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 (less than £20)
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 £17.95 for both front and back bike light provides excellent value for money and just look at all of these positive reviews.
Mid range bike lights (~£30)
The bike lights in this category up the ante. They are good for those rides along routes with less light. Especially cycle paths and country lanes. They also provide better visibility for drivers to see you.
Currently I ride around London with a bike light from this category and I’ve been hugely impressed by it. It’s called the Knog Boomer and it is chargeable by USB. That means less money wasted on replacing batteries. I love this bike light because it provides plenty of light and it’s very easy to install and remove. The best price I’ve found for the Knog Boomer Rechargeable bike light is here for £23.39.
There is also a rear bike light version of the Knog Boomer. Although, personally for the rear I prefer the Blackburn Flea. Looking at the size of the Flea you’d never believe it could output so much light. At only £20 (available from here) and with the ability to recharge via USB it truly is an excellent package.
Higher end bike lights (~£55)
These bike lights provide a much stronger beam and are suitable in areas when there is no 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.
Alternatively, at this price point the CatEye HL-EL610 is a very popular bike light that comes highly recommended.
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 solid mounting unit.
Best bike lights (~£250)
At the highest end of the scale you get the brightest bike lights. These are good for blinding people and night time mountain biking. The price tag is extreme but then so is the light output. At this price point the Exposure MaXx-D Mk3 is very highly regarded and all the positive reviews you can see here are a testament to its long standing respect in the cycling community.
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 Joystick which you can also buy with a helmet mount. It provides a ton of light and is incredible useful for night time mountain biking.
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.
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.
Reflective Spokes – These reflective spokes that we’ve reviewed previously on London Cyclist provide an additional layer of side visibility and fit easily to your bike.
Conclusion – what did I go for?
I ended up with a BlackBurn Flea as my rear light of choice. For the front light I’m currently using a Knog Boomer which I’m more than happy with and would highly recommend.
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Check out cyclelogicalgear.com they have awesome spoke reflectors that require no batteries. This patent pending technology is awesome and easy to get you on your way to extra visibility at night!
Extra reflectors are a great idea, but good lights are not only a legal requirement, but are essential. One only has to cycle at night to see that some drivers drive without lights, and reflectors rely upon reflecting incident light.
Excellent reviews of dynamo lights.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~swhs/fiets/tests/verlichting/index_en.html
I’m looking for a rear bike light similar to the
Magicshine MJ-818 HA-III SSC 42180U 3W 3-Mode LED Bike Tail
u guys forgot about the Laser Lane a new device for rear light exellent check out the pictures :
http://cdn.dornob.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/lightlane-laser-bike-lane.jpg
Eames,
Re: Laser Lane
That is a photoshopped picture.
It doesn’t seem to be on the market yet.
http://www.lightlanebike.com/prototpye_pics_001.html
http://sport-cam.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=ledbikelight
I bought on of these last year. Still same price £100. Not cheap but what price is your life?! My commute is half in the city and leafy suburbs & the countryside so a good light is vital. Built like £300+ lights (milled aluminum body and waterproof battery housing.) Great spread of light for road and off-road riding. I thought the batt would be rubbish but still charging and holding it fine. My commute is 1.5 hrs so the 2.5 hr burn time is never problem. I do take the small light charger to work to top up during the day for my return journey and then stick on over night charge for next day. If in lighter summer months use it on flashing mode and don’t charge at work. BTW get the 1m extension at the same time (saves postage) and makes a fine head torch for camping but don’t forget never look at someone around the campfire; it is sooo bright!!!
Friend just bought this version from ebay but battery housing is poor compared to mine. However he has “waterproofed” it with Gaffer tape and had no worries so far (1 month)
http://tinyurl.com/4xqfp2j
I live on Romney marsh so part of my commute involved cycling through the brightlights of london to StP and then an often pitch dark ride across the marsh in narrow country lanes. I experienced these problems when I started doing the run regularly. I think a budget option for a light you can use to illuminate the road is to buy a torch with a 5w cree diode, I found a brand called Renisen which was very cheap. they are powered by a massive battery and will put out light for a week between charges. There are attachments you can buy to fix the torch to your handlebar.
For dark rural riding you should not rely on one light always working as you may forget to charge or swap the battery. Standing at a rural railway station with no alternative transport with no lights in the pitch black, wondering what to do – misery. One of my learning points was to have a hub generator (these can cost as little as £30) and to run two Busch and Muller lights off of it (front and back). Both have a capacitor so will run for 5 to 6 mins when you stop pedalling. The front also has a circuit that means it will switch on or off depending on ambient light levels – genius, The front light LUMOTEC FLY puts out about 2.5w through a bulb and has a back up LED for when you stop, the rear TOPLIGHT is an LED between two red reflectors puts out about 05w and is visible for some distance. The capacitor is essential but getting new bulbs can be a pian.
I have knog lights as further back up.
Generally I don’t learn post on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very forced me to try and do it! Your writing taste has been surprised me. Thank you, quite nice post.
Hi Andreas,
I would really like to encourage the use of helmet lights. Firstly they are a great back up and you can turn them on whilst on the move. Secondly they are far less likely to get nicked. Lastly its not always obvious when your rear bike light is running low on energy, or has failed completely.
