We haven't been very keen on Harbor Freight, preferring instead to pay good money and get good tools.

Sure, some bargains can be found and many motorcyclists take great pleasure in discovering them.  As we've said before though, cheaper isn't always better, so just because something is 1/4 the price at Harbor Freight doesn't necessarily mean it's equal in quality.  For sure.

Take the Harbor Freight Hex Key Wrench Set we reviewed a couple of weeks ago.  Please!

Yes, it's 75% cheaper than the Sears T-handle Allen Wrench Set we also reviewed.  But our conclusion was that the Harbor Freight tools aren't even close.

But get this: when we ordered the hex wrenches, we discovered this little gem of a $4.99 LED flashlight.  As it turns out, this is one of those one-in-a-million Harbor Freight bargains that actually is worth the money -- and more.

They claim the normal price is $9.99, so we figured we couldn't go wrong for 5 bucks and we'd give it a shot.  But I had minimal expectations that the Gordon LED flashlight would be worth even that.

When it arrived, I took it out of the package and looked it over.  "Not bad", I thought.  I couldn't tell from the photos on the Harbor Freight website, but for $4.99 I assumed it was all plastic.

Nope, it actually has a pretty thick machined aluminum body with real machined knurling.  O-rings seal the front and rear screw-off covers, the former holding the LEDs and the latter covering the battery carrier.  There's a rubber(ish) covered on/off button at the end of the light and everything seemed like it was made with more care than could possibly be expected for the price.

It didn't come with the three AAA batteries that it needs, but hey -- what do you expect for a fin?  I scrounged up the relatively rare (around here anyway) triple A's and screwed the thing back together.

I turned it on and...WOW!  This little thing really, I mean really puts out!  It throws way more light than I expected.  It has 9 powerful LED lights under the glass and they create an enormous amount of even and pure white light.  It's as good or better than most of the other C- and D-cell flashlights I own that are 4-5 times its size.  It sure seems like the Gordon is putting out way more light than it should for its size.

Fire it up in a pitch black room and you'll be amazed -- I can point it at the ceiling and it lights up the room enough to read a book.  I demonstrated it to a half-dozen different people and everyone is amazed.

Here are before/after photos taken in a dark room, both un-retouched other than resizing, taken from about 6 feet away.  The top photo is a good indication at how dark the room is before and how much wide, even light the Gordon flashlight throws in the bottom photo:

It's small size makes it ideal for carrying under the saddle or in a tank bag or saddlebag.  It's only 98 mm long (3-7/8") and the body is about 28 mm in diameter (1-1/8").  It's a robust little guy at 102 grams (3.625 oz.) and the knurling makes it easy to grasp one-handed.

Gordon (probably a made-up name used for U.S. marketing purposes) claims the flashlight puts out 90,000 micro-candela (MCD) and that the LED lights will last for 100,000 hours.  There's no guarantee that I can find and the packaging says it's "Distributed Exclusively by Harbor Freight Tools", so I assume they contracted with the factory in China to throw the Gordon label on them and ship over a container or two
The goodies at Harbor Freight come and go, so the Gordon LED Flashlight (Item number 93712-1VGA) may not be there long.  Believe it or not, I went back in and ordered 5 more just to have around! 

My wife thinks I'm nuts, but we'll probably end up giving them away or something.  All told, the 6 Gordon LED flashlights cost me less than the Gerber Reactor LED flashlight (wBW review), which is a nice light but its plastic body broke after about 10 short uses.

I'm not a big fan of Harbor Freight, but if you're looking for a nice little flashlight at giveaway prices, check this one out.

The news come from www.bossgoo.com

LED flashlight