Best Bike Lights For Road Cycling | 1000+ Lumen Front Lights Tested and Rated | Cycling Weekly
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- The Cycling Weekly tech team have been staying up late at night to find out which front lights are bright enough to keep you riding this winter. In this video they explain the pros and cons of four of the best lights currently on the market.
0:00 Intro
0:58 Blackburn Dayblazer 1500
6:18 Knog PWR 1100 Trail
11:30 Lezyne Macro Drive 1300 XXL
16:06 Exposure Strada MK10 SB
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As a almost 2years owner of the Lezyne I´m very pleased. Its been a great partner on long rides back home and its only downside is the weight that its noticeable while steering. Great quality all round.
Now that lights are 1000 lumens or more, I think there should be more emphasis on the pattern and how the light is used to illuminate the road ahead. Having lights with a dipped feature like a car would be good so as not to dazzle oncoming car drivers.
Indeed these lights would be road illegal in many European countries.
High brightness lights should simply have cut beam, or low beam mode to be considered good for road use.
Raveman does this, I own their PR1600. Has automatic dipped light 👌🏻
I’ve said this for ages. Just having a European legal beam pattern isn’t very useful. The lights need a dipped mode the same as motorbikes and cars
Not really automatic is it? Their product page says nothing about automatic. Anyway, seems good, I'm looking at the 1200 and the 1600. @@TheFabFoo
I’ve been using the Garmin Varia headlamp in conjunction with the Garmin Varia radar rear light and 530. Automatically adjust from a day blink to bright based on ambient light and speed. Works great and attaches cleanly with the stock mount below the head unit
On night commutes to work which for me takes about 1.25 hrs, I keep a Light Motion Headlamp as a backup in my bag, which also doubles an extra light on really foggy mornings.
Excellent review....just what I needed with the dark nights about to hit. Thank you
I'll be going for the Lezyne XXL. Great presentation. Thank you.
Damn I bought a 500 lums for roughly the same price, bad timing
My Lezyne 1300XXL has just arrived. Overdrive mode is exactly what I’ve put on as just as you said it’s like having a full and dip beam on a car 👍🏻
I have the Exposuae strata 900. Have used this for 3 years and find this very good in all conditions and is very bright to.
The LIV behind you is a beauty! Giant is a strong contender in the department of frame design.
Thanks for the reviews, though it's hard to see the beam pattern when a significant portion of the light is from other sources. I love the Knog light mount design with the thin clamp and offset position. I don't think I'd need my handlebar extension if I had the Knog. However, I am enjoying the 1800 lumen Nitecore BR35 with it's always on OLED display giving the remaining battery runtime in hours and minutes.
Just ordered the Lezyne and I'm pretty stoked to see how it performs
I have a Bontrager that lights up my world nicely and they actually have "customer support" if you need it, a new concept for most companies nowadays.
I had a lezyne light that broke at the USB port a known design fault when the USB port got pushed into the body of the light breaking the connection make it useless for charging
Love the exposure lights I have a few of them. However, I do wish they would start using USB C , this means less cables to buy.
And fewer.
It's taken a full friggin two years but the latest generation of Lezyne lights are all USB C. I'm not sure about the Rears but the fronts are shipping as USB C! Finally!
I hope to buy a bicycle light that is just right, if the light is too bright, it will illuminate other people's eyes, and if it is too dark, the road conditions will be bad.🚲
Connect the Lezyne to your Garmin Mount using both a Lezyne adapter and a GroPro Mount dyouknowwhatImsayin?
I am a light junkie.. on my current new bike, I came down in size and power to save a massive 1kg (big external 100wH LiPo battery) to have a Lezyme 1300 and 1000.. I run the 1000 direct from my bike battery and the 1300 from its own battery.
Collectively, they are great, the 1000 does my daytime stuff and light off road stuff and in sports mode, the 1300 in the lower setting does my on-road night time stuff.. with both lights on full power, the off road stuff I do, is easy.. not quite as bright as the measured 5000 lumens I had before but still seriously bright.. well made light and attractive.. my 1300 came with different mounting options including a stem fitting to the front handlebar mount and also a Garmin 3/4 turn mount.
