Light and Motion Seca Enduro with 6-cell battery review

Founded back in the late 1980s by two students, Light and Motion’s range has grown and refined over the years, and in 2005 it claimed to have made the world’s first rechargeable LED bike light. The Seca model I'm testing first appeared in name in 2008. So what kind of performance can you expect 11 years on?

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Light and Motion Seca Enduro details and specification

Pumping out a claimed maximum of 2,500 lumens from four Cree LEDs positioned in a ‘T’ shape in the light unit, the Seca has been awarded an IP67 waterproof and dust rating, which means the light can be submerged in up to 1-meter of water while the battery is connected. In addition, the light’s rated to resist impacts dropping from 1-metre high.

Supplied in the box is a handlebar mount, a helmet mount and a GoPro style adaptor. The tool-free bar mount attaches to the light with a single Philips-head screw that has a rubber strap that wraps around the bars, which is also used to connect it to the helmet mount.

The helmet mount is then attached to the lid using Velcro straps. The bar mount is compatible with 31.8mm and 35mm diameter handlebars and in its longest setting measures 40mm.

The cable attaching the light to the battery is 130cm long and uses a unidirectional push fitting located on the side of battery pack. The cable exits the rear of the light unit.

The six-cell battery pack supplied with the Enduro edition of the Seca attaches to frames using a Velcro strap that’s big enough to wrap around large, boxy sections. The LEDs it powers have custom optics provided by both reflector and diffuser lenses depending on the LEDs' purpose.

The light has four modes: a 2,500 lumen max setting, a medium 1,250 lumen, a low 650 lumen setting and a 625 lumen pulse function. There’s a single on/off and mode selector button on the top of the light unit that doubles up as the battery and mode indicator – flashing once the battery’s power is diminished. Its brightness changes with the light’s output too.

Light and Motion Seca Enduro performance

Out on the trail, the Seca Enduro feels like it puts out much more than its claimed 2,500 lumens, which I think is down to how that power is delivered. The light’s optics create a fantastic mix of flood and spot lighting, making it appear like every lumen is being put to use with none wasted illuminating unneeded sections of trail.

The focussed spot light is directly in front of your bike, seemingly exactly where you want to be looking. Although it isn’t super powerful, there’s enough light to pick out most obstacles directly in your path.

Although the spot is impressive, the Seca’s real party piece is how much side-to-side illumination it generates. This makes it really easy to tackle twisty trails with daylight-like confidence, shining light around corners letting you pick lines before your bars are pointing down the trail.

The light didn’t cast too many shadows down the trail and the LEDs' white hue makes it fairly easy on the eyes and gives great definition.

Neither the flood nor spot beams shine particularly far ahead, however, but that isn’t an issue until you reach warp speed on ludicrously fast fireroad descents. I instantly forgave the Seca Enduro for this due to its impressive beam spread – a redeeming trait.

It lasted for 2 hours 40 minutes, a full 10 minutes longer than its claimed run-time. The battery indicator started flashing with about 10 minutes to go and then the light went from full brightness to off.

The light’s button is easy to use but its click is quite shallow. The mode indicator isn’t especially useful, but because it only has four modes the mode you want is only a few clicks away.

There was no untoward movement when it was mounted to the bars and the rubber strap is easy to use. Any excess strap doubles back on itself, attaching to the mounting clip out of the way.

Because it’s tool-free, moving the light from one bike to another — or repositioning it on your bars — is a doddle. The mount’s design means it has to be used on one side of your stem, which is annoying if real estate on your bars is at a premium. It wouldn’t be hard to offer a stem-bridging mount to build on and modify the helmet mount.

There’s more than enough cable with the light and it’s light enough to use on helmets, but it’s just as good on the bars. It can be tricky to work out what to do with the excess cable but the Velcro strap that attaches the battery pack to the frame should be able to swallow up any extra centimetres of cord.

Light and Motion Seca Enduro bottom line

The Light and Motion Seca Enduro certainly packs a punch well above its weight class, pumping out really useful and well managed lumens that make riding in the night faster and more fun.

The mode and battery indicators are a bit vague and it isn’t the cheapest light out there, so it’s just as well it offers fantastic performance.

How we tested

Testing lights objectively is a tough task. While it’s entirely possible to measure the number of lumens a light emits, there are a lot more variables that dictate how much of that light illuminates the trail. The colour of the light, its beam pattern and lens type have as much effect as the outright power.

With that in mind, we haven’t measured the number of lumens each light emits for this test. Instead, we’ve assessed how the light performs by describing the beam pattern, its colour and overall performance, while also measuring run time on the most powerful setting.