Posted on by Paxson Lim

Lights for Electric Skateboard Compare: Shredlights, Backfire Cannon II, Meepo’s Elumi, BoardBlazers.

So, you are looking for lights for your rides. A few years ago, Shredlights is the only company that’s making dedicated skateboard lights. Today, however, a few Chinese brands have developed their own lighting solution and today we are going to look at them too.

You may wonder, why not just get a regular bicycle light and maybe double-sided tape it onto the board? Well, if that works for you, great! But the lights may fell off in the middle of a ride, the vibration from the road may kill the light, and it’s ugly.

In this post, we’re going to compare the SL 200 Shredlights, the new backfire cannon II lights, the new Meepo lights, and the Board blazers. We are going to walk you through their difference: How they mount, the brightness, the light modes, how long they last, and the built quality.

Oh yeah, we didn’t include the new 1000 lumen Shredlight (SL-1000) here cause we haven’t received it yet. Oops. SL-1000 is pricey, $79.99 for a single light. It’s super bright – good for 100feet or 30m and pack full of useful features. (Including allowing a diffuser to be installed change the light’s spread)

You can learn more about Shredlight SL-1000 here.

Mounting System:

We’re going to start off with the mounting systems, and this is where the Shredlight shines the brightest.

The Shredlights have several types of mounts to choose from. This means that they are the most compatible lights for the majority of electric skateboards.

The Meepo Lights have only 1 mounting solution. Because these lights are flat, they only work best when mounted underneath the trucks. If your truck is raised, these will work as well. 

The Backfire cannon II lights, on the other hand, are a single piece that will fit with the front trucks of most boards. Just like the Meepo lights, they are flat.

And the board blazers, they just rely on the magic of double-sided tape.

So, when it comes to mounting options, we have a clear winner. While the Meepo Lights are removable, like Shredlights, the mounting system is nowhere as fluid as the S lock on the Shredlights. Meepo light release system is a bit flawed, with the trigger release interfering with the deck.

Shredlights ‘S lock’ mount system is super fluid and allows you to remove and arm the lights in 2 seconds. Literally. This is super useful and allows the Shredlights to be used as a pocket flashlight as well. I have used my Shredlights as a flashlight many time, as well as mounting it to my bike when I went cycling at night. After all, they are really bright.

Note: If being safe is something you want to do, but spending time and energy mounting the light system & charging them before every ride aren’t, you might want to check out the board that came with an integrated lighting solution, such as the Ecomobls. (They make great AT boards that come with integrated bright lights.)

Brightness:

  • Shredlights SL-200 = 200 lumens;
  • Meepo Elumi = 300 lumens;
  • Backfire Cannon II = 300 lumens;
  • Boardblazers … = yes.

As you can see here, the Backfire’s light is super bright, in fact, it’s the brightest of all of them. Although the Meepo lights are also 300 lumens, they look less bright due to the scattered trajectory and wider spread. The Backfire Canon 2’s, living up to their name, blast 300 lumens at a focused spot, so they look brighter.

  • Meepo Elumi has more spread
  • Backfire Cannon II is more focused

The Shredlight SL-200 is 200 lumens bright, which is obviously less bright but bright enough. What Shredlight does better is that it features many different lighting modes and a much better way to switch between the modes.

Lighting modes:

  • Shredlights SL-200
    • 3 brightness level + 3 types of pulsing modes.
    • Two-button for easy switching between modes.
  • Meepo Elumi = 300 lumens;
    • 2 brightness level
    • 3 modes: Simply On & 2 types of pulsing modes.
    • One button to rule them all.
  • Backfire Cannon II
    • One button to turn On & Off.
  • Boardblazers
    • Twist to turn on and off.

Backfire Cannon II: To turn Backfire Cannon II on and off is pretty straight forward, but it also means the choice is limited. You turn them on by pressing the button and turn them off by pressing it again, so there’s only 1 mode for the Canon II’s.

SL-200: The SL 200 is also super bright but features various lighting modes. While the Backfire Cannon II lights simply turn on and off, the SL 200 has two buttons for you to cycle through various lighting modes. There are 3 different brightness levels and then 3 pulsing modes. In total, you have 6 different modes to choose from.