I have frame mounted LEDs front and rear anyway, as well as reflective tape wrapped around the frame.
Keep up the good work !!
With the dark evenings I’m back using my excellent Niterider light on a commute down a long, pitch-black cycle path. There seems to be a new trend this year in that people try to shield their light when another cyclist is coming the other way. Bright lights don’t bother me as I just tilt my head down to use my peak to shield the light and keep left (assuming the other cyclist is keeping left!). I tried this light shielding business and didn’t feel comfortable racing along with one hand on the bars and potentially not seeing the pothole, wood, stone, rabbit or, more importantly, the walker in dark clothes just beyond the oncoming cyclist. You do get the odd ‘shirty’ comment, which is unusual amongst cyclists, but i just think, ‘get over it’; it’s only a bit of glare and I’d rather not have to explain to people that the reason I ‘totalled’ myself was trying to shield my front light. I know of someone who had an unexplained crash (no car involved) and had a head injury. He has never returned to work.
I’d rather not have the fact that I totalled myself was because I was dazzled by your over-bright lights shining in my eyes.
sounds like your light is ideal when there is nobody there, but it is inconsiderate when there is.
What would you say if someone’s illegal off-road dazzled you and caused you to fall down a manhole which had a missing cover?
Lights that dazzle are illegal, and the people that use them on roads and cycle paths are selfish and should be ashamed and must stop using them any more on the road and cycle paths.
Tonight I encountered two cyclists with illegal off-road lights. It was dark and they were travelling the opposite direction and rendered everything apart from their beam invisible. With the first one, I saw his lights looming around a bend I flipped-up my StVZO & BS compliant headlight which was legally adjusted to drop a hint about his light, and shouted ‘dazzle’. In response he shouted back ‘adjust your light’. He obviously hadn’t a clue. Obviously a half-wit. The second remained silent when I shouted ‘dazzle’.
Please ONLY use off-road lights with conical beams in off-road circumstances. Use anywhere else is antisocial, selfish and give cyclists in general a bad name. Such lights could easily lead to a collision.
Please, only use road-legal lights on the road. The design of the beam geometry is there for a reason.
Lights that dazzle are illegal.
Information about road legal lights, beam geometry etc.
http://swhs.home.xs4all.nl/fiets/tests/verlichting/index_en.html
I have tried induction-powered lights from Reelight, with mixed results. I’ve had some fragile ones break, but the basic idea is brilliant and when you get a good one they do work really well – bright enough, always on, and you never need to recharge them.
Recently I’ve taken to using the “Black Widow Front and RSP 5 LED Rear Light USB Rechargeable Light Set” (available from Amazon under £20 the pair). Both are more than bright enough for city riding and recharge from your PC once a week. Perfect for the commute.
What is a fair price to sell by 2005 Bianchi Giro Road Bike?
Thanks for the review. The biggest problem I have though is the with the way the light is attached to the bike. I’ve lost several sets of lights because the mountings have broken or slipped off the handlebars and the lights have smashed as they’ve hit the road.
Any hints?
There’s a couple of options:
A) Tighten the mount more (get some elbow grease in there!)
B) Go for a Knog light that uses the silicone strap. I’ve never had one of these come off.
LED Light and Wireless Computer Interference
A few months ago my bike computer (Cat Eye Micro Wireless) randomly stopped working. I tried resetting, changing batteries etc but the problem persisted. Deciding that there was something wrong internally and it was a few years old, I bought a new one. I tried just changing the sensor, but the problem still persisted so changed the whole lot. Problem solved, but last night it started happening again. Doing a bit of web searching on computer defects I stumbled across some discussions about interference between LED lights and wireless computers. Last night I noticed my LED light (Smart Lunar 35) was pretty dim and changed the battery (coincidental). It’s the first time I’ve changed the battery since new as it’s primarily just for town riding, so I’m too worried about it being really bright. I’m just wondering that when the light is at full strength it affects the computer. I’ll have work out whether the first set of computer problems coincided with the new light. Anyone heard of this problem? I’ll have to see about moving them further apart.
LED Light and Wireless Computer Interference
Solved the problem. The Smart light has a normal, dimmed and flashing mode. When the batteries are new in the dimmed mode, the wireless computer stopped working. No inteference in the other 2 modes. I now have a set of wireless computer spares!
I commute daily by bike and have had to resort to a high powered led helmet mounted light for two reasons. In the city I cycle through car drivers do not give you a second thought using the cycle lane as an extra piece of road to pull into when pulling out from a junction. I was nearly knocked off one night by a car driver reversing out of a parking space, I was the only other person about and obviously I have to give way to them.
The second thing is part of my commute is on unlit roads. Normal lights do not light the way at all. Plus a small minority of car drivers refuse to dip their main beam which can result in total blindness for a short while after they have passed, especially newer Mercedes.
Now I just look at them giving them 1200 Lumens and generally most of them will dip their lights.
Whilst in the vicinity of pedestrians or other cyclist I try to look at the floor, very unsocial but I don’t want to blind them.