I originally purchased the Schwinn Bike Headlight and Seat Post Taillight combo Set not only for other cars to see me, but so I could see.  I had poorly mistaken.  The taillight was great.  It has four different blinking modes: flash, solid, left-to-right blink, and random blink.  It has 180 degree visibility, so it’s very safe, to use, and the four LED light bulbs make it bright, so I’m Happy with it.

The headlight, on the other hand, was poorly designed.  Even though it’s advertised as halogen/xenon, it’s not very bright.  Also, the design of the lens makes the light beam very narrow.  I did some controlled tests on the light by shining it at a wall at an angle of 90 degrees to the wall.  At a distance of 36 inches (3 feet) from the wall, the beam of light on the wall was an oblong 7 inches X 1.5 inches.  At a distance of 72 inches (6 feet) from the wall, the beam of light on the wall was an oblong 14 inches X 2.5 inches.  These tests show that the very long and narrow beam increases visibility of you from other cars, but does not allow you to see any obstacles in your path.  The latter was a problem I encountered first-hand when I hit a pot hole in the middle of the night and was thrown five feet over the handle bars.  I knew that removal of the lens would affect the beam of light differently, so I removed it to see if that would improve visibility.  It did not.  Removing the lens actually made the beam smaller.  Also, it would have been impractical because the light requires that the lens be in place in order to push the light bulb and reflector on to the electrical contacts.  In other words, without the lens, there was no electrical connection.

Battery installation was quick and easy, but required a Phillips screwdriver.  The Headlight requires two C batteries (included) and the taillight requires two AAA batteries (included).  I’ve had this light set for a few years, now and I’ve had to replace the batteries for the headlight several times, but the taillight is still running off the original batteries.  Simply for the fact that the LED taillight doesn’t drain batteries, but the Headlight drains them terribly.

Both lights were quick and easy to install, requiring nothing but a screwdriver.  All you have to do is fit the mounting clip over the handle bar/ seat post (depending on which light you’re installing), tighten them with screws, and clip the light onto the mounting clip.

In short, the taillight was worth the purchase, but the headlight was not, as it was very poorly designed.

Recommended: No