Trelock LS 906

Tested: From Feb. 2016

Experiences:

Initially I wasn't impressed... Reasons:

1. The instructions are pathetic making me waste my time. They didn't make clear where to put in the wires for dynamo and taillamp. It looked as if you might need to put them through the holes in the white thingies at the bottom then press these down, but no, you need to press those thingies and put the wires in the holes next to the these white thingies, release them and they are fixed.

2. The beam is uneven, with the main beam having a few stripes from close to you, to max distances, and I felt at first that it was too narrow at larger distances. But on riding more it's OK, just not as good as some others.

3. The level setting doesn't seem to work and the on/off/level switch can only be fitted on 22.2mm sections of a handlebar. This wouldn't be so bad for me if esp. the morons at Shimano didn't make their gear levers such that they take up almost all the space on the handlebar! (especially the indicators for which gear you are in) Of course, at Shimano nobody ever wants to mount a bell, computer, lamp, or anything else on the handlebar, right? The Trelock LS 906' switch doesn't work for high/low beam level. But why is that of interest anyway for a standard dynamo lamp? For a lamp with USB output it would make sense to have a low setting to be able to send more power to USB output while still having light.

But I tried it more and it does put out a lot of light. I will compare it soon to the Saferide 60, Saferide 80 (battery), Roxim D6, IQ-X for the final judgment.

See my review of the IQ-X for comparisons.

12-3-2016: I recently de-moronified my Shimano gear levers, i.e. I removed the indicators which I used quite a lot to be honest so I will miss them (I think I glanced at least 1 time per 2 years at them), and now I have more space to mount stuff! (but still the LS906 switch doesn't fit there, it's too thick) I will ride more with the LS906 after a lot of riding with the IQ-X and make a conclusion for this lamp... (and proper beamshots still to come).

14-3-2016: While testing with the Renak hubs, the LS906 apparently got into a low power mode or something. After that I was again riding with the standard Renak and the LS906 was also very dim, just as with the experimental Renak hub. Then I pressed the power button and it went to high mode. Weird. With further presses of the up/down arrow keys nothing seemed to happen. Strange. Then I looked closely at the ground close to me and noticed that something did change, but only very slightly. Surely this almost undetectable change can't the the difference between low and high mode?! With the Renak experimental hub I then found I could get it a few times, almost randomly into a very low power mode. My sample of this lamp is clearly flaky, and I will probably return it to the distributor. In that case I will buy a LS905 instead.

15-3-2016: The IQ-X does have standlight with both Renak hubs, the LS906 not as I mentioned on the Renak review page. So the electronics is flaky in 2 aspects...

Beamshots:

To come.

For background information on making beamshots see: Camera settings, lamp settings and roads used to make the beamshots.

Road 2, camera height 1.65m, camera distance: -0.40m, camera aim: 50m on the road.

Trelock LS 906

Lamp height 0.75m Camera: h=1.65, d=-0.40, aim=50m (Original 20 megapixel)

The pattern in the light beam near the front wheel:

(Original 20 megapixel)

Conclusion (preliminary):

A strong beam, fairly narrow beam (well, compared to the IQ-X, Saferide 80, Edelux 2, it's wider than most other lamps' beams), remote control seems useless to me. A simple switch as on the Edelux is better. So if you want one, buy the version without remote (LS905) which is a lot cheaper! Throw is quite far, similar to the Saferide 80 and IQ-X, it puts out a lot of light, light colour is the usal poor choice of cool white. compared to other bike lamps, I'm not yet sure which is best, IQ-X has issues with the beam, D6 is nicer but less reach and less strong. I need more time to decide...

2016-3-12