensor feature. I like the mount well enough, although I’d like to see Ravemen improve upon the way it stretches to make it easier to remove and install.

All in all, these are worthy, top of the range lights for not a lot of cabbage. I like that.

For more on Ravemen Lights see their website here: http://www.ravemen.com/

Riding Gravel purchased the Ravemen lights on test and review here for a discounted price from a distributor. We are not being paid, nor bribed for this review, and we always strive to give our honest thoughts and views throughout.