I already own the Lezyne light and was just watching to see if I made a good purchase then I find out about race mode and that I don’t have to toggle through 10 functions. Mind blown!!!
I thought mine was broken and was upset because I no longer have other modes and stuck with two modes ( high and low) 😆
I've been using the Lezyne 1300XXL which works well.
Just get a Victagen for $ 34 USD that has a power indicator in percent left counting down from 100% and last for my hour ride on the bright setting with time left. Mounts with a sturdy clamp. Bike shows sure love expensive things.
Thanks
I kind of like Lezyne's idea with the battery life indication. I like to charge batteries and fuel cars once they reach half, so that's really the most important point anyway. Almost 2,5 hours is also already over twice the time of a nightly commute or ride I'm generally ready to go on, so in that way I feel I'd read that as "Green means I'll be fine for the whole ride."
Shredlights SL-1000 $85 and it has a quick mount system from bike to bag to electric skateboard, helmet etc.
Great presentation. Thank you.
I've just bought the Lezyne Super Drive 1600XXL. It's very very good front light.
Great presentation??? It is if you came here not expecting to judge each lights INDIVIDUAL brightness on a night road test.
Have you tested the NiteRider OLED 1200? I have been very happy with mine.
I got the bontrager ion 1300 and its pretty bright. have to make sure im not blinding drivers with it.
Have you looked at Serfas lights? They have their E-Lume series with a 1750 lumen($152usd), 1000 lumen($86usd). And they have another MTB line with a 1300 lumen($110usd). Their attachment systems are easy to use and only $10usd for an oversized mount, $8usd for a regular mount and $3usd if the strap on those mounts breaks. I think they are worth a look.
I'd have liked to have seen the Ravemen covered - some good, well constructed options.
I have the lezyne 1300 xxl and for $6 you can get a go pro adapter mount and do away with the rubber mount
What saddle is that on the bike in the background?
I've been using knight rider and it has been great
I always take a small spare light in my back pocket for emergencies. Doesn't take much space and gives peace of mind.
Nitecore BR35. This is seriously the good stuff - strong beam with good cut off, superb battery life, informative display, and a remote to comfortably switch modes.
A remote? It's five inches from your hand.
@@herculesrockefeller8969 there are situations where remote comes in handy. Unless you're one of the internet experts that can go "look mum no hands" at 50kph on wet cobblestone?
@@herculesrockefeller8969 It has an high beam / low beam function that gets used every time you come across pedestrians or other riders. "Knocking it down" is unnecessary, and it's my opinion that taking your eyes off the trail or your hands off the bar is as safe or efficient as just touching a button at your fingertip. I actually have the button mounted to the right brake lever support where my index finger rests naturally.
Michal Golba - Same light here, and love the fingertip high beam/low beam control. 4 brightness levels, 3 modes for city, road, and trail, and I love how the low beam lights up the ground below you. Up to 1800 lumens, good beam patterns, and you can leave the screw on mount in place and quick release just the light. I've done 4000 miles with mine and have never run low on battery, and it looks cool. Only downsides for me are micro USB charging, and requiring a 2 amp charger.
@@Altema22 I'm not sure about the 2 amp charger requirement. I charged mine today overnight with a short good quality cable from USFF computer USB socket, and I'm almost sure it's 1 amp at most :)
Why mount a big lump of a light on top of your handle bars?
Use the GoPro mount, get rid of that rubber band and mount the light to the underside of the garmin on the out front mount.
I have two lights on my bikes one is fitted with the lezyne 1800i lumen light I use the GoPro adapter instead of the rubber band and that is fixed directly under my garmin on my Canyon Ultimate.
On my Cervelo R5 I use the Olight 1500 lumen light, this is attached in a similar way but the olight has a quarter turn connection the same as the garmin system. The olight can actually be used as a power bank and will charge other devices if needed. The only issue is the light is upside down under the garmin so you can't see the battery indicator but it looks so much more professional and your handlebars are uncluttered. There are some really good innovative options rather than using up precious handle bar space..
