Skully K2 Lights
The new Skully K2 lights are, in a word, cool. We’ve seen the company’s products evolve from their cute little skull-shaped “be seen” light that ran on watch batteries, to the slightly bigger and more powerful USB rechargeable K1 lights, which beamed 20 lumens through the skull’s eyeballs. The latest offering marks Skully’s metamorphosis into a significantly more serious bike light, yet it still maintains their trademark design aesthetic.
The K2 is actually two separate models that utilize the same body style. Both models mount via silicone “bones” to fit virtually any size handlebar, and come in nine colors. Each have both a high powered LED light in the skull’s mouth, as well as two white LED safety lights in the eyes. The curved reflector in the mouth is designed so that the main bulb faces straight down, and the beam shines out in a wide rectangle. And on both models, the lone switch that controls power and mode is housed in the skull’s nose.
The S-L 126B uses 3 AAA batteries to power a 1 W LED which is claimed to run for 8 hours on steady and 40 hours in flashing mode. The safety lights should last 70 on steady and 200 hours in flashing mode.
The S-L 126S features a 1.5 W LED that’s powered by a rechargeable LiPoly battery. It has a claimed run-time of five hours on high (1.5 W) and 12 hours on low (.33 W), and the safety light should last 26 hours on steady, and 110 hours in flashing mode. In addition to being USB rechargeable (which takes just 100 minutes for a full recharge) the light features a solar panel for supplemental recharging during the daylight hours.
In practice, both lights are seriously bright. The manufacturer says that the luminous flux of the S-L126S is 152 lumens, and S-L126B is 122 lumens. In layman’s terms, the battery powered version is bright enough for virtually any nighttime urban cycling situation, including shortcuts through the park, and the rechargeable model is even brighter. The light beam is rather unique, and you may be surprised by the angle that the light needs to be mounted at in order to obtain a proper long, wide pattern.
And German cyclists take note, the Skully K2 lights meet your country’s strict StVZO requirements.
My only nit to pick is that while the mounting system is extremely convenient, and easy to adjust vertically, it leaves no way to make horizontal adjustments to the beam’s trajectory. The S-L126S retails for $125 and the S-L126B retails for $41.
Check out www.skully.com.tw