Thanks for tuning in today we're going to be reviewing
the Reelight Nova battery free bike headlight and tail light system.
These days it's hard to keep track of all the rechargeable devices on your bike from
smart headlights, tail lights, headlights, GPS units even down to electronic shifters.
That means it's highly likely you found yourself riding in the dark with dead bike lights at least
once. Reelight's Nova battery free modular light system utilizes their innovative contactless rim
dynamo lights to ensure you're all is visible and not have to worry about the battery status. They
offer quite a few variations of this we have the full system here. You have the dynamos you
have the headlight and taillight as well as a few variations for the headlight and taillight as well.
So really flexible options and you can configure it exactly the way you want it.
So let's go ahead and take a look at some of the packaging. It's very simple you have white and
black branding on here. Nova on all of them and you have the different styles obviously for the
headlights and taillight specs printed on the back. We'll go ahead and take out the box and go over
those specs. Retail price on this varies depend on how you configure it. The system starts at 87
Euro and that includes 30 Euro dynamo so you need one for light per light each of these are 13 Euro
while the luggage variation or the rack variations are 19 Euro. They also have
additional adapters or longer cables as desired. They're 20 to 30 Lumen at 15 kilometers an hour
and again you have basket mounting options as well as seat post. Regardless of which one you choose
these have the contactless dynamo so as long as you have an aluminum rim set
you can simply put these dynamos near your rim and use eddy current to generate power so no batteries
to worry about and nothing to recharge. They also have the ReePower Flash which is one of their features
which allows these lights to actually stay powered on even when you're stopped for up to two minutes
using the built-in capacitor in the Dynamo itself to ensure you still have power. In terms of what
comes with it quite a few things. They have this tissue paper design that actually keeps it safe
and also has the instructions printed on it so a nice eco-friendly design and you can see if
you unwrap this it actually shows you how to mount it and how to position it so pretty cool.
With the dynamos you actually have two pieces you have the Dynamo itself and then the little
Allen key which is just simply an allen key with a little round mount to adjust the tension on The
wire. For the mount for the headlights and taillights you get the same wrapping and that again has
the instructions right on here so depending on which one you choose you need to put that on
your rack, basket or a different location. With at least the headlight you get
a fork Mount so you can attach this to the fork bolt hole and then mount the light on that
you get some zip ties as well as the mounting brackets shared with both headlights and tail
lights as well as the power cable that connects from the dynamo to the actual lights. Now let's
take a look at the weight of the light setup. It really depends on how you set it up the
headlights and taillights are identical so if you get the standard one it's 24 grams if you use the
rack variation it's always a little bit heavier because you have the rear bolts that's 46 grams.
You also have a little bit of hardware with the dynamo. So the dynamo itself is 84 and these are
interchangeable with most Reelight products. Then you also need a power cable as well as the O-ring
and then the little bracket for both the headline taillight that's 16 grams.
The Reelight Nova has a two-piece design that separates the headlight and taillight from the
dynamo generator. Using a simple powered cable with this two-piece design you have much more
flexibility in both the mounting locations of the headlight and taillight as well as more
flexibility in the form factor. So you can see these are much larger than traditional headlight or
tail lights and they have large reflectors built in. It's a really cool feature ensures they're always
visible. The headlight and taillight are nearly identical except for obviously the coloring you
want red on the rear and then white on the front. You can also see the front light is more focused
while the taillight has those little dimples in there that help diffuse the light both of them
have the mounts built in on the rear so simple plastic instruction Reelight printed on it and a
bolt connector. You also have the basket option so here's the basket or luggage rack option for
the front you can see it's almost the same design again they've simply added a second reflector on
the left side as these are mounted horizontally so extra visibility as you have the additional space.
The rears are slightly different you have the power connector port and then these additional
threaded spots for a bolt so a really nice design and ensures you can just go directly to
your mounting rack location or the provided bracket to attach it to your luggage rack.
They all have a simple single LED design and almost a charcoal color finish. Mounting these requires
using the bracket so you move the bolt slide that in and then you can use the provided O-rings.
You route this around it through here down the center with the bolts removed and then loop it
around your head tube or if seatpost. Alternatively they have the fork mount for the front
and that lets you ditch that bracket and simply connect this directly
using that provided bolt with a more flexible upright position and then using a secondary
bolt to connect it to your frame which is not provided. The luggage rack one also has
a bracket if your luggage rack doesn't have the two bolt already threaded and ready to go.
The dynamo on this is also really cool so this is the little magnet with a capacitor in there has a
fair amount of weight and the most expensive part of the whole system at 30 Euro.
it has a simple pivoting design that attaches to your fork or seat stay using this integrated cable
so really Sleek design and it's very secure to adjust the tension on the cable to mount it
they provide a little Allen key it's shaped like a almost like a key but you can see
it's simple Allen design put it through the hole here and then you can loosen or tighten
the tension on this cable to get it mounted perfectly. With this you want to get the magnet
within two millimeters of your aluminum rim you have to have aluminum rim as this requires an
eddy current so as your aluminum rim rotates it'll generate any current that magnetizes
the magnet in here and pushes power to the capacitor which will then transfer power
all the way to your light using the provided cable. It's a really Sleek design there's no
friction from this design because it's a contactless design and ensure if
you always have light you never have to worry about a battery or recharging anything.
