Is this a good bike light? And should I give these people my money? I was was checking out this bike light.  It looks good enough for me.  I (rarely) get lost on trails around dusk, but more importantly I commute - a lot by bike.  I really just want to be seen.

What caught my eye was the review: there are nearly 500 5 star, and a mere 17 1 star review.  I'll take my chances.  But this is where it starts getting questionable.

First off, they make sure  you get to read #1 Bike light on Amazon, if it is.  Okay.  But, in the video they use to advertise it, they claim that most bicycle accidents happen at night - they don't, as you can read about here.  They also flash statistics in the video that aren't related to the time of day... at all....

That said, this government source says it is more risky to ride at night (more people probably ride during the day.  Is it proportionately more dangerous?)  

Is this marketing practice unethical?  I don't want to reward unethical advertising with cash, but in the grand scheme of things it's probably more important that the are selling a quality product if they say they are.

Could the ratings have been (partly) faked?

Has anyone used one?  I can't seem to find a review of the dang thing on youtube, as popular as they are supposed to be!
OK so I do a lot of bike light reviews. I originally started writing them for this very site's community blog, and now I run a separate website called The Bike Light Database. 


  Has anyone used one? I can't seem to find a review of the dang thing on youtube, as popular as they are supposed to be!


I've reviewed this light specifically, and can say that while it is cheap, it's not a good choice for someone who seriously bikes at night. The build quality is poor, it doesn't put out much light, and the optics are crap. There's no side visibility. The mount is annoying to use and bulky. The light dims quickly as the non-rechargeable batteries drain, and the contacts are of poor quality so sometimes the light just stops working unexpectedly. 


  Is this marketing practice unethical? I don't want to reward unethical advertising with cash, but in the grand scheme of things it's probably more important that the are selling a quality product if they say they are.


I think their page makes a lot of dubious claims. The taillight in the video isn't the taillight they include. My rule of thumb is, if the Amazon product title says anything more than the name of the product or is more than 1 line long, I don't buy it. They're trying too hard to sell it and it's probably crap. 

Furthermore, some of those pictures are very obviously other products. This is a real beamshot of the light that I took. You can see an interactive version to compare it with other lights on the site. 




  Could the ratings have been (partly) faked?


Looking through the reviews on the page you linked, many of them are verified purchases, but not all are. I think it's unlikely that most would be faked, but there may well be some fakes. The real issue is that to a lot of people, it seems like a perfectly good bike light because they've never seen a good bike light. It's cheap, it does what they expect (lights up), and it doesn't have any immediately obvious problems, so it gets 5 stars. 

For people with a small budget and simple needs, this light is just what they want. That doesn't mean the advertising is truthful, and it doesn't mean the light is any good. It's the same as asking somebody who bought their bike at WalMart if they like it. "Oh yeah, 5 stars, it's great! Totally has pedals, moves forwards, even stops when I use the brakes!" And yet we know better here than to buy a bike at WalMart. 

I've also addressed the issue of "eBay China lights" in my FAQ. While on the surface the specifications look just as good as any other light, it's the details of the design (not to mention the ethics of the company and their marketing) that make the difference. There's also a lot of lies in the specs that companies list - I highly doubt this light actually puts out 200 lumens, for example. 



Hopefully that sort of answers your questions. If you'd like to talk more about lights, ping me in the site chat or leave a comment, I like discussing lights! And if you're looking for a better light to choose, I have some pretty detailed suggestions on my lights site!