The Meepo Elumi: These lights also have multiple lighting modes, but again it’s nowhere close to the Shredlights. There’s only 1 button on it, so the process of cycling through the modes is a bit inconvenient. You press it once to turn it on, again and it dims, a third time to switch off the lights. Pressing and holding the button puts it in pulsing mode, again for flashing mode, and once more to turn off the lights. Sounds complicated, right?

The Boardblazers: Boardblazers on the other hand, turn on by twisting it like a bottle cap. When turned on, the lights will pulse between various colors. It looks like RGB lights from a gaming computer. Pretty cool, right?

Battery Duration:

  • Shredlights SL-200 = 3 Hours (Bright mode);
  • Meepo Elumi = 2 Hours (Bright mode); 4 Hours (Dim mode)
  • Backfire Cannon II = 3.5 Hours
  • Boardblazers = Battery powered.

The SL 200 and the Meepo lights have the advantage here. Yes, if you blast full brightness out of them, they will only last for 2-3 hours. That’s way less than the backfire canon 2 lights. But… Because you can toggle through various lighting modes, you can save a lot of battery power. If you use the 2nd brightness level, they will last up to 6 hours! For the Shredlights, if you dim them further, they can last up to 25 hours! That’s longer than a day’s worth of light. Now that is Impressive!

Board Blazers though. They are powered by non-rechargeable cells. We’re not sure how long they can last exactly, but we would bet the non-rechargeable cells can last a whole lot longer. Probably 72 hours straight? The battery cells they use are very common and easily available at any grocery store.

Build Quality

The Backfire Canon II lights and the Meepo lights are very similar here. Both of them have a metal body. They are both bulky and about 30% heavier than the Shredlights. They felt solid and high quality but… The rubber coating on the Shredlights is far more comfortable to hold.

I think going with rubber is the better option here. We think the reason that Shredlights survive intense road vibrations, is partly thanks to this rubber coating (Rubber keeps everything safe eh!). It protects the components and smooths out the vibrations a whole lot. Board blazers on the other hand are just plastic. Imagine a transparent water bottle cap. No joke, that’s actually an accurate depiction of it. At first, we were very skeptical of how well the board blazers could survive road vibrations, but…after riding with it off road, it survives, and we haven’t had any issues!

However! Over time, the twist switch to turn the lights on and off has become rough due to the dirt and sand stuck in the groove.

Summary:

Backfire’s Cannon II: 79.99 USD for a pair. It’s the brightest among all of the lights we tested and will illuminate every single pothole out there. When it comes to seeing and be seen, you got both of them. But… it’s screwed onto the board permanently unless you enjoy screwing and unscrewing it every single time. I’ll pass on this one.

Meepo’s Elumi: Second brightest, they cover a wider field of view but this also means that it is less focused in the center. It’s removable with the mount and it has a few lighting modes. The user experience is not that great, but again, when it comes to seeing and be seen? It nailed both of them. The best part of it is the price, it’s the cheapest solution at $30! For those who are not keen to spend any more than they need to, Meepo’s Elumi is the way to go.

Shredlight SL-200: For those who don’t mind paying a little bit more for the best user experience, Shredlight is the way to go. While the SL 200 from Shredlight is not the brightest, it’s still super bright and is more than enough. Just as with the Backfire and Meepo lights, you will see and be seen.

The SL 200 is 49.99 USD a pair and is available in either white or red. For 99.99 USD you can get a set of 2 pairs, a pair of white lights to illuminate the front, and a pair of reds to help others see you from a mile behind.

The S Lock mounting system is a masterpiece and works really well. In 2 seconds, you can detach the lights from the board in case you want to use them as a flashlight or on a camping trip. This also makes charging much easier, and if you have multiple boards, you can install mounts on each one of them and you can easily move the lights from one board to another. You could also mount it on your helmets.

Board blazers: They are 19.99 USD per pack, and each pack contains 4 led lights. It makes your board look futuristic and cool at night, but it only helps with the “be seen” part. Board blazers are not meant for lighting the path ahead of you. They do help your board to look blazing good at night, but… only at night. In the daytime… it kind of looks like … I will leave it to your imagination.

Click to go to product page:

Published by Paxson Lim

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