Now let's go over the installation of the tail light. What you want to do is take off the bolt
that's provided with a bracket run the O-ring through it wrap it around your seat post and then
loop it back through. Now you can see it secures that on to it then you want to take the taillight
and slide it through these two holes on there
then you can run the bolt through it to secure it in place. Here you can see you can adjust the
light angle by just adjusting it before you tighten it down all the way
and then you can see it's nice and secure. I also have the cable already attached so make sure you
firmly press it all the way in so it's fully in contact. Now let's install the dynamo it has to
be installed within two millimeters of your aluminum rim to generate the Eddy currents.
So you want to place this onto your seat stays you can place it forward or backward as long as
that target symbol is facing the aluminum rim and centered on it. So for me it makes more sense on
the drive side and the mount on here is actually really cool it's a wire built into the unit itself
so you just wrap it around and then try to get it through. Once you have that you want to position it
at a proper height and then just tighten it using the provided tool within this little slot so it's
a little Allen key so if you do lose the tool it doesn't really matter you can use any Allen Keys
just a little more convenient as you tighten it down it will pull tension on the cables
and then secure it in place. It also has a ball and socket design so you can see you can rotate this
whatever angle you need once you have it tightened also note you want to make sure the cabling
doesn't get stuck in your wheel so that's where you can use the zip tie or just loop it around
your seat stays as I've done here just to keep it out of the way. Now let's set up the front so it's
pretty similar I'm going to install it on the head tube so again you're going to take the bolt add
a little plastic bracket and then we'll use the appropriate o-ring. There's different lengths so
you pick the one that works with your bike you can see nice and secure then I'll take the front light
again I'll go ahead and install the power cable push it all the way through again
and then position it on the front. Again you want to install the dynamo for the front each light
source takes its own dynamo and they both have the little targets on there so place a target centered
on your aluminum rim within the two millimeter distance you can position it any way you want.
Just make sure that Target is there so you can do a driver side non-driver side forward or backwards.
I'm going to do it backwards and then wrap it all the way around you can loosen the cable using the
provided tool and that slot again so I'll loosen it to get some more cable tension out of there
wrap it around the fork until you have enough slack to actually get it in there.
Once you have it at the approximate angle you want you just tighten it down
and again this has the ball and socket design so you can adjust the angle.
To verify everything is correct what you want to do is fit you with the position until you see the
lights turn on solid after some motion so you can see once I'm running this it goes solid so that
means I have the placement correct. If you don't see that you want to adjust that position until
it's almost touching and then back it off and keep it centered when you stop moving it should also
flash once it happens has enough battery capacity in it so repeat that for the front and rear
and this part does take a little bit of time so be prepared to take a little time
so you can see here this one actually works quite well so it's solid when you
stop it just blinks indicating that it has a little battery capacity but you're not moving.
Reelight rates the Nova front as 150 lumens and the rear as up to 60 lumens at maximum output more
realistically. You should expect 20 to 30 lumens that's about 10 miles an hour as you can see
here you do see it in Shady path but it is not a daytime visible light and as you can see there are
no controls on the light once you start riding it will go solid and if you come to a stop as you can
see here it will go into the flashing mode using the stored power in the capacitors on each of the
dynamos. Its a really cool feature and that ensures you are a visible even when you're not moving these
are definitely not a very bright light though so I highly recommend using battery powered
lights if you're on darker Trails but they're a great secondary light to keep you visible.
Now lets compare the Nova lights and other lights on the market. Obviously these being a battery
free design they're much different form factor with large reflectors built in while traditional
lights have COB LEDs with no reflectors and they simply rely on the built-in battery.
You can see the size of these are very similar this is the Knog traffic with really cool designs
and different modes. You have a power button in different modes to choose from with the USB
Port actually built into it so you can see almost the same size and it has the battery integrated
while the Reelight obviously has a dynamo and then the taillight itself but just a two-piece design
with the Reelight Nova I really recommend using these as secondary lights and then
still using traditional tail lights whether it's the Knog or
something like the Magicshine 200. This has 200 lumens versus the 20 to 30 of the Nova
and then again using the Nova as a backup light so you always have something visible and then extra
visibility at night because you have reflectors. With all the traditional tail lights there is no
reflective elements in here so once the battery dies you're out of luck so with this you always
have something visible so whether your bike is parked you can be sure that you'll be visible.
The Bullet 200 is also an interesting one you can see similar round form factor but again
with all the built-in batteries you get a lot more creative modes and then you just have to
make sure to recharge it as they all have a basic low battery status indicator.
Now let's go over the pros and cons for the Reelight Nova. What we like about them is that
is a battery free design. You don't have to worry about recharging batteries replacing them it's
always ready to go you also have integrated large reflectors which is a rare feature on
a bike light and ensures your bike is visible even when it's parked. You also have the ReePower Flash
which keeps the lights on even when you're at a stop sign or stop light for up to two minutes.
Some of the cons for the Nova the fact they do have limited output.
You can achieve up to 150 lumens on the front and 60 on the rear but requires riding pretty
fast which is why I highly recommend using these as secondary lights and using brighter battery
powered lights for darker Trails. Also the Dynamo installation requires specific spacing so you want
to ensure they are within two millimeters of your rim and they can slightly move over time so you do
have to adjust them as needed. Taking everything into account would give the Nova a 9.1 out of
10. These are clever battery free lights that you can just install on your bike and then forget about it.
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