I am a big fan of Knog, their products and their company image are both fun and functional without being too much of one or the other, a pretty rare quality really. The latest light in their range of no-faff accessories is the Strobe, an improved version of the now much copied Frog.

Much like the original Frog the Frog Strobe is the smallest of the lights offered by Knog but unlike before there is not a lot of difference between the light output of it compared to the next one in the line up. The original Frog was 10,000 millicandelas and the Strobe is 25 Lumens, after a bit of Googling I found that 1000 millicandelas is equivalent to 1 lumen, so even though I got an ‘E’ in GSCE maths I worked out, all by myself, that the new one is 2.5 times brighter than its predecessor. Knog claims that they are both visible UP TO 600 meters away, call me cynical but if one is 2.5 times brighter then it should be visible more than twice as far away, the claim is moot anyway because it is unlikely that a road in a city environment will be 600 meters straight with nothing to obstruct the view of you and your bike from Ray Roadrage. These lights are still described as ‘safety lights’ and won’t light the way so you probably shouldn’t use them away from lit roads but they are seriously bright for their size!
As you can see from the photos the Frog Strobes are tiny little buggers, they are pretty much the same size as the original but squarer and with a more secure clasp at the back, I found that the original clasp was prone to falling off and was worried about losing it at times and not being able to fit the light in an emergency, theres no chance of that anymore. There is a subtle Knog logo in the silicone body now which is a nice addition, there are a load of wack ripoffs out there and this adds a bit of extra oomph to the overall unit. The stretchy loopy bit that attaches to the clasp is a bit stiffer this time round and I found it a bit tougher to stretch around my headtube than before but not enough to make me think I was pushing it too far so it’s all good.

The battery compartment door is very basic and just snaps closed, it does seem pretty secure though. The overall build is much sturdier than the Frog and feels like the more expensive lights in the range, this is reflected in the price which is a couple of quid more than before but more than justified.
The battery running time is listed at 50hrs on steady or 80hrs flashing but I don’t even see that as a factor, 50hrs in the dark is a lot of miles, you’d probably get to the bloody moon in 50hrs running a half manly gear like I do. The original Frog had just two modes: constant and flashing, the Strobe has four: Strobe, DISCO Strobe, Epeleptic (sic) Fit Strobe and Constant. I was expecting the flashing modes to be completely wild but they aren’t, they are basically single flash, double flash and repeating flash, I like them all. When you decide on your favourite mode you can hold down the button for two second to store it as your default setting which is a really cool feature.
I left my bike out in my back garden the jungle for a few minutes to try and catch a glimpse of the Frog Strobe in it’s natural environment, I was not disappointed. I returned later in the day and was lucky enough to get to film (in glorious HD) the full mating display of the male, check out the video below…
Knog Frog Strobe Settings from The Foot Down on Vimeo.
…And on that bombshell I shall wrap this thing up, the Knog Frog Strobe is a great upgrade to a classic, it is far better than the original and worth every penny. Hit up the comments with any questions or comments.










The large display is easy to read
The one piece design makes mounting easy
The unit can be removed from the silicone and rotated to go where you want it to
The transmitter can be attached to thin or wide forks
The spoke magnet is easily attached or removed with a coin
Receiver, spoke magnet and transmitter
Receiver and transmitter removed from their silicone housing
The rear of the receiver (note the button at the bottom)
The Transmitter takes a single LR44 battery
The receiver takes a single CR2023 battery
I’ve always used your run of the mill nylon straps, we all love to complain about how they fray, tear, slip (especially in the rain) and just generally SUCK. These Pake straps are made of nylon too but they are coated in a nice thick rubbery urethane which means that they suffer from none of the problems that their poor weany cousins do.
Let me warn you that getting the straps through the holes in my pedals resulted in a lot of growling and screaming like a 5 year old girl as I tried in vain to get enough of them through the hole to grip with a pliers and pull, do not try and fit these if there are any young, impressionable kids around. The flip side to all this misery is that when they are in they wont keep moving around and fucking up your bikes fen shui. They are pretty rigid when they are fitted and sit in a nice wide arc that makes it easy to slip your foot into which is always handy.
I went for the black ones because I’m the type of guy who likes to ride in a good old fashioned black Bruce Springsteen t-shirt but they come in all sorts of colours to match your own shirt: Yellow, Pink (which will go lovely with your cut off Tegan & Sara top), Orange, Duct Tape Silver (for all you punks), Maroon, White, Green (which would set off your eyes as well as your Fairport Convention tee), Yellow, Goldenrod, Bright Blue, Navy Blue and Red.
So to summarise: they are made of nylon with a strong, non slip urethane covering that resists the rain; they are nice and thick; are available in loads of snazzy colours and have a nice buckle too. I have absolutely no reservations in recommending these straps to you.
The guts of the tyre are removed so there is no kevlar or whatever in the middle, at first I was worried that the holes would stretch out or rip but after using one for a good while I can’t see that happening, it is super tough. They are curved inwards so the end doesn’t flap about like some belts, it just sits there not making a fuss which is great.
Jiro will even make you a custom belt, all you need to do is e-mail them with your choice of buckle style/colour, tyre type and loop colour, you really can’t go wrong. I’d even go as far as saying that if you got a black one it would look so good that you could wear it to a funeral and only a fellow cyclist would be likely to notice. They now have a selection of really sturdy looking keychains available too, nice.
There are a few different companies out there making tyre belts but with Jiro you know you are getting a quality product handmade in Italy and we all know that all the good cycling gear is made there!




















