- You're going to be riding in the dark, you need lights.
But which lights do you need?
I mean, there's loads of different types out there,
varying from just a few pounds or dollars
right up to hundreds of your respective currency.
So in this video, I'm going to explain
all the different types of lights, the different features
that are on them, and what they're for,
so that you can best decide what kind of lights you need
for the riding that you do.
But before I do that, make sure that you subscribe to GCN
if you haven't already, and click the bell icon
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Firstly, we'd always recommend that you use
at least two lights.
A red rear one and a white front one.
This is actually the law in many countries
but irrespective of that, it'll just keep you safer.
And I said at least two because I'd recommend you use more,
and this is for a couple of reasons.
The first one is that if one of your lights fails
or the battery runs out, you've got a backup.
And the second reason is it'll just make you
even more visible to other road users, and therefore safer.
The next thing to be aware of is that front lights
fall broadly into two categories,
lights to be seen and lights to see with.
Rear lights aren't really used for seeing on bikes,
because, I mean well, no one really reverses on a bike.
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Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
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If you're going to be riding on lit roads
in an urban environment, then a light that enables
other people to see you, such as this one,
is going to be sufficient.
They're generally less bright but less expensive
than more powerful lights
that are designed to illuminate your path on unlit roads.
But how do you know how bright a light is?
Well the SI unit, lumens, is used to measure
how bright a light is and it's usually written
on the side of the box, but, "What is a lumen?"
I hear you ask.
Well.
The lumen is the SI derived unit of luminous flux,
which is the amount of visible light
given by a given source per unit of time.
Luminous flux differs from radiant flux
as radiant flux is the total light given
across all wavelengths, whereas luminous flux
is weighted towards the wavelengths that are visible
by the human eye.
And lumens are related to lux
in that one lux is one lumen per square meter.
So now you know.
Now to put that into context,
car headlights are typically 1 200 lumens.
The landing lights on a commercial jet
are around 5 500 lumens,
and the bat signal is 525 000 lumens.
Yep, I'm great fun at parties.
Now within the context of bike lights,
they typically range between 50 and 2 000 lumens.
And to-be-seen lights
are typically between 50 and 200 lumens.
I've got a couple of examples here.
So this is a front one from CatEye,
and on the back, I've got an exposure rear light as well
that's around 50 lumens.
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If you're going to be riding on unlit roads,
then I'd personally recommend
something around the 800 lumen mark at least.
You can go less bright, but ultimately,
you're going to feel safer and more confident
the more you can see.
This CatEye Volt is well, 800 lumens,
it says 800 on the side of it.
If you're going to be riding off-road,
then you're going to want brighter still,
starting at at least the 1 000 lumen mark and upwards.
So this a Topeak Cubi, about 1 200 lumens.
And this CatEye Volt, whopping 1 600 lumens on this one.
But be aware, if you do have a super powerful light,
tilt it downwards when on roads,
and maybe on a lower setting at times
as some car headlamps are 1 200 lumens when on full beam.
You don't want to blind the driver
of the 18-wheeler Mack truck
coming towards you at 60 miles an hour.
So things to look for on lights.
Firstly, flashing modes and different modes for the beam.
Now these are useful
because when you switch to a flashing mode,
it makes your battery last longer.
Also, if you've a got a super bright light, like this one,
then you don't need on super bright all the time.
So when you come on to a lit road,
you can switch to flashing mode and save your battery.
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Beam pattern visibility.
You don't want to be just visible directly head on
and directly from behind.
Consider lights that offer side visibility too,
or consider adding some additional lights
that offer some brightness from the sides.
This is because, it's unfortunate,
but most accidents tend to happen at junctions,
so this is important.
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It's also worth bearing in mind that some countries
apply strict restrictions to bike lights
based on the beam pattern.
Germany springs to mind first.
Even if you're not bound by law
to have certain types of lights, some are designed
to throw light really wide to illuminate off-road trails.
Again, meaning that they can dazzle oncoming road users.
Exposure's Strada lights have a beam pattern
modeled on a car's, and allow you to dip the beam
at the push of a remote button,
which could prove useful on unlit roads.
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The cheapest lights tend to have
changeable disposable batteries.
But personally, I'd recommend getting one with an in-built
USB-rechargeable battery.
This means that if you perhaps commute,
you're less likely to get caught out
because you can charge it at work
and make sure that it's always got juice.
And although they cost a little bit more initially,
over time, not having to constantly buy new batteries
makes them more cost-effective.
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Battery life.
Now bigger, more expensive lights
tend to have bigger batteries and last longer.
And make sure you pick a light
that has sufficient battery life for your planned ride,
and ideally longer.
This CubiCubi light from Topeak's really good,
because it has a modular battery that you can remove
and there's different sized ones too.
If you're out for epic, ultra-endurance rides,
you could always look at a dynamo front hub,
which generates electricity from the movement
of your front wheel, and allows you to charge
or just power some pretty hefty lights as you ride.
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Mounting options.
So lights can be mounted to bikes in different ways.
The two most common methods are either
with rubber straps like this, or with brackets like this.
And ideally, you want a light that's fairly easy
to remove and take off because if you're commuting with it,
you don't want to leave your light strapped onto your bike
while you go to work because,
undesirable, naughty people will probably steal it
if you leave it on.
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Being easy to remove and put back on
is also useful for taking off if you want to charge it.
If you're going to go for a bracket,
go for a good quality one like this
that's going to help hold it on securely.
Because a loose fitting one is really annoying,
because it'll create a rattle as you ride along.
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There's loads of different lighting options
out there these days.
My saddlebag even has a light built into it
and it's quite good for side visibility too.
You just press it like that.
How cool is that?
The final thing to consider
is where you're going to be mounting the light,
and what kind of bike you have,
making sure you get one that fits.
So for example, a lot of modern performance road bikes
now have fancy aerodynamic shaped handlebars
and seat posts.
And this can make fitting traditional lights
that rely on a round handlebar
or a round seat post problematic.
Fortunately, there are plenty of lights that work,
and I suggest going for something
with a stretchy rubber mount like this,
as that is generally fine at fitting on a non-round post.
Or you could go for an action cam style mount,
such as this on the Topeak light I've got on the front here.
Either way, there are loads of different products out there.
Just make sure you pick something that works for your bike.
Right, I hope you found this look at bike lights useful,
and I hope you've learned something.
And if you have, please give this video a thumbs up.
And if you'd like to head over to the GCN shop
and grab yourself one of the greatest hoodies
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And if you'd like to watch another video
on dynamo hubs, then click down here.