Clearly that what you should do, but you can't went you have a fly12 taking the GoPro mount.
That is possible with the PWR of Knog and the bracket is very slim.
I did not see and aero bar being fitted. Do these lights come with adapters?
Yeah, I have a flat aero bar as well, and was wondering about that. Suprised they didn't cover that.
£300 for a light? You can buy entire bikes for that. No chance.
Legit.
What has happened to brackets you need screws to attach? I don't want to take my brackets in with me if I lock my bike in a public place. I want to slide my light onto an adjusted bracket at speed when the conditions get worse (i.e. an unplanned tunnel). I don't want to fiddle with rubber gaskets.
Aldi do a Bikemate branded 600 lumen version of the Lezyne Micro Drive with a nice rear light thrown in for 15 quid. I got two, perfect for my commute through the lanes. If they get nicked I wont be crying much.
£300 for a light?! Blimey! How many modes do you need? Brightest - oooo it’s running low, so I’ll turn it down and flashing for daytime. I think I’ll keep using my ancient Hope Vision 1’s for now and spend the £300 on upgrading something else
Cant understand why people think they need such powerful lights. I run my light on 400 lumens and that is too bright for most riding. Even when on a remote mountain I dont go over 600 lumens. Who needs to go though 1500 lumens in an hour?
Totally agree. I have Lezyne 800XL frontlight, race in rural areas and the light is more than I need. I actually direct the beam more downwards than any of the presenters so I dont annoy the cardrivers. Maybe a second testrun should include how the lights are percieved by cars at a distance and up close.
me for example. my commute takes me via unlit bikepaths with a couple of 90° turns, tractors driving on them too so surprise dirt on the road etc. plus: when its misty i need all the light i can get as well as a widespread light pattern.
I like olight myself. I’ve 2 exposures, but olight 1500 lumens for £50.. what’s not to like
I have the exposure strada and race as well.
magicshine lights are good 👍
Knog Mount is very weak for MTB. Get’s loose on the trail due to vibrations making you to tight beyond the plastic of the mount can handle. Destroyed too mounts already, will switch to Lezyne
I’m sorry but you’re wrong about the exposure. The high price is not just about the modes, it’s about the build quality. They are most robust and reliable lights I’ve had. I’ve only bought one front light and it’s still going 8 years on.
Outbound lights. Done.
Any of these lights connect to a bike computer for control and have a go pro type connector ? How about a comparison to the Bontrager Ion headlight?
I use the Garmin Varia light which automatically sense speed and light, or you can control with the head unit.
great info. most people looking to get a decent light will have a decent bike. i cannot accept my bike with a cheap crappy plastic strap on it.
How much it weighs?
Lupine...hands down
I need a light. But I'm not buying any of them bc I have an aero flat carbon bar/stem combo. None of the will fit. Why any of the YT media address this problem? 🤔
BTW, I'll not use a front-out mount. This lights are too heavy and eventually could snap the mount screw. Damaging the handlebar. Thx
Multifunctional Bike Light, new designed, hot sell in 2022.
My 'Exposure' light lasted about 2 years before the on-off switch conked out and became a useless expensive piece of garbage. I have the 'Lezyne 1800i' ever since and no hassles.
I don’t believe the Lezyne strap won’t slip. I’ve had a Niterider w a rubber strap and it would slip over rough roads. Sucked. Can’t imagine the Lezyne is any better. Niterider’s new straps are clamps and are great.
I've had a few lezyne lights and currently use the 1800i the rubber strap is top quality it certainly could not be described as flimsy. It will fit a round bar or a flatter aero bar. Best option is to take the strap off, get a GoPro mount for it (£5) which attaches to the light by the same screw that attaches the rubber strap. Mount the light under your Garmin/Wahoo. It looks so much better👍
I would always get caught out on an afternoon ride that turned into an evening ride with no front light and have to race home because I could never be bothered to put a big heavy light in my pocket just in case I needed it later in the ride. Mount the light as a GoPro and just leave it on the bike, no more embarrassing phone calls to the other half asking her to bring a light out to me..
