I had a very scary experience recently. I was visiting my family and was cycling from Birmingham Airport. The problem was it was very late at night and the route involved tiny, pitch black country lanes. Cars tend to decide to speed around these lanes and to make matters worse visibility was even poorer as the heavy rain had just started.
With my bike light I could barely see much more than a few metres ahead of me. Whenever a car passed by my lights were completely drowned out. At some point during the journey, out of nowhere, I found myself pedal deep in water. Continuing to pedal, I soon realised I was pedalling through a ford. This is basically when a river flows over a part of the road.
Upon reaching home soaked, amazed I managed to avoid the open manhole cover and glad to have not been hit by passing cars I decided to re-evaluate my completely inadequate bike light.
So I had to think about how to choose a suitable bike light, how much to spend and which one is actually worth spending my money on.
Cheap bike lights (~£15)
This is the most common type of bike light and is what I was riding with that night. If you are cycling somewhere such as central London then these bike lights are generally good enough to be seen but tend to do little to light up the road ahead.
At this low price point the Raleigh LED at £16.29 for both front and back bike light provides excellent value for money.
Mid range bike lights (~£65)
These bike lights provide a much stronger beam and are suitable in areas when there is no as much street lighting. One bike light that I tested recently was the B&M Ixon IQ. I was highly impressed with the light that combines a lot of brightness with low battery usage.
Stepping things up to this price point you also get better waterproofing, durability and a more sturdy stand for the bike. Checkout my full review of the Ixon IQ.
Best bike lights (~£250)
Good for two things: Blinding people and night time mountain biking.
As you can see from this picture from Evans Cycles a bike light such as the L&M Seca which costs £250 provides a huge amount of light. It is useful if you light doing night time mountain biking or if your commute home is through a dark forest!
Helmet Bike Light
Generally very useful for mountain biking as helps with avoiding obstacles such as overhanging branches.
A popular model that I’ve also tested out is the Exposure Joystiq which you can also buy with a helmet mount. Chain Reaction Cycles have this light for £144 which is a good price compared to Amazon and Evans Cycles. It provides a ton of light and is incredible useful for night time mountain biking.
Rechargeable bike lights
There are major differences between the types of rechargeable batteries. Li-Ion tend to be the best and also most expensive. They are lightweight and last the longest. NiMH batteries are also pretty good as they don’t require a full discharge before recharging like NiCad batteries do. Lead acid and Nicad batteries are the cheapest but they don’t last very long and are sensitive to the cold. When buying a rechargeable bike light you should be aware of the difference in the batteries used.
The CatEye HL-EL610 is a popular choice by a recommended brand for less than £90.
It provides plenty of light, has a solid mounting and uses NiMH batteries. Cycling Plus gave it 9/10 and commended its high visibility angle and good mounting unit.
Dynamo bike lights
These are lights that are powered through the pedalling motion. Unfortunately I have little experience in this area as I don’t have a Hub generator so I can’t recommend a good light. If you have suggestions then please leave them in the comments.
Rear bike lights
A rear bike light is essential to be seen. One that often comes very highly recommended in this category is the Blackburn Flea which costs around £15 to £20.
It is very bright considering its tiny size, it weighs next to nothing and can be recharged through USB.
Innovative bike lights
Fibre Flare – An alternative way to be seen is to grab one of these Fibre Flare lights. They are very bright and are designed so you can be seen from all directions. Also they are flexible so can be placed anywhere.
Knog Led – these tiny bike lights mount very easily to the handlebars and provide a surprisingly good amount of light. They also have plenty of battery life so will last you ages.
Conclusion – what did I go for?
Considering how rare it is for me to be cycling anywhere completely dark I ended up going with a BlackBurn Flea as my rear light of choice. For the front light I’m currently using a Knog Led to be seen but may upgrade in future to the B&M Ixon IQ that provides far more light.
Image courtesy of ingopics
My bike lights cost maybe 10 pounds total and are absolutely fine. If you cycle in a city there’s absolutely no need to spend more.
