The world of bike lighting technology is packed with jargon and it can be hard to figure out exactly what you need without spending a fortune. Luckily, we're here to help find the best mountain bike lights for you.
To cut to the basics, the only requirement for mountain biking in the dark is some kind of illumination. Even a basic commuting light can stand in, but you’ll quickly discover that riding can get sketchy very quickly without enough power to light the trail in front of you.
How bright is right?
The temptation is — naturally — to get as much power as possible. And power is good, but there’s much more to the story. If you tend to cruise climbs and cane the descents, you want max power for the sketchy bits. You can then toggle right back to save battery power as you trundle back up. If you’re more into mixed trail riding, you need good lights all the time and battery life is more important.
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You may have a 1,500-lumen light, but if the battery means you can only run it at 50 percent power for a fast cross-country/trail ride, it’s less bright than a ‘weaker’ 1,000-lumen unit you can run at 100 percent. Given that battery life fades over time, having the extra capacity means you’ll get more years use from your light.
It’s also possible to have too much power — particularly in wet or foggy conditions, where bounce-back and glare mean you see less than with a less powerful unit. Riders with brighter lights behind you can throw your shadow down the trail, blotting it out.
In general, there’s little that will make you wish you had more power than a good average light produces. You’ll find you adjust to whatever you have and that riders who are faster in daylight are still faster at night, regardless of what lights they have.
What to consider when buying mountain bike lights
Features of a mountain bike light
Head or bars
Helmet
- Pro: Light shines where you’re looking
- Con: Flattens out visible trail features, reduces depth perception
- Con: Can be knocked off by low trees
Bar
- Pro: Easy to see indicators and operate switches
- Con: Light only goes where your bars are pointed
- Con: Drops backside of crests and lumps into shade, so you can’t judge obstacle size
Jargon buster
- Amp-hour — A measurement of battery capacity. The bigger the capacity, the longer your lights will run. You need to divide this value by the amperage the light operates at in order to get the theoretical run time
- Bag — A cloth pack that holds the battery onto the bike's frame
- Bar mount — Light bracket that fits around oversize (31.8mm) and/or older 1in (25.4mm) diameter handlebars
- Battery cell — The single units that wire together to create a battery pack
- Bottle — Plastic water bottle converted to hold a large capacity battery
- Candlepower — Unit of light measurement
- Cell — Individual unit within a larger battery block. Most mountain bike light batteries are twin or quad cell units
- Colour temperature — Colour of the light. The more blue-white, the ‘colder’ the colour; the more yellow, the ‘warmer'
- Cree — Leading LED manufacturer
- Flood — Head unit designed specifically to spread light over a wide area
- GoPro mount — Double-D and thumbscrew set up used on GoPro’s helmet cameras
- Halo — A distinctive ring in the pattern of the beam
- Halogen — Best of the conventional bulb types. Cheap and easy to replace, but power-hungry so needs big, heavy batteries. Most manufacturers now use LEDs instead
- Helmet mount — Bracket that lets you fit the light on your lid
- 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. Most manufacturers now use LEDs instead
- Jack — Connector plug on the lead
- Jubilee clip — Fastener that uses a band tightened with a screw-driven gear wheel
- LED — Light emitting diode. A solid state semi-conductor that glows brightly when a current is passed through it. The 'bulb' choice of most manufacturers
- Lead — Cable that connects the head unit and battery. Extra long extension units are available for use with helmet mounts
- Lens — The screen over the LED and reflector that protects them and can also be used to modify the beam
- Life indicator — Traffic light style colour change display that indicates the remaining charge in a battery
- 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 — Often quoted measure of the theoretical power of a light. Thermal issues and management circuitry normally make it an optimistic guide at best, though. With no standard way to measure it for bike lights, most figures can't be usefully compared
- Lux — Lumens per square metre. The real light output figure that we generally use in our comparative lab tests
- 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
- O-ring — Thick rubber band used in some handlebar mounts
- Peripheral — The outward edges of the field of vision. Useful for seeing movement in low light
- QR — Quick release mechanism
- Reach — The distance down the trail that the light illuminates
- Reflector — The shaped reflective surface behind the LED that concentrates and reflects the beam of light
- Seoul — LED manufacturer
- Smart charger — Charger that senses how full/empty the battery is and adjusts its efforts accordingly rather than burning down your house
- Spot — Head unit designed to focus light in a narrow, long reaching beam
- Throw — How far a light's beam can reach in front of it
- USB — Universal serial bus. Standard connector for computers
- Voltage — The power level the battery releases its energy at
- Watt — A measurement of power. You'll often see bike light outputs quoted as 'equivalent to a 20W halogen bulb' for example
How we test mountain bike lights
The science side
The practical side
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
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