Knog Blinder Road Rear 150 light review

The Knog Blinder Road Rear 150 light boasts a 150-lumen output, wrapped in a sleek package.

In testing, it has proven to be a bright, attention-grabbing rear light, and I’d be happy to use it daily – as long as a fundamental part of its design continues to prove resilient to the elements.

Knog Blinder Road Rear 150 details and specifications

Knog has a history of developing distinctive-looking lights, and that design ethos continues with the Blinder Road Rear 150.

It features COB LEDs, which create an array that, seemingly, enables the full surface of the light to illuminate.

In fact, it’s an optical illusion. By my count, there are 168 tiny COB LEDs lighting the array, plus one larger LED that serves as a strobe.

That strobe LED is angled upwards by 12 degrees inside, to compensate for the angle a typical road bike seatpost will position the light at.

There are nine modes – two static and seven dynamic.

The Blinder Road Rear 150 has an integrated USB-A male charge port – like those seen on many of Lezyne’s smaller lights. To charge the light, you plug the whole unit into a USB socket.

The unit attaches to the seatpost via a rubber band, which features a small clip to more easily hook it up. Three different-length bands are provided to suit different-depth seatposts.

Battery life is claimed to be as long 50 hours, but the highest-powered ‘strobe’ mode – one more likely to be used to be seen with – is said to last 7 hours 30 minutes.

The most power-hungry mode (unusually, a dynamic mode as opposed to the most powerful static mode) will drain the battery in around 2hr 30m.

The Knog Blinder Road Rear 150 weighs in at a scant 43g on my trusty scales (including attachment piece and medium-length band).

It costs £62.99 / $64.95 / €64.95 / AU$99.95, which makes it one of the more expensive rear lights available, and among the most expensive in our best bike lights buyer’s guide too.

Knog Blinder Road Rear 150 performance

The Knog Blinder Road Rear 150 is an impressive rear light.

Its 150-lumen count is more than enough to enable you to be seen on the road during daylight hours.

It may make full use of that potential brightness only in its ‘strobe’ setting, but there are three other dynamic settings that enable it to put out 100 lumens or more.

You might suppose this means something more powerful, such as one of Lezyne’s Strip Drive Pro 300 rear lights, would be a more powerful option, and you may technically be right. But, importantly here, the quality of light the COB LEDs emit helps the Blinder stand out.

By illuminating all of the light’s rearward-facing surface area, it creates a larger, visually distinctive light source that contrasts against the typical lights you’d see, day or night.

Moreover, the seven dynamic modes are distinctive themselves, lighting up the board in a blend of disruptive and gentle patterns.

All-in, there may be more powerful rear lights that deliver more ‘shock and awe’ when they’re in their most powerful modes, but the Blinder seems to do the same job without risking becoming distracting.

Nine modes is overdoing it a little – I simply can’t think of the situations in which each of the nine would be better than all the others.

Five, perhaps, would suffice: a low and a high static mode, plus three distinct dynamic settings. As it is, maybe I’ll use one of the redundant modes as a Christmas decoration.

But that’s a niggle, and one that pales when you find the setting you like best – ‘Strobe’ being my favourite – and can return to it immediately thanks to the mode memory function.

‘Strobe’ is my favourite because it utilises the eponymous LED to good effect. Angled as it is to largely compensate for the angle of a typical road bike seatpost, it ensures what punch the light has is directed exactly in the direction I need it.

I’ve experienced burn times largely in line with the claims. Used on multiple shorter rides without recharging (and stored in a cold garage in between), Strobe mode has kept working to around the 7hr 30m claim.

Charging the unit fully then letting it discharge on the ‘High’ static mode yielded just over the claimed 3hr 30m – the two small battery-level warning indicators around the power button light up when it thinks 10 per cent of battery life remains.

That’s cutting it a little fine for my taste – I’d rather be told with at least 20 per cent remaining to give me greater time to get home and get it recharged. But, even then, you can always stick it in ‘Eco’ mode if you need to eke it out.

I’ve owned Lezyne lights in the past that featured on-board male connectors for recharging. These had a cover to protect them when in use on the bike.

Unfortunately, the Blinder Road Rear 150 doesn’t feature a cover.

When attached to the seatpost, the connector points are in direct contact (or at least, directly facing) with the seatpost itself. In turn, that inevitably leaves those connector points uncomfortably exposed to the elements.

Regardless of whether you’re riding with or without mudguards, in wet conditions water will get to them.

Although the light has an IP67 rating – in short, you could submerge the unit for a limited period of time – the longer-term effects of repeated exposure to such important electrical parts has to be a concern.

In the worst-case scenario, you won’t be using mudguards, when all sorts of road grime, dirt salt and more could damage the connection points.

If the connection points are wet after a ride, you certainly need to clean and dry them (and ensure they’re thoroughly dry – I put mine in a warm airing cupboard after each wet ride) before sticking the light into a USB port to charge.

Then, of course, you have to remember to charge it, which is not always a given with the distractions of everyday life.

It’s a shame for what is otherwise a very neatly designed light.

The clamp system is essentially a simple rubber band that attaches to moulded lips, but with a small clasp mechanism to help hook it together.

This is easier to use than just a rubber band on its own, although once or twice I found the clasp part slightly awkward to grasp when wrapping the band around a seatpost.

I also like the fact that the packaging is completely plastic-free, and there’s no pointless paperwork in the box.

You just have to follow the printed QR code inside for a quick start guide and, together with the simple instructions printed on the box, that’s all the information you need to get going.

Knog Blinder Road Rear 150 bottom line

The Knog Blinder Road Rear 150 is a great rear light that makes the most of COB LED technology to create a striking array of bright light patterns.

Certainly, I felt confident I’d be seen when riding, whether I was using the light during the day or night. There’s more than enough power here, while the overall design is sleek.

The one major flaw is the exposed USB charging connector – such a design without some kind of cover seems to needlessly invite corrosion to occur, albeit testing has yet to reveal any, and requires you to ensure you’ve dried the connections properly before putting them into a USB port.

But that aside, the Blinder Road Rear 150 is an excellent rear light, worthy of space on your shortlist.