Lights test 2014 – the top 100 lights

The various bike tribes may be strangers to each other but they are united in their need to be seen. Simon Vincett offers all comers a run through the best lights out there.

Which lights for you?

Sooner or later, every bike rider finds they need lights. Despite your best intentions, you leave work late or the weather closes in halfway home and you’re mixing with traffic in the half light. Of course, if you don lycra before dawn to catch the bunch ride or tear around the singletrack at night you know it’s a BYO lights affair, but bike riding is an outdoor activity and very often, particularly in winter, you find yourself riding in the dark.

The road rules require that riders have a white light on the front and a red on the back, and that both are visible from 200 metres. That’s easy—pretty much all bike lights currently on the market are that powerful. It’s more a matter of making the most of your visibility for the money you spend, and matching with your carefully crafted colourway.

So you do the choosing—we’ll do the testing. Here’s how we do it.

Keeping it real

The first part is the visibility test. For a realistic scenario, it is conducted after twilight on an urban street. There’s a panel of 10 or so judges and the lights are set up 200m from them down the street. We display each light in turn, with a control light displayed in between, and the judges score them for visibility. We refer to each light by number only.

Next, we bring the lights 50m from the judges and turn them 45 degrees. This simulates visibility at an adequate distance for a car travelling at 50km/h to react and brake before hitting a bike rider. Again the judges see each light in turn, alternating with the control light, and score it for visibility.

The judges also decide on a score for the effectiveness of the flash rate of each light. We test every light in a flashing mode because research shows this is the most visible mode for a bike light. Together, these scores make up a total visibility for each light.

The testing is conducted in Melbourne and judges are typically drawn from the Police, VicRoads, Choice magazine, RACV, RMIT, Bicycle Network members, bike shops and cycling clubs and BUGs.

Because the durability and usability of the lights are also essential considerations, all lights in the test are investigated by an industrial design team from RMIT convened by senior lecturer Dr Scott Mayson. The lights are assessed for durability, weather resistance and usability.

Finally, the visibility scores and the design scores are combined to determine the overall rating of each light. Because visibility is the primary purpose of a bike light, it is weighted to make up the majority of the overall score.

The test is cumulative, using the same method each year to test new lights on the market. The results for these new lights are added to the results of lights from previous years, creating a long list with all the lights ranked. We publish a list of the top performers, all of which are good buys.

Finally, if you’re familiar with the Lights test you might wonder why the same lights get slightly different results each year. With new lights on the market each year, the landscape changes and older lights have to be re-assessed. Using the original test data we re-calculate the scores of all the lights listed each year and this often results in changed scores.

For more, read about our test methodology.

We share our test results with Choice, who also produce an annual article on bike lights.

Ride On thanks the following people for judging at the visibility testing this year: Peter Persic, Victoria Police, Melbourne West Bicycle Patrol

Blake Harris, RACV engineering

Scott Mayson, RMIT Industrial Design

Lachie Major, RMIT Industrial Design

Ross Arnold, RMIT Industrial Design

Lindsay Thebus, RMIT Industrial Design

Harry Major, Bikesportz

Ji Ae Bak, Bicycle Network

Grace Stubee, Bicycle Network

Mark Liddle, Bicycle Network

Nathan Stevens, Bicycle Network

Grace Macpherson, Bicycle Network

Alistair Wenn, Bicycle Network member

Jacqueline Anderton, Bicycle Network member. Thanks also to Dr Scott Mayson and the RMIT Industrial Design team for conducting the design testing again this year.

With great power comes great responsibility

We should explain our category of ‘high-powered’ lights. Rear lights are simply rear lights but front lights have this sub-group reflecting the much higher output of some light over their compact, ordinary fellow front lights. Once it was only lights with an external battery pack that achieved this high output but with improved LED and battery technology, high-powered output is possible from a light that is also compact and self-contained.

Our distinction is that lights with a stated output of over 300 lumens are ‘high-powered’. This means that some of the ‘compact front’ lights have an output of 300 lumens, which is still pretty dazzling for on-coming riders on the bike path. These need to be pointed down at the ground a few metres in front of the front wheel. Better still is to have a compact front flashing light for the street-lit part of the ride. Helmet-mounted lights shouldn’t be used when sharing the paths or roads—they are for mountain biking in the dark. Research shows that bike riders are most effectively seen by other road users when they have lights at handlebar height. That goes for front and rear lights.

