I bought the Lezyne Femto LED front and rear set from Wiggle to act as a “be seen” safety light for those rides
where a little extra visibility is needed. At the time, they were available for
what seemed like a very good price of £9.99 for the pair. I’d previously owned
a Lezyne Macrodrive front light (similar to this one) which was very good, so I had trust in the
brand.
The Femto set came with a small rubber loop attachment and a
new clip-on system, so the option of attaching to either your handlebars/seat-post
or your back-pack/saddlebag seemed to offer a good degree or versatility. The
Femto works off two of the small coin watch-type CR2032 batteries which come
supplied and are cheap to replace, and boast up to 60hours of life in these lights, depending on mode.
The look:
Out of the packet I was surprised
how small and sleek these were. They looked ideal for sticking on for early
morning Sunday rides in the winter, when the sun is low or there’s a bit of
fog, or the short commute through the city where street lamps light the way but
a flashing light improves safety.
The feel:
The Femtos are very light and the
push-button on/off switch on the lens feels a little flimsy, but the body is
made from aluminium and would hopefully stand up to the limited rigours this
type of light would be expected to go through on the roads. The rubber strap
and plastic clip both felt pretty decent.
The fit:
I struggled to stretch the band
round the bar of my road bike and was worried about it snapping, but once on it
seemed pretty firm. I have a small Topeak bag for a multi-tool and puncture repair
kit under my seat, so the clip seemed perfect for that.
So far, so good…
The performance:
Switching the lights on is a
straight forward matter of pressing the front of the lens and rotating through
the various options of flashing and constant. Indoors they seemed reasonably bright and I was confident they
would be a nice addition to my armoury of safety kit- alongside my high vis
jacket and fluoro yellow helmet.
Unfortunately, this is where the positive
review ends: I put the lights on my bike and on the second time out I returned home to find the rear light had
simply come off at some point during my ride. Given that I was on my road bike
it was hardly the most challenging terrain, so the clip-on system failed
really quite spectacularly.
I contacted Wiggle, who have a fantastic returns policy, to let them know of this- obviously I didn’t
expect a refund for it as I didn’t have the faulty item to return as evidence
(it was somewhere on a road in rural Devon probably) – but more to let them
know of my experience, and I said as much in my email.
At least I still had the front
light though so, as the short ride to and from work was getting increasingly darker
through October, I thought it would be the ideal time to use it. I left to
return home after work as it was getting dusky so pressed the lens to switch on
to flashing mode… which then switched itself off again about a minute later.
Perhaps I’d done something wrong so I tried again, but the same thing happened.
I did this about five times on the way back and eventually gave up. I will be contacting Wiggle again to return this one- I'll update when I hear back from them.
The pros:
A very small, light, and unobtrusive
light that seems like the perfect solution for a little extra safety
The cons:
It doesn’t matter how good the
idea is or how bright the light is if it doesn’t stay on your bike or
switches itself off
Verdict:
2/10 – unfortunately my experience of these lights was really negative. The nice idea of a small, budget-friendly safety light of this design is very good, but the execution (at least in my experience) has let down Lezyne on this occasion.
It could be that I have been unlucky with the front light and just happened to have got a bad one, but I think the design of the clip needs to be looked at.
*** 1/11/2016 Update from a friend who read this post: she also has the same set and has the same problem with them switching themselves off ***
It could be that I have been unlucky with the front light and just happened to have got a bad one, but I think the design of the clip needs to be looked at.
*** 1/11/2016 Update from a friend who read this post: she also has the same set and has the same problem with them switching themselves off ***