@@jamesp.1784 Great idea. Thank you. The strap is great (and does not break or move) but the mount sounds worth a try. Love the light by the way.
Bike lights often have too many modes; this drives up the cost, and lengthens the charging time.
I just use 350 lumen for a front light and I've never needed anything more for city use. (sidewalk)
If i was riding on open road downhill in the dark i'd go bigger ofc.
I ride country lanes and 350 is not enough. The sweet spot seems 600-800 lumens. Less you can’t see and more you blind the cagers
A like a light to have a GO-Pro mount option so I can mount it under my computer. This puts the light right in the centre, removes clutter from the handle bar and makes for a good clean look when riding as you are basically only seeing your computer when looking down at your bars. I fund the Bntrager lights very good. Currently using the 1100Lm one.
22min is too long to compare 5 similar lights. This need condensing and compressing.
yea, they could have done 25 lights in that time... but then the sponsor's would not have been happy. lol
That’s a bit ungracious… if I was going to spend this amount of money I’d be very grateful for a longer review…
@@andrewwhitehead2002 just my point...Don’t even consider spending that amount of money 💰.
In a way yes, however, this format also sort of gives you more than a review of these exact lights: When the reviewers go into detail about the differences and decision processes of their reviews, it kind of arms you for making decisions beyond just these select models. It's almost like a "buyer's consideration guide" as well as a review.
It’s helpful to know as much as possible if you live where you can’t look at and pick up lights off a shelf to feel and play with. I live in a small town in Iowa with a small bike shop, much too limited a selection, only open one day a week in the winter, so for me the more information the better. However I wasn’t interested in everything so I just fast forwarded through the parts I didn’t care about. However I was still happy with the amount of very detailed information which really guided how I thought about each light I am considering. I think I liked her specifics more than the guys. I felt very thankful for her comments and questions to the two guys. She thinks about details like I do. Her input was the most helpful. I seriously appreciated her overall impression of the Lezyne, but I also am intrigued by the Knog brand which got my attention. So, thanks guys!!!
What No Magicshine ???
Criteria to add is design. Some of the lights out there look awful & with all the money spent on bikes then people pop ugly lights & accessories on.
Love knog lights for not just the best looking design but practicality & ability to plug into a computer to programme to suit my needs AND doubles as battery pack.
The mount is good for putting under the handlebars and can get the light pretty much centred under the stem. To solve the multiple bike situation I bought a second mount for my other bike.
Exactly! Also the touring possibilities with the power bank give a great advantage over the other lights
Why did you bother having the two blokes there, the barely got a word in.
I know this is intended as a summary, however...
The examples of light output is completely misleading.
In several shots, you can't see the shadow of the lead rider, this means a large proportion of the illumination is actually coming from the lights behind!
I can't comment about the other lights, however the exposure...
Aside from the oled giving a time to empty, it also has green/amber/red that gives at a glance charge indication.
The charging port, if multi-functional.
You can get a remote button, to change mode without having to take your hands away from the handle bar, it can also be used with their battery packs, so you can massively increase the run time, these features add to the reason for the much higher costs.
Feels as though, this was overly summarised.
Re light output, there's a few types of footage here, general riding footage, to show what night riding with a few people looks like (and keep it interesting), and solo example footage to show the beam.
For the latter, we each went out solo on the same stretch of unlit road and recorded only our beam.
For Exposure, that's @ 18.30... They should all be fairly obvious as you can see nothing/no one else around.
On other elements... There are also people who have said the video is too long, it's a balancing act, we pull out the features that we consider most useful to someone looking to buy.
@Michelle ArthursBrennan thank you for the reply 😁 is nice to engage and not just rant.
Blackburn, 3:08 clear Shadow visible,
Knog, 6:41, again you can see two shadows here
Exposure 18:27, you can clearly see a shadow on the bush.
