When choosing how to light your path while trail running, you have a ton of options for lights to hold in your hand or to wear on your head, but that’s about it. GoMotion has decided to give you another option to consider, to wear your light source around your waist. The GoMotion 1 Watt Waist Light kit allows you to hook up its lighting system to your favorite waist pack so you are hands and head freed from the burden of carrying the light. Below we review the light, talk about its specs, battery performance, and even how to assemble it for use.
- The lamp itself with two buttons on top to turn it on and select the brightness mode as well as a rocker dial to move from direct to flood beam.
- Two fabric panels with opposing hook and loop attachments. One panel is for fixing the light to the belt while the other will attach to the belt and “Velcro” to the first panel.
- A battery pack with a plastic enclosure that holds 3 AA batteries (I accidentally said AAA in the video), a blinking red safely light, and a nylon case around the pack to attach it around a belt.
Putting it all together
[Note: The belt used for demonstration has a buckle so we use that terminology to define the points at which the two opposing sides of a belt attaches together. Know that essentially any type of belt ranging from 1.5-2.5 inches in belt height should work regardless of attachment system.]
First, you hook the light to the panel which is covered in the front by a silvery reflective fabric. The panel has 2 straps that will loop around the top and bottom of your belt strap just behind the buckle. The second panel is identical in shape to the first, but the construction is different. Since this panel will face your body, it is slightly padded and covered in a mesh material like you find on the backpack shoulder straps. This panel will attach to the opposite side of you waist pack that you attached the first panel to. Again, just beyond the buckle. Once you have both panels securely hooked on to your running belt, its time to clip the GoMotion light system together. Simply slide the end that faces your body in first, clip your buckle, and squeeze the front and rear panels together to get the most secure lock of the hook and loop possible.
You’re not done yet. Now it’s time to put the battery pack on. Open up the nylon sleeve that surrounds the enclosure and wrap it around some portion of the belt. The wire from the light assembly exists out the right side (looking down at it). You’ll need to situate the battery pack on your right hip somewhere then slide it either forward or back depending on your preference or what the actual storage areas of the waist pack will allow. It would also be possible to put the battery pack in a pocket of your pack if you have room available.
Now you are ready to go!
Performance
Once you’ve got the light set up, it’s easy to take on and off. GoMotion did a nice job here ensuring that the kit does not affect the fit of your waist pack. The light in no way got in the way of the waist pack I was using. I could easily loosen, tighten, and even take off the waist pack just like I normally do without having to think about the fact that I have light attached there. This is a testament to design as well as the secureness of the fit.
The controls are easy to get to. Since they are mounted on top of the light just like a headlamp, there is not much of a learning curve. The dial feature is nice as it allows you to cast a wider beam and since it is simply a dial around the face of the light it is easy to just reach down and adjust to fit your need.
The light enclosure itself offers a lot of travel to point the beam right where you want it to. It travels almost 90 degrees from pointing straight out from your body to almost directly at your feet. It does not point up. If you need to look up at something up in a tree you’ll have to unbuckle the light and point it up or you could possibly lay on the ground to point the beam up. This would not be recommended in areas with predators.
The light is listed at 1-watt, but our standard measuring unit of lumens was not stated anywhere on the packaging or manufacturer’s website. After some digging we found a few other websites that stated it pumps out around 45 lumens. Not the brightest option available especially for it being powered by 3 AA batteries. Battery life was also short on this light with only about 6 hours of burn time on high. The light is, however, closer to the ground, which means it will shed more light on the trail than a 45 lumen headlamp.
The battery pack was a bit bothersome. It seems to be about a 1/3 larger than it needs to be for holding 3 AA batteries (again I misstated and said AAA) The addition of a safety light is nice, but an on/off option would be nice. We have to imagine that adds to the battery drain.
Overall
If you don’t like carrying handheld light or a find a headlamp bothersome this could be an option for you. While we’d like to have seen some better performance both in terms of brightness and battery life out of the GoMotion 1 Watt Light kit, we do appreciate a new take on lighting up the trail.
Call for Comments
Have you used a GoMotion waist light? If so, what did you think? If not, feel free to ask any questions you might have.
