A three miler is on the plan for today, so up the road and back it is. Good ol' Joe McBain - dunno who he is (or was) but judging by other street names in Whitehaven he was probably a famous socialist or somesuch. I must see if I can find out.... anyway, Joe McBain and back is about three miles and much of that route is unlit in any way, so a fair test is on the cards.
The torch is powered by three AAA batteries and when I first started running with it I was very conscious of the weight of the thing on my forehead bouncing around, but don't misunderstand - there actually was no bouncing at all, just that it took me a little while to get used to the feel of the thing. The fit against my head was very comfortable, in fact, and the elastic headband is wide enough to fit snugly without having the oppressive feel of a sweat headband. It wasn't too hot to wear either.
The torch felt totally secure and I really didn't notice the feel of it after the first five minutes.
Operation is simple. One button on the top of the lamp does everything. It's a good sized button that needs a firm push, so to operate it requires you to hold the torch at the bottom too. No trouble in operating it at all, even on the go.
The lamp has a ratchet swivel to allow you to adjust the direction of the beam. Plastic on plastic, but it appears to be pretty hard-wearing so I imagine it would last even with extensive use. Stiff enough to not move about uninvited, but not too stiff to make it tricky to position.
This model is rated as having a brightness of 50 lumens and a throw of 35m. I reckoned that would suffice. I have to say, if I were on a bike I would want more than this, but for running it seemed to be fine. The field of vision afforded by the illumination is as good as my eyes would manage anyway, and the main beam lights up a width of a fair sized footpath. As for the length of the beam - I took myself and the lamp up a farm access to assess this across the fields and I would reckon that I was lighting up to about 100ft. There were a lot of various coloured eyes that I picked up out there, I can tell you!!
This head torch offers a simple set of options. High intensity white light, normal intensity white light, high intensity white flasher, steady red light, flashing red light. Changing modes is simple, as I said earlier, all done on the one button. And the lamp 'remembers' what function you last used so if you turn it off while it is on red flasher, that's what it will come on as when you switch on again. I think that has to be considered an essential function really, but not all head torches do that.
Overall, I was more impressed with it than I expected to be. I felt far safer running along knowing that I could see where I was stepping, and I was blinded by far fewer car headlights, presumably because they were able to see me sooner? I was wearing all my usual night time running clobber, so no other change there.
I did feel that I looked a bit of a twit, but then I reminded myself that it was dark and no-one could see me. Heh heh.
Would I recommend this torch? Yes, I would. There are probably other makes which are good, but Petzl have a good name, they offer a 3 year warranty and the price suited. I would not recommend going for a lower specification than this one in any case, maybe the next one up for running if you want to spend a few more quid, but I personally think a higher brightness rating would leave me worrying that I would dazzle people! Yes, I felt a little more comfortable with this on, despite feeling that I looked like a dalek and I will be happy to take it on all my dark runs. Even through streetlit areas the whiteness of the lamp made the ground much easier to see than this stupid orange we are all bathed in.
In a nutshell....
Get one.
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