Gear Reviews

First Look: Rockform iPhone 5 case and bike mount

With Strava and other GPS platforms, our phones have become a vital part of capturing our rides. After looking through some options, the guys at RockForm sent over one of their new v3 iPhone 5 mounts with case to review. I will be putting the mount and case through its paces on both our commuter bike, and also strapping it to the mountain bike to see how it performs off road on some rough singletrack. The RockForm mount attaches to your fork and replaces your top cap. Then the case covers your phone securely and snaps into the mount using a quarter turn system and a little magnet that’s integrated into the case. It’s a pretty ingenious solution and easy to install and setup for your preferred viewing angle.

Out of the box, the mount and case look great. Everything that you need is included, labeled well, and packaged nicely. It came with:

• - The top cap mount, including a new bolt.
• - A solid surface “remote” mount that you can mount to any surface (like a car dashboard)
• - A tether for the “just in case” moments on the bike
• - The iPhone case, including a rubber surround
• - Screen protector, wipe, and alcohol pad for install

To start with, I really like the case itself. It’s a nice hard plastic case so it protects the phone on all sides, but it’s not so bulky as to take away from the iPhone’s size. Also, the magnet portion on the back side of the case has a rubber coating, so the case sits nicely on a desk or solid surface. Other full plastic cases slide really easily and I really like how this one sits solidly. Lastly, the magnet is a really cool feature. Since it’s coated in rubber, it doesn’t hurt or mar any surfaces, but it has an strong enough attraction to attach itself to steel surfaces. I’ve used it to hang my phone temporarily on my toolbox in the garage and also place it on the roof of my car and have full confidence that it won’t slide off. It’s a very cool, unexpected feature of the case, and I really  like it.

I got the case installed on my shiny new iPhone 5 and the mount installed on the commuter bike to start with. I have a pretty short commute (3 miles each way, but I usually do some extra credit so it ends up being a 10 mile round trip) but it passes through our local city park and I do hop on/off a couple of curbs and sidewalks, so its a good test for the commuter application. The mount uses a quarter turn system, sort of similar (but MUCH more durable looking) to the Garmin mount, and then “snaps” into place using the small magnet on the back of the case. It’s a solid interface, easy to put into place, and feels very secure. You get a nice reassuring ”click” sort of sound when it goes into place.

I haven’t yet used the full removable rubber bumper or the on the bike tether, as I feel just the plastic case is enough for my day to day use and on the commuter. I do plan on using both of those when I strap the iPhone to my Trek Remedy and hit the singletrack though.

The only drawback I found to the mount is that I now that I have such easy access to my technology, I caught myself texting and riding a couple of times, and also jumping on an email or facebook while sitting at a stoplight. It’s super easy to get distracted!

We will continue using the mount and case on the commuter and seeing how it holds up to more wear and tear, and shortly we’ll strap it to our big hit bike and test it out on the trails. Look for the full in depth review coming soon!

Review: Nocturn W660 and N230 LED Bike Lights

Over the past couple of months, we have been putting the Nocturn W660 and N230 LED lights from Global Gear through the ringer. Let’s take a look at what we found with these two inexpensive LED bike lights.

For the purposes of this review, Global Gear provided two models out of their lineup: the W660 and N230. Let’s take a look at the specs.

Nocturn W660 LED Lighting System

• 660 Lumens Aluminum LED Head Unit
• Machined Aluminum Bar Mount
• 2-Cell 3.7V Lithium Ion Battery Pack
• Compact 100-240V Travel Charger
• Travel Case
• System Weight: 280 grams
• Flood Beam
• 2 Light Power Levels
• Retail Cost: $99.00

NocturnN230 LED Lighting System

• 230 Lumens Aluminum LED Head Unit
• Machined Aluminum Helmet Mount
• 2-Cell 3.7V Lithium Ion Battery Pack
• Compact 100-240V Travel Charger
• Travel Case
• System Weight: 290 grams
• Spot Beam
• 2 Light Power Levels
• Price: Not currently listed on Global-Gear.com

As you can see by the pictures above, the Nocturn lights come in foam encased travel cases to protect the aluminum constructed bike lights and mounts. The N230 is a spot beam and the W660 is a flood, so the crew at Global Gear recommended we run the N230 on the helmet for accurate focused light where our head was pointed and the brighter flood light on the bars to cover the wider spread on the ground.

