500 lumen (claimed) bicycle headlight integrated into the handlebar stem.
$60 on Kickstarter.
There are some good design choices in this StemLite and I like the idea, but handlebar stems are one of those parts where really bad things can happen if it fails. Does anybody know how much testing has gone into this stem?
H/T to Trent in Santa Clarita.
Good question (but where else would you put it?) … 500 lumens is too much for me, anyway.
Oh the location is good. I’m just not sure I’d trust my life to a couple of enthusiastic bros who may or may not be qualified in mechanical engineering work.
Link please, not just a video embed. Thx.
Stem are not that difficult to engineer, they been around for eons. I machined on at college, and it worked fine for years. The thing is, with integrations, you lost some adjust-ability. They have to make different versions of this for different stem length, that is costly. and they are competing with lights costing $8 at Walmart….
Weird – Kickstarter embed code has always included link the past. I’ve added explicit link.
You’d think, yet we see a surprising number of steam recalls, and not only for lightweight stems meant for performance use.
I’m pretty sick of CNC’d Kickstarter junk. I’d be curious to see how many Kickstarter items are 1) actually brought to market and 2) still in business 2 years later
Good idea … sort of. Don’t like that they use disposable batteries. That is an incredible waste and it gets expensive. They need to create it so there is a rechargeable battery that is removed. I don’t know why anybody is using throw-away batteries given today’s awareness of the incredible, unsustainable waste our society creates.
I also think having to undo a tiny screw is a pain. Sure, many people that are hardcore cyclists won’t care. But I can tell you that a lot of people, especially urban commuter cyclists, will find that an unnecessary pain. Ther’e’s got to be a better way ….
jd
I hesitated to mention the AA batteries in this design in my post. It’s clearly a cost reduction measure – 50 cents for the battery case, vs about 20 times that for a rechargeable lithium battery and charging circuit.
Aside from the mechanical concerns, I would also want to see current regulation. Ever since I purchased my Lezyne Super Drive XL which gives me constant output (as opposed to gradually diminsihing output), I won’t go back to lights with no current regulation. I also think that the stem is a bit bulky.
500 lumens powered by AA surely can’t last very long. They should take a look at Stvzo German lights (most dynamo systems) that cover the road more than sufficiently with about 150 watts. I’d have a hard time going back to lights without a proper cutoff – to not blind oncoming cars.