tjkoko

I possess the Cygolite 850 and it performs to my needs. Does anyone have any experience with the Fenix BC221R headlight????

natemeister

I don't have experience with their bike light, but I bought their HL60R headlamp couple of weeks ago and took it on a ride with my NiteRider Lumina 750. Both Fenix lights use the same LED diode and battery and weigh pretty much the same. What I found is that the Fenix light was as bright as my NiteRider Lumina 750, and cast a much wider beam. Not sure if the bike light version is as wide, but I enjoyed the wider beam while riding offtrail.

bikebreak

I recently got one. It is nice and bright, beam fairly round. Good throw. The top cutoff (to reduce brightness at the top of beam as to avoid blinding drivers) seems to work. However, the silver bevel around the lens should be longer and wider to block light from rider's eyes - you need to aim the light down a ways to avoid this if you have an aggressive forward position on bike.


It is large and heavy compared to my other lights, cygolite dash and Planet Bike Blaze. The mounting bracket is fairly tall, due to the release lever, so light body sits fairly high above the bars.


Battery is swapable 18650, comes with a 2300mAh, you can get larger capacity. Charge port is a bit ackward to get to, right in front of mounting bracket. Light can work while charging but only in 2 lower steady modes.


The flashing mode does not seem any brighter than my cygolite 320, steady modes are much brighter.
I only use it at night, and use the other lights as day lights.

noglider 

I haven't seen this light, but I prefer mechanical mounts over rubber bands. What does the Cygolite model have? The Cygolites I've seen (and the one I have) have very good mounts.

bikebreak

The Cygolite and the Fenix are rubber band style and both work pretty well.

The Dash is a lot of light for the size and weight, but I have one dash that died after about a year of use. I'm going to see if cygolite will warranty i...

noglider 

For what it's worth, I have a Cygolite Streak (350, I think). It seems to be just like the Metro but a little less expensive and smaller and with a smaller battery and thus shorter battery life. The Metro has been popular, as it's quite practical. I don't need a battery headlight often, so this is good for me. The mount is a mechanical hinge with a knob for tightening it well. This is the kind of mount I like when I want a light with easy-on-easy-off ability.

PaulRivers

I own one. It has some good points and some bad points. If you already have a Cygolite 850 I'm not sure it would be worth changing.

Good
- Neutral white led is easier on my eyes than the usual cheap blue led, and easier on oncoming traffics eyes in my experience (I've also tried having someone ride towards me with it)
- Perfect battery - you charge it in light, but can pop off the back and remove it and replace it with another battery

Bad
- Their "dual distance beam system" uses a design that puts an additional beam of light in the nearfield by the bike. In theory it's cool but it's overly bright and in my experience it's to bright and makes it harder to see down the road.
- The runtime is very short on high, either 1:00 or 1:20 depending on the battery used. All lights of this size and shape have short runtimes, though usually they're 1:30.
- The mount is ok, it generally stays in place for me, but it's not great. I don't have any huge complaints (their previous light's mount was terrible) but I prefer a more solid mount.

If you already have a light that works I don't know that it would be worth changing.

Garfield Cat

The Expilion line is the mount style, not rubber band.

unterhausen

I was going to say, my Expilion 850 has no hint of rubber-bandishness at all.

BikeLite

I'd imagine the only thing better with the cygolite, maybe, is the handlebar mount.

bikemig 

Good to know. I'm tempted to pick one up. I just had the battery die on my light and motion front light. I think I'm done with lights with proprietary batteries which is why the fenix is tempting.

PaulRivers

Cool. Although...like I said it has some good points and some bad points. I'm not sure if I would recommend it, I ran across another light that looked a lot more promising -

The Glow Worm Cx. I emailed them and they said for $20 they'd replace the led with a neutral white one (they offer the service on their site officially for other lights so you an choose your color temperature), it looked interesting.
Gloworm CX Urban and Trail ? Action-LED-Lights

- "Internal 2 cell Li-ion battery that's easily changed without tools"
- 2.5 hours of runtime on high.
- A decent easy looking quick release mount.
- Dual Beam light with interchangeable optics to customize the beam pattern (Spot-Spot and Spot-Wide included)
- Can be charged from a Dyno-hub, even while using the light.

bikemig 

Looks god but I'm leaning towards a light that uses batteries that are readily commercially available. I don't want to be locked into a light that has a proprietary battery even if it is replaceable.

Why would you flat out not recommend the fenix? The mount works, batteries are readily available, and it throws out a fair amount of light?

PaulRivers

Hmm. I assumed it was 2 regular lith-ion cells (blanking on the exact name to be honest) but I guess it's repeatedly vague about that. I'm feeling a little lazy to email and ask.

It keeps being my "It's almost a great light but one flaw keeps me from using it" light.

feel like a warm relaxing ride around the neighborhood at night - nearfield beam being to bright causes a tunnel effect. Tried it several times, really wanted it to work because the color output on the Fenix BC21R is the most natural I've seen from an LED bike light, but with the tunnel effect it's never quite relaxing.
max visibility, long throw and wide coverage - not wide enough, not enough throw to match more specialized and expensive lights.
long battery life 2 hours plus ride - 1 hour on high doesn't cut it.
Quick and easy to take on and off - rubber band mount not as good as solid plastic slide on-off mount.
Mountain Biking - rubber band mount works fine for road but not solid enough for slamming bike on and off stuff like you do in mountain biking.

It use it as my emergency backup light because of it's all-in-one design and small size. Even there, it's another "almost great" light because it has no way to lock it out from turning itself on if the button is held down by accident inside the bag. I get around it by putting the battery in backwards (so it won't come on if you press the switch).

My go-to light for long throw is a phillips saferide v2. They don't sell it any more, but it takes AA's with so-so battery life. Longest throw on a light that isn't a "oh god why is the sun coming towards me" mountain bike light.
My go-to light for wide fill light is a light and motion taz. It's runtime on high is pathetic but fill light only requires medium or low.
My go-to light for long runtime is a dynamo light together plus a taz.

The Fenix BC21R is always almost good enough, but never the one I pick, that's why I'm hesitant to throw myself behind endorsing it. The Glow Worm Cx looked like it's 2.5 hours of runtime, better mounting, removable battery, and ability to switch lenses might make is a better light - but I haven't used it so it's just a suggestion.

There's a lot of other lights I've found to be terrible. A Dinotte had way to bright of light right in front of you causing a worse tunnel effect with no throw, the fenix btr20 has the worst mounting system I've ever used as it would not even keep the light stable on the road, I used several lights with cringy cheap bluer led light output that my eyes and brain don't like.

The Fenix BC21R isn't terrible, it just keeps being a "well if it wasn't for this one small thing it would be great" light.