BBB NanoStrike 700i and Signal 80 Combo review: a small and bright lights set, but battery life is an issue

The BBB NanoStrike 700i and Signal 80 Combo lights set is among the more compact options I've tested, but it delivers very good power output.

The front light produces a strong, focused beam, which is great for spotting obstacles near to or in your path. There is some beam bleed, which offers a bit of peripheral illumination, but there are better-spread beams.

The beam is angled down slightly, with a protruding top edge to the body to prevent self-glare. This works, but there’s no cut-off to the beam, so I found the need to angle the light down more than I initially felt I would to avoid dazzling other road users.

There’s an array of white indicators on the top to indicate which mode you’re in. They look neat and well-integrated.

The left-right arrangement for less or more powerful output is logical for the four static modes. When flicking between the three flashing modes, the least power hungry is indicated by the leftmost dot, the middle-power by the middle of the five, and the most by the rightmost of them.

It’s worth noting that the single function button enables you to cycle through the static modes or the flashing modes as normal.

However, to switch between static or flashing modes, a double-press of the button is needed. This isn’t complicated, but I needed to space out my button presses deliberately to shift from one set of modes to the other without simply cycling through modes.

The drawback of the small, neat design is relatively low battery life – I burned through the battery in only 1hr 24mins using the most powerful 700-lumen ‘boost’ setting, with a small power-down mode engaged at 1hr 15mins.

Happily, the 500-lumen mode is powerful enough for night riding away from streetlamps, yielding close to two hours' life, although the lack of beam spread meant I felt compelled to measure my speed a bit more than I would typically.

In any case, using either of these modes will result in you needing to recharge it more often than many rival bike lights.

The Signal 80 rear light also features a neat design, with a COB (chip-on-board) LED layout that effectively lights up the whole face when viewed from a distance.

Despite putting out only 80 lumens, it’s more than enough to punch through ambient urban light and make you clearly visible in the dark.

The battery life is also impressive, achieving the second-longest burn time of the group of lights I tested at 3hrs 15mins in its most draining 20-lumen static mode.

At that point, the light defaults to a lower-powered flash mode. BBB says that’ll deliver four hours of life, but I found it expired after a further 2hrs 30mins. That’s still a strong total time, and in reality, I can imagine many choosing to use the disruptive day flash mode – that’s where you (briefly) get the burst of 80 lumens, and with that you’ll get around 18 hours' burn time.

The modes on the rear light are operated using a simple cyclical system – no static and flashing tiers to concern yourself with.

Both lights fit to the bike using band-on straps. The front bracket has the strap held captive on it, while the strap is built into the rear light, making that especially easy to whip on and off the seatpost (it’s a minor niggle that the points of contact don’t compensate for the angle of the post). 

The front light can be removed easily from the bracket by pressing in a little button and sliding it off.

Both lights charge via USB-C – these days par for the course – but no charge cables are provided in the box. That’s a shame for a light costing €94.95.

BBB Nanostrike 700i and Signal 80 Combo light set bottom line

The BBB Nanostrike 700i and Signal 80 Combo light set is one of the more expensive lights sets of the group I tested, but it features a clean design and good performance.

The main problem is the low battery life on the front light, which will mean you’ll need to charge it more often.