This is a continuation of my previous post.
I received multiple comments saying that the "70" in G VOLT70 comes from 70 lux. Thank you for that—I was clearly out of the loop.
In one of those comments, someone mentioned that the G VOLT series was originally for the German market and comes in 80 and 50 versions too, so I looked into it.
As it turns out, the current lineup is G VOLT 80, 50, 25, and 20—and these models aren't designed for inverted mounting.
So the "G" in G VOLT doesn't stand for some word meaning inverted mounting;
it appears to stand for GERMANY instead.
Digging deeper, I found that Germany has legal regulations governing headlight beam patterns.
The G VOLT series consists of models that adopt front lenses compliant with
StVZO (Germany's traffic safety standard).
Beyond the pet names, the model numbers are:
G VOLT80 HL-EL560G-RC (Rechargeable)
G VOLT50 HL-EL550G-RC
G VOLT25 HL-EL360G-RC
G VOLT20 HL-EL350G-RC
G VOLT20 HL-EL350G (Battery-powered)
and they all have a "G" after the numbers.
On CatEye's international website,
headlight categories are split into three sections:
Rechargeable Headlights
Battery-powered Headlights
StVZO Headlights
Rechargeable headlights use lumens as their brightness unit, whereas
StVZO headlights use lux
(battery-powered ones are only available as the HL-EL135, which uses candlepower,
but that's because the HL-EL135 is a model from before CatEye switched to lumens).
You can find CatEye's international website by searching for "G VOLT80" and similar terms.
There you can also view beam charts for each model.
The G VOLT80 body has the same shape as the VOLT300~ series, but
when comparing high-beam brightness on the beam chart,
it's not as bright as the VOLT800 but brighter than the VOLT400.
So the G VOLT80 is essentially a "StVZO-compliant lens version of the VOLT700"
(the runtime for each mode is similar too).
The G VOLT50 has a unique body shape—
it resembles the recently released Sync Core (HL-NW100RC) or
the discontinued HL-EL450, but
it only looks similar; the shape is completely different, and button positions vary as well,
so the body isn't being reused.
The G VOLT25 likely has the same shape as the VOLT200, but
the international website doesn't list the VOLT200.
Where the rubber-band-mounted VOLT XC series is offered in just two models domestically in Japan (400 and 100),
internationally it comes in four: VOLT 500, 400, 200, and 100 XC.
So comparing G VOLT25 and VOLT200 beam charts isn't possible.
Instead, I cut and pasted images from both pages to compare.
G VOLT25 on high is 25 lux for 3 hours,
while VOLT200 on high is 200 lumens for 2 hours—different runtimes—but
they look similar in brightness.
VOLT 200XC on high is 200 lumens for 1.5 hours,
and the lit area is clearly brighter than these two models.
VOLT200 and the discontinued VOLT100 have the same body and lens shape, but
G VOLT20 looks nearly identical to G VOLT25 at first glance,
except the lens side cutout is more pronounced.
Yet oddly, G VOLT25 has a wider beam spread.
The lens design must be different.
If G VOLT70 were designed exclusively for inverted mounting,
then the rest of the G VOLT series
shouldn't be mounted inverted.
I received multiple comments saying that the "70" in G VOLT70 comes from 70 lux. Thank you for that—I was clearly out of the loop.
In one of those comments, someone mentioned that the G VOLT series was originally for the German market and comes in 80 and 50 versions too, so I looked into it.
As it turns out, the current lineup is G VOLT 80, 50, 25, and 20—and these models aren't designed for inverted mounting.
So the "G" in G VOLT doesn't stand for some word meaning inverted mounting;
it appears to stand for GERMANY instead.
Digging deeper, I found that Germany has legal regulations governing headlight beam patterns.
The G VOLT series consists of models that adopt front lenses compliant with
StVZO (Germany's traffic safety standard).
Beyond the pet names, the model numbers are:
G VOLT80 HL-EL560G-RC (Rechargeable)
G VOLT50 HL-EL550G-RC
G VOLT25 HL-EL360G-RC
G VOLT20 HL-EL350G-RC
G VOLT20 HL-EL350G (Battery-powered)
and they all have a "G" after the numbers.
On CatEye's international website,
headlight categories are split into three sections:
Rechargeable Headlights
Battery-powered Headlights
StVZO Headlights
Rechargeable headlights use lumens as their brightness unit, whereas
StVZO headlights use lux
(battery-powered ones are only available as the HL-EL135, which uses candlepower,
but that's because the HL-EL135 is a model from before CatEye switched to lumens).
You can find CatEye's international website by searching for "G VOLT80" and similar terms.
There you can also view beam charts for each model.
The G VOLT80 body has the same shape as the VOLT300~ series, but
when comparing high-beam brightness on the beam chart,
it's not as bright as the VOLT800 but brighter than the VOLT400.
So the G VOLT80 is essentially a "StVZO-compliant lens version of the VOLT700"
(the runtime for each mode is similar too).
The G VOLT50 has a unique body shape—
it resembles the recently released Sync Core (HL-NW100RC) or
the discontinued HL-EL450, but
it only looks similar; the shape is completely different, and button positions vary as well,
so the body isn't being reused.
The G VOLT25 likely has the same shape as the VOLT200, but
the international website doesn't list the VOLT200.
Where the rubber-band-mounted VOLT XC series is offered in just two models domestically in Japan (400 and 100),
internationally it comes in four: VOLT 500, 400, 200, and 100 XC.
So comparing G VOLT25 and VOLT200 beam charts isn't possible.
Instead, I cut and pasted images from both pages to compare.
G VOLT25 on high is 25 lux for 3 hours,
while VOLT200 on high is 200 lumens for 2 hours—different runtimes—but
they look similar in brightness.
VOLT 200XC on high is 200 lumens for 1.5 hours,
and the lit area is clearly brighter than these two models.
VOLT200 and the discontinued VOLT100 have the same body and lens shape, but
G VOLT20 looks nearly identical to G VOLT25 at first glance,
except the lens side cutout is more pronounced.
Yet oddly, G VOLT25 has a wider beam spread.
The lens design must be different.
If G VOLT70 were designed exclusively for inverted mounting,
then the rest of the G VOLT series
shouldn't be mounted inverted.