Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

review

iFlash One magnetic bike lights

4
£17.00

VERDICT:

4
10
Lots of clever ideas, but the execution and brightness isn't up to the job.
Weight: 
50g
Contact: 

At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.

What the road.cc scores mean

Good scores are more common than bad, because fortunately good products are more common than bad.

  • Exceptional
  • Excellent
  • Very Good
  • Good
  • Quite good
  • Average
  • Not so good
  • Poor
  • Bad
  • Appalling

The iFlash One magnetic bike lights are a great idea, reasonably well-executed, but their magnetic attachment isn't up to the job.

There's a lot to like about the design ideas in these simple, compact front and rear lights, but we had the rear one bounce off over a fairly small kerb, which makes it impossible to recommend them unless you only ever ride on very smooth roads.

You get a pair of iFlash lights for your money with ingenious mounts that wrap round your seat post or handlebar and are held in place by the mount for the magnet, which clips in. They're very tidy and thieves will probably be puzzled enough to leave them alone.

The lamp unit then pops into place and is held in place by an NIB magnet. Each lamp has a colored band in the back to indicate whether it's front or rear, and the two have opposite polarity so you can't put them in the wrong mounts. That also lets you clip them together in your bag.

You can switch the light between constant and flashing modes with a tiny internal switch tucked in the body, and turning the lens against the body switches it on and off. It also switches off when you take it off its mount. Unfortunately, it turns back on if it touches anything ferromagnetic in your bag, like coins or keys.

If it sounds like there are a lot of clever, likeable details to the iFlash One lights, you're right. Unfortunately, they fail in two important respects.

The first, as mentioned earlier, is that the magnetic attachment isn't consistently up to the job. It bounced off after a fairly gentle bump down a kerb. Then, of course it turned off. Fortunately, this was on a fairly well-lit road, so it wasn't hard to find.

Its other shortcoming is that it's simply not very visible compared to similar lights without the cleverness. There's only a single LED and the lens concentrates its light into a very narrow beam. If you're not directly behind it, it's harder to see than other LED lights.

A less damning, but still annoying problem is that it runs off four CR2032 lithium cells. Buy them in reasonable bulk from Amazon and they'll cost you 20p or so apiece, but run out unexpectedly and dash into Asda and you'll pay almost ten times that. That makes these expensive lights to run if forward planning's not your strong suit.

The price is converted from Krone, so may change if the iFlash one finds a UK importer.

Verdict

Lots of clever ideas, but the execution and brightness isn't up to the job.

If you're thinking of buying this product using a cashback deal why not use the road.cc Top Cashback page and get some top cashback while helping to support your favourite independent cycling website

road.cc test report

Make and model: iFlash One - Magnetic bike lights

Size tested: n/a

Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

It's clearly aimed at commuters who want a simple, easily-carried pair of lights. The iFlash website doesn't have much technical information, and it's in Danish.

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

Usage time:

Headlight: Lit 28 hours. Flashing light 320 hours.

Rear light Steady light 5 hours. Flashing lights 60 hours.

Includes 8 pieces. button cell batteries.

Rate the product for quality of construction:
 
7/10

The rubber mounts and body are tidily moulded.

Rate the product for performance:
 
4/10
Rate the product for value:
 
7/10

For a pair of lights, the price is pretty good.

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes, till it bounced off.

Would you consider buying the product? No.

Would you recommend the product to a friend? No.

Anything further to say about the product in conclusion?

A better lens and mounting would make this a great product, but its flaws pull its performance and reliability down too much.

Overall rating: 4/10

About the tester

Age: 46  Height: 5ft 11in  Weight: 85kg

I usually ride: Planet X Superlight  My best bike is: Scapin Style

I've been riding for: Over 20 years  I ride: Most days  I would class myself as: Expert

I regularly do the following types of riding: commuting, touring, club rides, general fitness riding,

 

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

Add new comment

2 comments

Latest Comments