Review: Blackburn Central 700 Front
The light has a focused lens and a spill lens for greater illumination beneath the rider.
Editor’s Note: This article is part of Mtbr and RoadBikeReview’s 2016 Bike Lights Shootout. See the 2016 Mtbr Headlights Index and the RoadBikeReview Commuter Lights Index.
The Lowdown: Blackburn Central 700 Front
Last year, Blackburn intrigued us with the Blackburn Central Front with its robust construction and unique features. But it was a little bit of a miss with its high price, low output and light sensing technology that was not really that useful to most riders.
This Central 700 seems to hit all the marks however. It is bright and handy at 710 measured lumens and a simpler strap mount. And it really focuses on the most important aspect of the product, the beam pattern. Instead of making the smallest light with that requires a small reflector lens, they opted for a bigger one that could host two lenses, a near and far optic, much like a bifocal. This provides a light that provides good visibility seeing far ahead on the trail and close by for slow, techy maneuvers.
| Claimed Lumens: 700 Lumens | Mtbr Lux: 71 |
| Measured Lumens: 715 Lumens | Mounted weight: 162 grams |
| Lumens per $: 7.15 Lumens | Category: Headlight |
| Lumens per gram: 4.41 Lumens | Price: $100 |
| Run time on high: 1:15 Hours |
Rating:  4.5 Chilis-out-of-5 |
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Full Review: Blackburn Central 700 Front
The highlight of this light is the beam pattern. With its big lens, it’s able to provide a dual beam with long throw and broad short range spill. This is quite unique in a light at this size and price point so we are pleased to see Blackburn take the effort to produce a very useable beam.
Mount is a simple but very handy rubber strap with a lot of well-defined holes.
Another cool feature is the mount. First, it is a very easy to use strap mount that makes it very convenient to move from bike to bike. Second, it has a tilt feature that is tightened by a GoPro compatible knob. That means that the rider can cinch down the strap very tight and use the tilt feature to aim the light. Lastly, the light is GoPro compatible so it can be used when any GoPro or third party mount. And since many Bell helmets come with an integrated GoPro mount, this goes on rather seamlessly with a low profile.
Beam pattern of this 700 lumen light has good lower spill for peripheral vision underneath the rider.
Beam Pattern Photo
We photographed the lights in the same location setting with the same camera settings. The photo was taken in the back yard that is approximately 25 yards long. The backyard beam pattern allows you to gauge the throw and the width of the light. Compare all Beam Patterns here »
Weight is 162 grams
Integrating Sphere Measured Lumens
This light measured 715 Lumens in an integrating sphere. Claimed Lumens by the manufacturer is 700 Lumens. Compare all Lumen Tests here »
Blackburn has made giant strides with their commuter lights and now these trail useable lights. Put one or two on the bars and one on the helmet and you’ll have a modular system that can handle any style of night trail riding.
For more information visit www.blackburndesign.com.
This article is part of Mtbr and RoadBikeReview’s 2016 Bike Lights Shootout. See the 2016 Mtbr Headlights Index and the RoadBikeReview Commuter Lights Index.
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