Agreed! £10 lights basically help you be seen and often that is all that is needed in a city environment that has plenty of street lights.
You’ve ignored dynamos – higher upfront investment but no batteries running out on you.
I have a hub dynamo on my town bike and a bottle dynamo on my tourer. Much brighter than battery lights of the same price range, and if you get one with a standlight it’ll stay on when you’re stopped at the lights. All you need.
You flew to Birmingham and took your bike?
Your price ranges have gaps e.g. £25-£100?
Birmingham Airport also has a train station
From MK to Bham is a very short journey (I had been visiting a friend the day before in MK)
RE: £25 – £100 true, I was just trying to simplify by not adding too many categories. I have listed a light in the £70 price range. If you have any recommendations I’d be up for hearing them.
Alien8 has already suggested Fenix LD20 as opposed to the Hope Vision 1 so I’m looking around and considering changing it.
Ah…I am in search of bike lights as the dark is setting in earlier. Agree with above poster that you have overlooked dynamos.
Have also mentioned dynamos and Fibre Flare bike lights thanks to @suspectpackage
I seem to recall having a bottle dynamo as a youngster. I cycled 12 miles to school then (round trip). I recall that the weight of pedalling against the dynamo was like pedalling through a ford or fjiord or worse.
I never did establish whether the dynamo was defective or whether this was how they work. I have never had another one!!
Can anyone throw any illumination
on my experience??
Thanks for comment Titan, made for amusing reading. I’m fairly sure dynamos these days would not slow you down otherwise I don’t think anyone would ever use them. Though I admit this is an area I’m new to so I need enlightening
too?
I think that in the city there is also a need to have back up lights. How many times do we realise that the front light isn’t blinking as strong as it should? Ah….time to recharge or change the batteries!
As back up lights i use Knog bike lights. At the back i use Knog Gekko, and at the front i have a Knog Beetle. They are amazingly bright, but i wouldn’t use them as a main source of lights. They are also very discrete so won’t clutter your bike up.
I love them.
I think that the brighter the light the better, even in an urban environment.
Just because there are streets lights around does not necessarily mean that car drivers will be able to see you. You need a strong light that can be seen from a distance and I’m afraid that a feeble little flickering led does not cut the mustard.
I ride with two lights on the rear, one flashing and one static and the same up front.
As an aside your review stated that the Hope Vision 1 has two power modes. It has four, minimum, normal, high and maximum plus flashing.
Thanks Jon for picking out my error. Considering changing the Hope Vision 1 to a different recommendation anyway. Have you tried the Fenix LD20 bike light?
Hi Andreas,
No, I haven’t tried the Fenix, looks nice though. I bought the Hope because at £72 and 240 lumens it gives the best ‘bang for the buck’. The one down-side to the Hope is that there is no low battery warning, it simply dies when it runs out of juice so a backup light is a must! This aside it is very well made, from machined alloy, and very bright.
Thanks for feedback on the Hope, I read around and people seem fairly pleased with it.
At US $85.00 you should really look at the Magicshine bike light. Bar or helmet mount with a Lithium Ion Battery. Listed as 900 lumen but probably running at closer to 600 it is the brightest I have seen in this price class. Was so impressed that when i saw it I bought another one that is going to replace my Dinotte. Newer versions have fixed reported problems with overheating and construction is excellent.
Just read a load of reviews on the Magicshine light – seems to be getting a lot of positive mention on all the blogs and seems to offer good value at that price point
Don’t feel you have to have your bike light on full beam in London – we’d complain with good reason if cars did this, most of them dip their lights in built up areas.
I had an after-image of a cyclist’s lights for 5 minutes in Oxford street last month. Not very safe.
I have a £1 torch from poundsavers ziptied on my bike, next to the fitting for a £30 light which I will keep for if it fails, and every bit as good, and if/when a yob pinches it, well it was only £1!