The only one I couldn't see a shadow for was lezyn, however that's probably more down to coincidence then any attempt to ensure isolation on the part of the testers.
Regarding length, understood, however the cost differential was mentioned many times in the video, I think it would have been balanced to add another 20 seconds simply saying, yes it's more, but you get more.
@@DouglasFurlong regarding shadows, exactly, if there are shadows, it's the more general BRoll, we definitely took footage of each in isolation (I know, I was shivering in a layby round the corner), but point taken that what we needed to do was separate that from the more general footage, maybe show it in a separate section of the video, one after each other with a slide up beforehand to differentiate it. One for next time. Re detail/length, take on board your opinion, balance it with more common feedback we hear on what elements the majority want to hear about.
@@michellearthursbrennan4913 of that's the case, I don't think it made it to the footage, I rescanned it this morning (hence the time snippets) and couldn't find the isolated elements you're referring to.
I would hope you aim for impartiality, as opposed to simply what comments are requesting.
If you feel your review was impartial, then I guess we'll just have to agree (or not) to disagree.
@@DouglasFurlong no problem, always good to chat. In this instance I'm just not convinced that lengthening content based on an individual in the comments, when this conflicts with data that informs the length of videos based on majority interest, constitutes impartiality. But do appreciate that the comparison footage needed to be clearer, that's really useful feedback, so thank you.
I just want a bright light that has an on/off switch.
Great presentation, thank you! Can we invite you to do review for Victagen bike light? let me know if you are interested. 😄
sorry, here is my contact info@victagen.com, thank you!
I similarly broke the mounting strap on a Blackburn light. Flimsy/poor design.
Is it possible to use a battery pack (eg. 20.000 mAh) to extent the battery life on long rides with the Lezyne?
Negative. You won't be able to keep light on and charge at the same time. Bear in mind you have between 4-10 hours on lower modes. You won't use 1300 very often (it is too bright for most scenarios)
They all suck, because they still use micro USB to charge, not only will they charge a long time, the connector breaks easily and then you have a 100€ dead weight. The Exposure Strada isn't as bad because it uses a barrel connector, but it's also ridiculously expensive. I personally use an olight warrior mini 2 which can pull double duty as EDC flashlight and in my opinion anything over 800 lumens is anti social anyways, even on un lit roads. If they update the Knog to USB c it would be the best light, from any of these by far.
Never had an issue with any of my lights using micro USB and I've been charging them almost everyday (for years) when I go out riding. Perhaps it is product specific vs every light.
If you're going to rate lights for precisely road use, you should make sure lights aren't ones blinding other road users!
Unless you wish all other road user to blind you with their lights...
why isn't Olight not on this list?
Over-priced Japanese tat.
Is it just me or did they cheat on the Exposure examples by riding in front of other riders to make it seem brighter?
They seem to have done that with all. At least for the video.
There would be zero benefit in trying to make one look better (or worse) than it is, we're aiming to provide useful advice to our audience, so no idea why we'd "cheat".
There's a few types of footage here, general riding footage, to show what night riding with a few people looks like (and keep it interesting), and solo example footage to show the beam.
For the latter, we each went out solo on the same stretch of unlit road and recorded only our beam.
For Exposure, that's @ 18.30.. They should all be fairly obvious as you can see nothing/no one else around
Towild 800 aliexpress is cheap and excellent... Better than all these. Especially with additional higher capacity batteries and external charger
Cheapo eBay lights are so good these days I'm not sure why you'd bother with these expensive branded ones.
Pray tell, which models to get from ebay?
The problem with the cheap stuff is that it doesn't last. That's why it's cheap. You get it, it works great for about 2 months and then fails because they were using cheap components. Then you have to buy twice and you lost your original investment as well. I also think some of these companies who sell cheap stuff start off using good components to get some great reviews and then go to the cheap stuff, either out of greed or out of being forced to in order to sell profitably. I try to buy good stuff to avoid that. I also don't want to be as one person wrote on a cheap light review that he was stranded somewhere in the dark the 2nd time he used the unit. So now you lost your money, you have to buy again, AND you get to ride in the dark. Triple whammy.