For more argument about how much light is about right, as well as issues to look out for when choosing a bike light, check out the article on last year’s test.

Manoeuvres in the dark

Depending on your riding, you’ll weigh up a few different qualities in a light when choosing what you need. These qualities include: visibility, price, durability, weight, appearance and output.

If you ride only on roads with street lights, simple flashing lights are fine. If you ride unlit shared paths, you’ll want a light to see where you’re going. For country roads, you’ll want the most visible rear light you can find. Roadies are famous for wanting the lightest, most low-profile gear and mountain bikers need powerful illumination for tree dodging in the dark. Finally, manufacturers realise that most of us appreciate lovely aesthetics, so there are also plenty of offerings with design appeal.

Ride On recommended lights

See the tables further down for the results and ranking of the Top 100 lights.

For more examples, here are suggestions of lights for some different rider types [stereotype alert!].

Commuter

This tribe has the widest variety in wants and needs from bike lights, but needs them to work day in, day out in all weather. Needs high power for unlit shared paths, excellent visibility for negotiating traffic and is drawn to reliable performance that is still affordable.

Moon mask $59.95

Top visibility, compact

Ilumenox Vega 3w $130

Capped beam doesn’t dazzle others

Serfas True 500+ $149.99

Lights up the paths

Owleye Highlux 5 $39.95

Good, reliable performance

ES Beacon rear$50

Excellent visibility

Tioga Dual Eyes $39.99

Good, reliable performance

City Chick

Favours attractive, petite lights with classic style (metallic) or design appeal. More inclined to spend on accessories not for the bike, so cheaper is more appealing than ‘high performance’.

Knog Blinder 1 front and rear $29.95ea

Simple, effective

Lezyne Hecto Drive front and rear $54.95ea

Design appeal, good visibility

Moon Comet $44.95

Under-seat attachment if the seat is too low

for a seat post mount

Roadie

Demands lights weight and low profile, and is habituated to high performance. Needs powerful visibility, particularly in the rear, for country roads but needs a courtesy dimmer setting for bunch riding.

Moon Mask $59.95

Light with top visibiliy

Serfas Raider $59.99

Low profile, good performance

NiteRider Solas 2W $69

Group ride mode

Knog Blinder Road rear $64.95

Peleton mode

Lezyne Micro Drive rear $54.95

Daytime boosted visbility mode

Hipster

Design is everything with this tribe and lights are another element of the carefully assembled statement of uniqueness that is their bicycle. Suave riders who don’t self-identify with reductive labels also, coincidently value lights with high aesthetic appeal.

Knog Blinder 4 front and rear $59.95ea

Design appeal

Lezyne Micro Drive front and rear $49.95ea

Design appeal

Moon Mask $59.95

Design appeal

The mountain biker

Isn’t afraid of a bit of weight, so the external battery is quite acceptable for the power of the light provided. Not so concerned with the rear visibility—any budget flasher will do. Durability and waterproofness are essential.

Fyxo King Bright $79

Top power, best price

Magicshine MJ808E $179

Excellent visibility

Lezyne Power Drive $99.95

Compact for a lights cannon

BBB Highlaser rear $34.95

Solid, affordable visibility

Moon shield $59.95

Top visibility, bombproof construction

Top 100 lights

These 100 lights are all good options to make yourself visible when riding your bike. The list is an aggregation of our nine years of testing, with discontinued models removed. The highest in overall ranking are the best available, but that doesn’t mean that the rest are worthless. Far from it, they all meet the legal requirement of being visible from 200 metres and meet the usability standards of this test. The lowest scores here do not reflect poor performance on the part of individual lights but the accumulation of losses in the many aspects of the testing. Many small losses can add up to a significant overall loss. You’ll note that the highest rated lights only achieve scores in the eighties. There are other current lights that we have tested that do not make it onto this list.

Compact front lights



Table key RRP: Recommended retail price, Ch/B: Charge method / battery, W: Weight (grams), WR: water resistance (/10), D: Design score total (/10),V: Visibility (/100), OR: Overall rating (/100).

Compact rear lights

High-powered front lights

Table key RRP: Recommended retail price, W: Weight (grams), Ch/B: Charge method / battery, V: Visibility (/100), WR: water resistance (/10), D: Design score total (/10), OR: Overall rating (/100).

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