Raypal 2263 Review: First Impressions

Most of the miles I've earned on the saddle are during at night. Right now the only lights mounted on the folding bike are Cateye brand and it is the 3 bulb type which runs on AAA batteries. It's not really bad but when you occupy a large road space with reckless cars in the evening, you'd want something proportional to your road presence.

Enter the Raypal 2263. Here are a couple of photos of the Raypal 2263 light compared to the 3-bulb Cateye. I mounted one on the chainstay and another at the seat post. On the second shot, I just switched their positions. All photos are taken through a phone camera in manual mode with the same settings for both shots.

Raypal 2263 mounted at the chainstay.

 You can definitely see how clean my bike it with the Raypal light. It is because I just washed it.

Raypal 2263 mounted at the seatpost.

Notice how little light was projected by the Cateye compared to the Raypal's wide throw. Impressive. I was blinded when taking these photos. The chainstay mounting is a good idea to get a huge pavement area lit for multi directional visibility. I was planning to place one light per chainstay and two for each fork leg to get that U.F.O. effect. The price per piece, however, was the only thing keeping me from being that irresponsible blinding prick you see on the streets.

Battery life for the brightest 100 lumen overdrive setting is very unfavorable. If you plan a long night ride, never use this setting. It only lasts for over an hour. You can use the blinky  or the strobe features which extends the battery life. 

Only time will tell when this light will last the 5 years stated in the manual.