Blackburn Central 700 Front Light

Blackburn's Central 700 front light provides decent brightness with a well-designed beam pattern and impressive reach for riding along unlit roads at pace, but the wobbly mount is a bit of an annoyance, especially on bumpy roads and descents.

It's pitched as a commuter light, but it's bright enough to be used by those wanting to head off into the unlit countryside on training rides too, with a good range of modes to suit urban and rural use.

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The light is a self-contained design, with an integrated (and removable) lithium ion battery that provides nearly 1hr 30mins of run time on the highest setting. That's enough for most commuting distances and quick evening training rides. The top button, which is the on/off switch and mode selector, also acts as a fuel gauge, changing colour to display the remaining battery charge.

A medium and low mode decrease the brightness to 400 and 200 lumens respectively and extend the run time to a useful 4hrs on the lowest output mode. You can see where you're going on the middle setting in the pitch black, though the reduction in brightness does make picking out potholes and other wheel swallowing obstacles a bit trickier.

But it's on the 700-lumen mode that the light is most effective. Blackburn has developed a lens that provides a very useful reach, a claimed distance of 131 metres in fact. I didn't get my tape measure out, but Blackburn isn't far off with this claim at all. There's also a decent width to the beam as well, and on narrow lanes the whole width of the road is illuminated.

I do a lot of riding before and after work, and living in the countryside most of this riding is in absolute darkness, so a bright light is a requirement. The Blackburn provided sufficient output with a satisfactory beam pattern that allowed me to ride at a decent tempo. Switching between the high and medium modes, depending on the section of road (brighter for a fast descent, less bright for a slow climb) extended the run time by a useful amount.

For riding in the town and city, the pulse and strobe modes are your friends and provide enough run time to go for days between charges, depending on the duration of your commute, of course. Two small strips of light at the side of the unit are useful additions for riding on busy streets, giving a bit of side visibility to other road users approaching from side junctions. It's probably not as effective as it could be because with your hands on the hoods they slightly block the side lights. Still, it's a nice idea.

> Check out our guide to the best front lights and our beam comparison engine here

It's all going so well, but then you get to the mount. The positives are that it's a simple and quick rubber band that loops around any diameter handlebar, and can be removed in a second if you have to lock your bike up outside. It can also be fixed to a helmet, making it ideal if you want to complement a super-powerful handlebar-mounted light with an auxiliary helmet light. And the angle of the light can be adjusted using the dial that operates the bolt attaching the light to the mount.

But, despite stretching the silicone band as tightly around the handlebar as I could, the light jiggles around on it. At lower speeds and on smooth roads it's passable, you get used to it, and for commuting it's mostly fine. But at higher speeds and especially on bumpy roads or, worse, a fast bumpy descent, it becomes intolerable. On several high-speed descents the front light slowly rotated forwards around the handlebar, requiring readjustment, which is the last thing you want when scanning the road for rocks and holes.

Verdict

Decent light but it's let down by a wobbly mount