By Renee Howard
I have a small headlamp and flashlight graveyard in my closet. It seems no matter how much I spend on the damn things, they always fall apart or flicker out and die right when I need them most. I immediately knew that HEADSPIN’s convertible lighting kit would allow me to chuck those old lights and start fresh. As soon as I opened the HEADSPIN lighting kit I was impressed with the quality feel of the entire system.
I endeavored to take the kit out for a camping trip in search of some spruce hens for dinner and I was not disappointed. I used the light for every aspect of the day after sunset and it passed the Alaska test. I didn’t find any birds but I did manage to put the light through the paces biking, setting up camp, cleaning guns, swimming in 34 degree ice-water and cooking a gourmet meal of moose steaks around the fire.
There is nothing flimsy or cheap feeling about any aspect of this product. I love the ease with which you can adjust the brightness settings – no more fumbling around with triple taps and half-press single buttons. The settings range from reading in the tent at an energy saving 10 lumens to discovering what type of large carnivore is marauding your camp at 3am, with the max output of a very impressive 400 lumens.
Winter in Alaska is seriously dark with only five and a half hours of daylight on winter solstice here in Southcentral. If you are not squared away in the lighting department, you will be labeled greenhorn, cheechako, or tenderfoot but usually called things that are not suitable to print.
As the moon dips behind a mountain even on the brightest night you better have some fresh, warm batteries or you might end up feeding the wolves. During the spring and fall months you might be fending off North America’s largest carnivore. At this point the more lumens the better. Both a flashlight and a headlamp lie within close reach of my .460 Smith and Wesson. You need serious lumens to spotlight the animal as well as an adequate headlamp to see your sights. The Headspin at max output could very well be the answer to the two light conundrum, freeing up your flashlight hand to support the gun from the bone crushing recoil of a 400 grain bear load.
Lovers of nature can feel good about the fact that the light is rechargeable. This will save you money and keep your old alkaline batteries from leaching into the groundwater as they corrode in the landfill. Considering the weight of rechargeable lithium batteries and the impressive 400 lumen output I was pleasantly surprised at the weight of the light itself. It seems to strike just the right balance of durability and weight saving simplicity.
The handle bar mount is a great addition to the kit and could assuredly be used to fasten to other cylindrical objects of similar diameter. Fatbikes for hunting and winter riding are enjoying a huge amount of popularity in Alaska but everything associated with this sport is insanely expensive. A bike specific light or even a tactical light for your picatinny rail would cost well over the msrp of the Headspin, so the cost to quality ratio is outstanding with this new product. Get one while you can, I remember when Mt. Hardwear first came up and their gear was almost half the cost of their competitors. That only lasted a few years as their reputation skyrocketed like a champagne cork on new years.
Cheers from Alaska!