Review: Nocturn W660 and N230 LED Bike Lights

When you first open the cases, you immediately notice the black housings of the LED bike lights from Nocturn. The machining is accurate and the black ano is well done. On the surface, the lights appear much more expensive than the pricing suggests. However, due to the all aluminum construction, you will not just be throwing these lights in with the rest of your gear as the rougher edges will scratch plastics. The supplied travel cases are almost a must to keep the lights scratch free as well as the rest of your gear.

On the back, there is a simple one button on/off operation that is easy to get to and operate. Hit the button once for on, once more to bring it down one power level and then again for off. Pretty simple stuff.

Most riders I know use their helmet mounts almost exclusively. The Nocturn mount is easy to use and features another aluminum machined mount that attaches with elastic straps. The light actually slides into a collar that is then tightened with an allen head bolt. The mount is secure and the elastic straps allow you to get the light secure on the helmet. The only downside to the mount is the inability to secure the loose straps.

Due to the lightweight nature of the light kit, you are actually able to mount the battery to your helmet as well. This keeps any wires from having to run down your back if you can take a little bit of extra weight (overall 290 grams which is pretty light). There is a supplied extension cable if you would rather put the small battery in your jersey pocket or hydration pack.

The handlebar mount has a similar aluminum construction as the helmet mount. The light attaches the exact same way and a collar with a removable bolt handles the mounting to the handlebar duties.

Our battery was strapped to the top tube as our stem was too short to accommodate the battery’s length.

It still worked out well and the cable was able to be kept out of harms way.

Overall, both systems were incredibly easy to mount and secure on the bike and helmet. The mounts were well made and the pivoting point on each was strong enough to keep the lights from working their way down under heavy hits and vibrations.

Light Performance: W660 and N230 LED Bike Lights

Before we talk about the specifics on the performance of these lights, let’s take a look at a couple of pictures. These were taken with the following settings on a Nikon D7000 with a Sigma 50mm/f1.4 lens: ISO400, F/6.3, 0.5 second shutter speed. The images were imported in Lightroom 3 and left unedited to keep them looking as much like they were when taken from about a 30 foot distance.

Single W660

Single N230

Both W660 and N230

As you can see by the pictures, there is a distinct difference in both brightness and spread in the N230 and W660. The combination of the two actually doesn’t look much different than the W660 fired by itself as the N230 gets almost completely washed out.

The W660 does a good job of providing foreground light and the 660 lumens specification seems about dead on. It provides a lot of usable light out of a small package. Quoted, the W660 will run for up to 2.5 hours on high and up to 10 hours on low and the N230 will run for up to 5 hours on high and up to 14 hours on low. We didn’t test the lights under the low condition (we like things BRIGHT on the trail), but the quoted times seemed about dead on for each unit on high.

So after looking at the specs and beam patterns…are these low budget lights worth it?

Overall: Nocturn W660 and N230 LED Bike Lights

For the W660, absolutely. At the cost of $99.00 dollars, it almost makes the light disposable in the bike light world where name brands will cost you 5x as much. The lightweight nature of the unit makes it incredibly versatile and the beam pattern is great for trail use. Your friends with 1,000 lumens + will have more light, but at 660 lumens there is plenty of useable light for the trail.

On the N230, we honestly didn’t get much out of it. I understand what Global Gear is saying about using a spot on the helmet and flood on the bars, but I would rather just run a flood on the helmet and nothing on the bike. For a backup, the W660 is cheap enough to just get two and have much more usable light if you want to run a two light setup. The spot just doesn’t cover enough spread and gets washed out by the W660 anyway.

The bike light industry is really getting rocked by these low cost LED’s and we can see why. Even if the unit failed after a year, you are only out a hundred bucks! You can buy 5 of these before you are up in the range of the name brand units. That is a hard argument to make a case against if you ask me. Especially for riders looking to ride at night on a budget or endurance racers looking to keep the weight off.

Positive: Nocturn LED Bike Lights

• Unbelievable price makes them almost disposable
• Quality aluminum construction with lights and mounts
• Carrying cases included
• W660 has a nice spread and amount of usable trail light
• Spec’ed run times are accurate…low times allow for endurance racing.

Negative: Nocturn LED Bike Lights

• Aluminum construction makes the cases almost necessary
• N230 rendered about useless when paired with the W660 and we wouldn’t use it alone
• Availability: Off the global-gear.com website only
• 4 hour full charge time is a little bit long

For more information, check out Global-Gear.com.