Buyer's Guide to Off Road Lights
Buyer's Guide to off road lights (Seb Rogers©.)
A winter of dark nights and a summer of 24-hour racing means good lights are essential. Here's what to look for:
Choose the right light for you...
All lights are different and each will suit different types of rider. Here's what to look for to pick your perfect match LED
Reliability
Mixing delicate electronics, high operating temperatures, powerful batteries, mud, rain and regular crashes isn't easy. Yet reliability is absolutely vital, as light failure at speed on technical terrain is no joke. Happily most of the lights here have proved 100 per cent reliable on the trail (just don't go jet washing your bike with lights still attached).
Mounting
Make sure you can position the light where you want it, and that it'll do the job. Spot lamps are no use solo on tight singletrack, and a badly placed helmet light will drag your lid down or wring your neck. Check that bigger lights will actually fit on the curve of your handlebar without sitting at a crazy angle. Tiny Li-Ion battery packs can strap under stems but curvy shaped modern frames (often without bottle cage mounts) can be a lot harder to attach batteries to. You may need an extended cable to reach batteries slung under the down tube.
Power
Once you know which lights fit you and your bike, look at what power wattage suits you. Obviously budget is a big factor here, as is what level of light you find comfortable to ride with. A good 3W LED or 10W halogen light with a semi-focused beam is the minimum for safe riding on trails you know well. Double that power will mean you can get a move on in the middle ring, without being startled by unexpected obstacles. A normal HID lamp is so bright it pretty much gives you 'access all areas'. However, boosted HIDs or double sets can actually give too much light, and you'll be fighting to see through reflected glare and drowned detail, particularly in damp, muddy or misty conditions.
Run times
The longer you ride, the more battery run time you'll need. Most brands sell extra batteries (often at a discount if bought with the light) so you can always swap halfway. Check your batteries are properly prepared for maximum performance (this should be in the instructions) and take a back-up until you know you can rely on their run times. Also make sure the charger meets your needs. If you often need to re-juice in a hurry, get a fast charger; car chargers are great for 24-hour races.
Mount
A great lamp is no use if you can't fit it to your bar, or it just wobbles and points the wrong way when you do. Most mounts use clips and spacers but O-rings are a great simple solution.
Bulb
Bike lights are now well beyond normal bulb technology. HID bulbs are the brightest by far but they're fragile and very expensive to replace. LEDs are super tough but even mid-power ones get seriously hot so output is often limited.
Leads
Often overlooked but vital to overall reliability. You want secure connectors that don't fall out and joining sections that won't let water or muck in. Every joint wastes power though, so it makes sense to keep things simple.
Battery
The latest lights use either cheaper NiMH batteries or lighter and smaller Li-Ion batteries like those in your phone and laptop. The bigger the battery capacity, the longer you can play out at night.
Reflector
The silver dish around the light is responsible for providing a clear and consistent beam pattern. Most lights use a 10-15 degree flood pattern, while 5-10 degree spotlights give a more intense but smaller bright patch.
Jargon Buster
- AMP Hour - A measurement of battery capacity. The bigger the capacity the longer your lights will run.
- Halogen - Best of the conventional bulb types. Cheap and easy to replace, but power-hungry so needs big, heavy batteries.
- HID - High Intensity Discharge. A metal halide lamp that uses a tiny but extremely bright striplight bulb that only draws 10W but produces more light than a 40W halogen bulb. Gives that distinctive blue/white alien light of BMW headlamps.
- LED - Light Emitting Diode. A solid state 'lamp' that's far more durable than HID bulbs for a similar sort of efficiency and light colour. Still an emerging technology, so power outputs are limited to avoid meltdown as they have cooling issues.
- Li-ion - Lithium Ion. The most expensive but lightest, most efficient battery available. Also the easiest to look after in terms of charging/ recharging and therefore a very good thing.
- Lumen - A measurement of the amount of visible light a source emits. With no standard way to measure it for bike lights, most figures can't be usefully compared.
- NIMH - Nickel metal hydride. Cheaper battery type that's reasonably robust in a charge/recharge sense but heavier and bulkier than a Li-Ion for the same capacity.
- Smart charger - Charger that senses how full/ empty the battery is and adjusts its efforts accordingly rather than burning down your house.
- Watt - A measurement of power. You'll often see bike light outputs quoted as 'equivalent to a 20W halogen bulb' for example.
- Welch Allyn - HID lamp unit manufacturer. Almost universal.
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