NiteRider Lumina Micro 950 review: plenty of illumination but the hefty mount takes some of the shine off this compact light

The NiteRider Lumina Micro 950 provides abundant illumination in its top setting, with a good spread of light, in a compact unit.

Its deeply recessed lamp helps avoid dazzling you, although it reduces side-on lighting, making it less well adapted for city riding.

Although the light itself is reasonably light in weight, the hefty mount contributes around 25 per cent of the 160g total.

NiteRider Lumina Micro 950 specifications and details

NiteRider’s range of Lumina lights all have a similar design, with a body with deep machined cooling grooves on its side, a deep hood to prevent you getting dazzled and outputs of up to 2,000 lumens.

The Micro 950 has the lowest output of the Lumina lights and is quite compact, with a reasonably low 118g weight.

It’s worth noting that NiteRider also makes the Lumina Micro 1150 – this is the same claimed size and weight, but with an extra 200 lumens at a $10 price increase.

NiteRider Lumina Micro 950 performance

The NiteRider Lumina Micro 950 gives a nice broad spread of light, which tapers off evenly towards the sides. On full power, there’s plenty of down-the-road illumination, which makes for confident riding at speed on unlit roads.

Even in the lower settings, there’s enough output to light the way.

Although you need to toggle through all five modes to change output, the large top button and the design aimed at over-bar mounting make this easier than with some lights I've tested.

There’s only one flashing mode, which switches the light to peak output but offers a 14-hour claimed runtime. There’s also a 50-lumen walk mode, for when you don’t need lighting to ride with.

The lamp is recessed some way into the body of the light and there’s a pronounced hood over its top, so it’s well shielded to avoid dazzling you, even in the peak output setting.

This reduces side-on illumination a little if you’re using the light in urban areas, though.

All the Lumina lights use the same screw-on bar mount, into which they clip by sliding from the rear. It’s very secure, but also bulky.

For the 258g Lumina Dual 2000, the design makes sense, but it feels a little over-engineered for the 118g Lumina Micro 950.

It’s the heaviest mount of the six lights I tested together, at 42g, contributing a significant chunk of the overall weight.

It gives a very sturdy connection to the handlebar, though, and is tool-free, with a robust head to the threaded screw to enable you to hand-tighten it.

The light is IP64-rated for ingress protection. The ‘6’ suggests it’s pretty resistant to dust, but the ‘4’ indicates it’s resistant to splashes of water only, so it might not be the best choice if you expect to ride in the wet.

The plentiful, deep cooling fins help keep the light from overheating, and at peak output it was notably cooler than five other lights I tested, but they are likely to accumulate dirt quickly if you ride on muddy roads or off-road.

The light switched to a lower-output mode after 2hrs 10mins, although the LED under the control button didn’t provide much warning that this would occur. The get-you-home mode was rather gloomy.

NiteRider Lumina Micro 950 bottom line

The NiteRider Lumina Micro 950 provides a high output and a good spread of illumination for riding at night, as well as flashing and walk modes. However, the battery-saver mode is a little dim.

It’s a compact, low-weight light, although the heavy mount increases the total weight to 160g. The crevices in the light are likely to need more effort to keep clean than more streamlined lights.