DO YOU REALLY NEED ALL THE DISTRACTION OF COUNT DOWN TIMERS AND BACK LIGHT AND THE STUPID PIN CONNECTOR
NOT WORTH £300 ONLY TO A CYCLE SNOB
Over 1000lm can blind someone close and blind the rider himself… unless u ride in area without any street lights, otherwise u need 400lm only just to let drivers to spot u on road
I;ve a cateye ampp 800, I think it's great. Roast me.
Like is ur srilanka
I felt the Exposure Light didn’t receive a proper review. It uses a completely different LED design with the added addition of focal lenses which give the rider a much wider field of view. You never mentioned that Exposure lights will allow you to charge your iPhone if it’s dead or near dead. It’s on a whole other league with the ones you compared it to. I was disappointed.
Considering the light only lasts a few hours you aren't charging your phone with it are you? Completely useless feature. It can be a light or a charger, it doesn't have the capacity to do both. Hell its runtime is less than half most of my rides so it fails as a light also.
@@kidShibuya You would only use the phone charging capability in an emergency. I only had to do it once.
Yeah a million lumens is great, until that poor cyclist coming the opposite direction gets vaporized
Hence Lezyne's "Race" mode, Exposure has something similar. Just knock the light down when someone is approaching, the same way drivers use full beams. And don't use high output in a lit or busy area, that's not what it's for.
Yes these lights are fine for off-road riding useless imho in the city good way to antagonize already mentally deranged drivers.
@@michellearthursbrennan4913 do you know how many people think like that? Just us I think
Smart Bike Lights
Sorry to say, the quality, reliability and service leaves a lot to be desired.
They also have long waiting times and do not say when they are out of stock but still take your money, with 3 month long waiting times.
I have not had a good experience at all.
Faulty under warranty lights are not replaced.... but full of fake promises😟
Paying $400 just for lights is a bit odd.
These "tests" never mention how screwed you are if your bars arent round...
Fine with both the rubber strap options, Exposure will have an adapter
Excellent review. I could not listen to the guy in the middle though as his excessive vocal fry is unbearable for me.
Is anyone here aware of Velocitized drivers seeing cyclists in slow motion? At night wear white. Your lights help, but the driver who came off the highway - is hallucinating, so the white helps you be seen by this hallucinating driver. The lights help, but Max Vis needs help for the slow motion danger. Wearing blacks makes gauging relative speeds difficult for these drivers. Cyclists are immune to advice, so this is for the newbies!!
1000 lumens minimum ? one of my best flashlights give 300 lumens for 9h30min and its more then enough light. 1000 lumens maybe for very fast downhill. this will need an external battery pack, for sure.
The price of exposure😂😂 what a joke
No two piece reviews? Separate power supply.
And the female rider needs to take a look at her Q factor.
Australian made bike like not reliable!!
Your lights are, in the most takes here, set up extremely high, meaning that you are blinding the traffic coming in your direction. So it's not about "sensible car drivers" that are flashing their lights at you in anger - you will also hear me groan and curse at you if I am on my bike and you completely blind me with your badly set up light.
You are actually reducing your own safety with a light set up like that.
Why don’t you review products readily available in the United States?
@Mark O You must be joking. The United States is one of the largest and wealthiest economies in the world. The British really should be more grateful. If it wasn’t for Americans like my relatives bailing them out during both world wars they probably would be speaking German today. Oh well live and let live.
@@dannycontrer 🤡
You lost me after 30 seconds. Why do you need >1000 lumens to ride "carefree after dark"? I've been doing solo rides/commutes for years after dark on suburban streets with a 200 lumen light and haven't had any issues with unseen pot holes or not being seen by drivers. You can now get 500 lumen lights for $50 so why pay twice as much for light you don't need? Requirements for lights will vary a great deal depending upon where you expect to be riding.
Does anyone reading this obey traffic laws? Does your family? How about Max Vis?