Planet Bike’s Blaze 1-watt LED headlight is what I consider a high-end budget headlight. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but allow me to explain. In the world of commuter bike lights, you can spend as little as $10 to get an acceptable level of visibility on the front of your bike, and as you eclipse the $20 mark the safety factor goes up dramatically. At $45, the Blaze offers the level of quality and features a serious cyclist demands. In some respects, it even offers some advantages over lights in the $90 to $175 price range.
For example, Planet Bike’s simple Quick-Cam adjustable bracket works impressively well. A rubber strap combined with a cam mechanism allows the unit to fit a variety of bars and doesn’t let the light dip or slip. Like most quick-release mounts, there is a tiny bit of play between the light head and the mount, but it wasn’t enough for me to complain about.
The Blaze also accepts plain old AA batteries, which is pretty economical if you use a set of rechargeable lithium ion batteries. What’s more, if you get caught riding home at night and your batteries run out, you can simply get some from the store—a couple bucks is a small price to pay for safe passage home. With 7 to 14 hours of runtime per charge, a set of batteries should last most commuters a week if not more.
Unlike the high-priced commuter lights in my collection, the Blaze is really just bright enough to be seen, not bright enough to see in the dark. 
It may cast enough light to traverse a flat bike path at low speeds, but I wouldn’t want to rely on the Blaze in the woods or on the dark, hilly roads outside of the city at night. I’m also hoping I don’t find myself running low on batteries and forced to use the light’s stroboscopic SuperFlash mode. I don’t even have epilepsy and I found myself a gnat’s hair away from having a convulsion when it’s on…
Jokes aside, the Blaze seems like a solid value. Based on my experience with other Planet Bike products, including the venerable Beemer headlight, the Blaze is built to last. Planet Bike backs up their products with a limited lifetime warranty, and of course 25% of their profits go to bike advocacy.
A Fenix l2d is what you want Jeffy !
Let me be the first to say that the “quick cam” attachment is a big bag of shit. I bought a Planet Bike two-pack which included a lower-end version of the light above (black casing) and a rear light. The rear lamp is securely attached to my ladyfriend’s bike on the seat-tube, shining safe blinks during the nighttime hours. The front lamp however…
The little adjustable locking ring is bunk. The “handle” so to speak falls off after more than two detaches from the bike, leaving your lamp homeless. And, even when it was attached, getting the proper amount of grip was nigh-impossible. I give this attachment system a firm thumbs down.
I totally agree with Justin’s assessment of the “quick cam” bracket. Everything else that Planet Bike makes is superlative, but not this hunk ‘o junk mounting bracket.
I found out the hard way that the only way to get it to stay put is to cover the handlebar underneath with non-slip cloth “friction tape”. No amount of fiddling with the locking ring or the camming device was sufficient to keep the light pointing in the right direction.
I will say that the bracket will fit a wide variety of handlebars and other cylindrical objects, though.
I’m using the light on a 26.0 polished aluminum bar, and it doesn’t slip. I’ve had it on and off a number of times, and it hasn’t broke thus far. I will say that no mounting system is perfect, and almost anything made out of plastic is susceptible to breaking.
I’ve tried it on polished and beadblasted/anodized/painted finish bars, and the bracket slipped on every one of them…even by adjusting where the little serrated rubber pad hit. Maybe it’s just me, though.
I 3rd the bracket problem if the Beemer is anything like the Blaze. After fiddling with it for the gazillionth time, I too had to use some frictiony medical gauze tape to stop it from moving up or down. Nice light tho’.
? I used this light for a few rides before Jeff took it over and never had it slip..
Though now that I’m thinking of it, I typically have a bit of electrical tape around my bar where a light would attach just for this reason with various quick mounts. And the tape comes in handy sometimes.
I thought the ratcheting cam system was great. I’ve always liked cam closures for their easy on, easy off ability, and an adjustable one was great in my eyes. But as said, I always have tape around my bar where the light attaches.
Otherwise, I found the light nice and bright, pretty well agreeing with Jeff’s views. I did find that the batteries or the mount rattled a little bit which kind of drove me up the wall for some reason or another. I don’t like things on my bike rattling, but I’d guess most people won’t even notice.
I just got the 1 watt blaze and it fits fine on my stock Giant OCR C3 handlebar. No slippage at all. I had to entirely remove the rubber shims to get it to fit, but with the threaded adjustment for the clamp, I was able to get a very firm grip. It did take some finagling though.
+1 “mount is crap”
I’ve tried this on two sets of bars and it’s useless. If you tighten the grip of the thing by turning in the screw on the cam lever, or by pushing the ratchet in one more stop, you arrive at a ridiculous situation where the cam won’t snap closed and remains half open.
If you have problems with the bracket slipping, you may have made the same simple mistake I made - having the clamp facing the wrong way. Try slipping it around, it’s pretty obvious once you do it which is the correct way.
Zero problems with my mount. No offense,but does everyone realise that the strap is adjustable? There’s a ratcheting piece that shrinks it;to lengthen it you use a thin screwdiver to lift the ratchet. It does take a little futzing to set up initially,but once it’s set it should stay in place. I’ve fixed other light mounts in the past by putting a small piece of old innertube under the band.
As for the light itself,it rocks. The strobe is very attention-getting,good battery life,rainproof,and it’s bright enough for most streets and bike paths.
My quick cam mount also worked flawlessly — adjusted right to the needed diameter… no problems, fits tight!
I have to agree with Justin and Ghost Rider, above. The headlight itself is a nice design, with a good, well focused beam. The flash mode is good for high-traffic areas, and seems to get noticed.
But the bracket is simply a poor design. I struggled with mine, trying to find that sweet spot. No, no matter what I did, it was either too lose, or else the “quick cam” would not close up properly. I’ve been riding for 30 years now, and this is one of the worst headlight brackets I have encountered by far. My bars are 26 mm, polished alum.
My solution: I finally got it to fit by using a plastic strip from an old cateye mount, wrapped around the bar. That seemed to do the trick. If you don’t have a spare plastic strip laying around, try a carefully trimmed piece of inner tube.
I am a little aggravated by the manufacturers’ insistence on making the mounting brackets for headlights “tool free”. Are people that confused by the idea of using a 4mm allen head driver? As they say on TV, “What’s up with that?”
I plan on writing to Planet Bike, to inform them of my own experience. Hopefully, they’ll consider re-designing this mounting bracket.