For example, an incandescent light bulb will emit around 15 lumens per watt while a fluorescent lamp can reach up to 100 lumens per watt. Cyclists riding in lit urban areas, who don’t need lights to illuminate the road ahead, may only need a unit with a few hundred lumens – but if you venture on to unlit roads or paths, that’s unlikely to be enough, so you’ll need something more powerful. Charging is simple and it takes just 1.5 hours to charge each from empty. A USB charging port is located under the rubber band that encircles the light. It can be a bit fiddly to pull it out of the way but you soon get used to the process. We’re yet to have any water ingress so despite its flimsy appearance it works really well. Even if you plan on using a light to see, it will still perform the double duty of helping you to be seen by other road users.

Bike Lights of 2023 | GearJunkie Best Bike Lights of 2023 | GearJunkie

LED light is directional and very efficiently delivers light compared to most other light sources. This amount of light is distributed with minimal wastage and creates a brighter intensity on a surface than 1000 lumens from other technologies. We’ll look at specialist lighting options in a moment, but for now, let’s assume you’re a road rider or commuter who wants to see and be seen when the sun sets. What do you need to consider when buying your lights?

Despite having the weakest beam of all the lights on test, I really liked the Knog Blinder 900 and think there is good application for it. You just have to be clear about the sort of riding you’ll be using this light for. It’s simply not bright enough for bombing along at Tempo / Zone 3 through the still of the night - but it is plenty bright for riding at an Endurance / Zone 2 pace on even the darkest roads. NiteRider has a good reputation for making robust lights. The Lumina 850 is actually one of its smaller options, but while the size and output might be less than its bigger siblings, the build quality is just as bombproof. The handlebar mount for both lights is excellent, albeit somewhat difficult to manage with large thumbs. Having logged a ton of gravel and dirt miles with this light, our tester felt extremely confident about the light staying fixed in place and experienced zero issues. Studieshave confirmed that bike lights do help make drivers notice cyclists. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administrationhas found that the highest incidence of cyclist fatalities happens between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.

LEZYNE LITE DRIVE 1000XL | LED BIKE LIGHT LEZYNE LITE DRIVE 1000XL | LED BIKE LIGHT

The CatEye SYNC Wearable is designed for both nighttime and daytime riding, so expect to be highly visible regardless of the time of day. Compared to most rear lights, the max output of 30 lumens is quite bright. If the battery is low, the light automatically switches to flash mode to save power. The CatEye Sync range is the next step in bike lights where up to seven units are connected together wirelessly so that when one is switched on, the others light up too. Equally, when a mode is changed or the lights are to be turned off, one press of a button on one unit will change all the lights too. Despite its small size, it crams in 1,300 lumens, easily enough to light your way off-road. Although this will see you burn through the battery in an hour and a half, switching down to 400 lumens will give you a respectable six-hour run-time. Both front or rear lights can be flashers, but if so they must emit at least four candela. “But bike lights tend to be rated in lumens or Watts, what’s a candela?” we hear you cry. Some lights will dial down their intensity if they start to get too hot or as the battery begins to run down and so extend battery runtime.

For our battery test, we wanted to do something a little different and recreate a scenario that all cyclists will have faced. The dreaded flat battery test. For this we: After ranking each light for how well it illuminates the road and its surroundings, it's interesting to note that lights with higher claimed lumen output aren't always better at lighting up the way while you're riding. The clamp mechanism is well-designed and keeps the light secure on a wide range of handlebars. Our tester was disappointed to find that the mounting platform is fixed with no ability to rotate. Garmin does make a standalone unit, the RDU, to pair with the Varia, but they are increasingly hard to find online, and you are probably better off just putting that money toward a Garmin computer. Ultimately, this unit is meant to be used in the Garmin ecosystem, and while it is certainly possible to make it work with your phone, our tester found that the user experience is best with the full Garmin kit. Lumens is the unit measurement of brightness, with 1 lumen equalling the brightness of 1 candle, so 1000 lumens has the brightness of 1000 candles.

Bike Lights | Bike Accessories | Evans Cycles

Meanwhile, if you want to spend less, it's very likely there'll be some compromises, in either output or quality. Overalllight from the mount with a simple press so you can use the headlight as a handy flashlight or keep the light safe when parking your bicycle. Whichever mode you use, you’ll be able to keep an eye on the charge remaining via a traffic-light style indicator house behind the on/off button. With 1,000 lumens at full power, Lezyne’s Lite Drive 1000XL provides more than enough brightness and beam spread for riding on unlit roads. You’ll only get around 80 minutes at this power, but dropping it down to the second highest output (which sits at 500 lumens) provides just under three hours of run time, which ought to be enough for even the longest of commutes. And that, ultimately, is the beauty of the ETC Kochab. It's simply a very good, suitably powerful front bike light that will illuminate the way ahead for any kind of road rider on any kind of roads, and help to keep you safe during daylight. Really, what more could you ask for? Verdict