I’ve been researching and testing out a few headlights that I could mount on my helmet for night esk8 riding and I’ve found my champion – H05A-GCG2 (H05B is pretty much the same). In fact I was so pleasantly surprised that I felt compelled to write this post.
Okay, so what’s so great about the H05A-GCG2 (or H05B) headlamp?
- It’s decent price (15 EUR on Ali without the battery).
- It has plenty power for illuminating the road before me.
- It uses a standard 18650 battery, so when you lose juice during a ride, you can easily swap it out with a spare one from your backpack.
- While you can swap the batteries, it also has a USB-C charging port, so you don’t have to hussle with removing the battery and putting it in the charger when you’re charging at home.
- It’s waterproof.
- It’s very compact and can be easily mounted beneath the helmet sun shield.
- The head strap can be easily non-destructively removed and the mount is curved just right to be easily installed on the helmet surface with nano tape.
- The headlight is easily adjustable in the mount on the helmet in just the right way (rotating up and down). It can be installed in the mount both ways, so you can make the power button accessible with either hand based on your preference.
- You can turn on and off the device with a single press of the button. No stupid cycling through modes or having to hold the button for a few seconds. Just press to turn on, press again to turn off. Simple as that.
- The power button is big and easy to find even with gloves.
- While the power controls are simple, the headlight still has plenty modes. You can control brightness, it also has some strobe modes and an easily accessible high power mode (double click). It also remembers the brightness setting between power cycles.
- It has a battery level indicator.
Okay, that’s it. This is the first light I’ve found that checks all my boxes. The simple turn on/off button is a huge selling point, because I have four lights on my longboard (helmet, two front, one back). If I had to wait several seconds to turn on/off each of them, it would get quite annoying.
So, if you’re looking for a decent light to put on your helmet, look no further than this one!
I’ve also designed a 3D printable adapter for longboards for the light.