I cycle (commute) all year round and my hours generally mean I do half my cycling in the dark. Half of this is in central London the other in the Sussex countryside. This is what I have fitted:
Front bike light is a Hope 2 LED with rechargeable battery
Rear is a Dinotte 400R Taillight. Yes the Hope is bright especially on it’s brightest mode but is fantastic in areas with no street lighting and as far as blinding anyone, probably best not to stare at it, you wouldn’t do it to a car so don’t do it here. The Dinotte is also very bright on it’s brightest setting, you can be seen about 3kms away in daylight, again not wise to stare at this. I also have a set of Pedalite pedals with toe clips, these are great because they also give you side illumination and have no batteries.
This has cost me a small fortune as I also opted for extra batteries with both front and rears. I justify this cost because if I lost any work from being knocked off I’d really be out of pocket, I’m the sole earner in my household, not to mention the possible injury, it really is no contest.
This all sounds very obnoxious in terms of light out put, but the point is to be seen and when riding in a busy city centre, with all the drunks, cabbies, mopeds, buses and urban 4×4 drivers you need all the help you can get, safety is first at ALL times. To strengthen my point further, I get at least one driver a month stop me at lights to say how useful it was to be able to see me at distance and really have a presence on the road. This is probably due to some of the so-called urban cyclists you can’t see at night, no bike lights, all in black and riding like idiots. You cannot put a price on your life, please don’t be a statistic get illuminated.
what do people think of the Knog Bike Lights? Are they good enough for riding around in London?
A couple of my friends ride round just with the knog bike lights. I would say they are good enough for riding around London. They won’t help you see ahead of you (for spotting potholes much) but they are good for been seen.
I use a B and M bottle dynamo with their top of the range LED front bike light and rear bike light that has a large rear reflector built around it and fits onto the rear carrier.
They have standlight internal capacitors which keep them lit for a few minutes if you are stationary.
The dynamo is very efficient and you only have to be travelling at a couple of MPH for the lights to be on.
I have to ride day and night and it is great not to have to worry about batteries or finding out on a dark evening you left your lights at home as it was light when you left!
Having all the bike lights and dynamo bolted on the bike has meant that I dont have to take them off and neither has any body else! but it would be easy to change the bolts for security bolts if you wanted for added security.
Just to say I use the Fenix LD20 bike light on the front. At full power it’s good enough to light my way through a pitch black Richmond Park, and on the flashing setting, drivers can still see you for miles. Use AA batteries, so I just pack a spare pair in my bag, and use rechargeables. Having also spent more (£75) on a ‘dedicated’ bike light which has all the crap of separate recharging cables, I’m even more convinced of the utility and value of the Fenix, frankly.
Two separate points here: I’m a fan of both headtorches and hub dynamos.
A front-light option I haven’t spotted in the discussion here but find useful: a regular hiker’s head-torch. They’re small, robust, light-weight, and cheap. I have one that I picked up in my local supermarket for €2.99 which takes three AAA batteries and has three settings: 3 bright LEDs, 6 bright LEDs and nine bright LEDs. The batteries last for ages, and when they fail, I’m generally carrying a second headtorch with fresh batteries, so no mucking around with batteries on the road in the dark. The headbands can be used to fix the lights neatly to the handlebars of any bike – I can hand someone I’m out with a spare light if necessary, or I can use my spare as an actual headtorch if I need to look around as well as focussing on the road ahead. I use those on my mountain bike and on my road bike. Semi-legally, as they’re not approved bike lights where I live Germany. If I were to use them on my town bike, they would be utterly and totally illegal, as all bikes over eleven kg have to have a dynamo system installed. While that’s propably over-prescriptive, there is a grain of sense in there somewhere.
I think a hub dynamo should be the default lighting system on a bike that’s mainly used as a town-runaround. None of the disadvantages of bottle dynamos and all the advantages. Not hugely expensive to install, cheap and convenient to run, hard to lose….