Gloworm X2 Adventure Lights – Review
Last year, I was really impressed with the quality of Kiwi brand’s Gloworm X1 and XS lights, which didn’t just survive but thrived in the filth of a Welsh winter. The X2 light sits between the tiny X1 and the super-powerful XS in terms of size, power and weight. The Adventure version is shipped with a light weight 2-cell battery making it ideal for mounting on your helmet and sticking the battery in your pocket. It is also available with a bulkier 4 cell battery.
In the box you get a full compliment of mounts and accessories for running the light on bars or on a helmet. An excellent touch is that the helmet mount is identical to a GoPro mount, meaning the radical unicorns amongst us can just use the same mount. Everything has a quality feel to it, and everything is taken care of, right down to cable ties for securing the remote. Proper UK chargers and charge indicator LEDs on the battery add a bit of faith that these won’t burn your house down…. Charging takes a few hours. The connection is the same as other lights I’ve used, but beware, only the Gloworm charger actually charges the battery. 
Fitting is as easy as attaching a GoPro, the head of the light held in alignment solidly by an allen bolt. The head unit weighs under 90g, is waterproof (testing included submersion in a stream for about 30 seconds with no issues) and can be set up to fit pretty much anywhere, including a hunting bow according the marketing information! Because of the small size and lightness, I’ve pretty much exclusively run this light on my head and it really is fit and forget. The remote button is secured to bars or helmet with a little tab of velcro, and then a couple of feet of extension cable let you put the battery in a pocket or in your bag. The battery also comes with a really good stretchy velcro strap for securing it to your frame.
Out on the trail the light gives a really good blend of brightness in the centre and some light for peripheral vision. You can swap the reflectors in the light to tune to a more spot or flood style of light. I elected to go with one of each, giving enough light to ride most things with just the X2 on my head. As with the other Gloworm lights, you can use a series of presses and clicks on the remote to program brightness settings.
The preset options are a great starting point, with a claimed 1500 lumens at full full power and various powers below that. With the smaller 2 cell battery at full power the X2 should give 1h45 of light. In tests it lasted pretty much exactly that long.
In more practical tests, I created two light settings, full power for descending and super-dim for climbs, and can happily be out for over three hours with enough juice to not have to worry. The LED indicators give a good, linear indication of how you are doing for power, and when it gets really low the light will flash occasionally rather than just going from full power to cutting out!
The X2 is a great headlight, powerful enough to use on it’s own, but paired with a good flood on the bars, you don’t need to stop for Winter… just make sure the fire is lit and the coffee’s on for when you get back in.
RRP £174.99
Gloworm Lights — Ison Distribution
