7 Best Bike Light Sets on Amazon

You don’t need to use StVZO-approved lights anywhere other than Germany, but an StVZO light could be a good idea if you ride solely on the road. These lights are common on bike-share bikes and popular on town and touring bikes because they will never run out of charge. Many of the best cycling lights will have reflectors or lens elements that alter the distribution of the light, so it’s either focused, wide or a combination of both.

In the majority of cases, the output of StVZO lights is measured in Lux rather than Lumens. Lux is used because it’s a measure of how much light is projected onto a surface (called luminance), whereas lumens simply refers to how much light can be produced. An ideal solution is to have a high intensity ‘be seen’ beam at night, bolstered by a smaller light with a flashing pattern. Some lights have this system built in, with a constant beam that also flashes with a high intensity blip. There are seven modes on offer, and remembering which one you want takes a bit of dialling in. ReAKT is the first, and that means the Boost-R automatically adjusts the brightness depending on the ambient lighting.

Do you need different types of lights whether you are commuting or on trails?

We recommend reaching for a light set with a high lumen count so that you can capture the attention of both motorists and pedestrians during at all times of day. Light sets are often packaged together with stronger headlights than taillights, so consider the number of lumens each light can produce when buying a set for yourself. When a taillight’s lumen count isn’t listed on a product description, it should be assumed that it’s fairly weak.

Exposure Blaze Mk3 Reakt + Peloton – best performance rear light

• On top of that, there’s a battery save mode that provides an additional 30 minutes of run time when the battery reaches 5% left of its life.
• Choose between red, green, blue, purple, yellow and white settings, or opt for the Disc-O mode and light up the night with flashing rainbows.
• Some lights are USB-rechargeable while others require replaceable batteries, though USB-rechargeable lights are more convenient.
• His collection of bikes is a real smorgasbord, with everything from vintage-style steel tourers through to superlight flat bar hill climb machines.

It also automatically adjusts its blinking pattern to alert drivers of your presence. In addition to the standard features, the Vya—a 50-lumen, USB-rechargeable taillight visible at just over half a mile and lasting up to eight hours on a full charge—does something not many others can do. It also helps that the battery is separate from the light itself which means you can bring multiple batteries and swap them out.

But drop it down to blast mode at 500 lumens and you get over 3 hours. Or you can ride a more normal low mode of 250 lumens (where most road-based front lights would sit) and you can ride for a full 5.5 hours with plenty of visibility. Anyone looking for a solid and easy-to-use light for commuting after dark would be hard-pressed to find a better Double O® deal than the Dash Pro. While not as bright as other lights on this list, the slew of modes and has, an easy-to-use mount, and a super-friendly price point make the Dash Pro our choice for the best bike light for the price. Our tester had the BC26R mounted on his mountain bike and grocery-getter and encountered zero issues with its performance.

Recently we have been introduced to the idea of using a rear bike light even in the daytime, because it will help drivers pick you out from behind. Though it’s unlikely, you won’t be quite so aware if your rear bike light fails as you would be in the case of a front beam, so having a back-up fitted can provide extra security and peace of mind. The rear light itself has four modes, but it will also automatically change its behaviour when it senses a car approaching from behind and will change its flash pattern to further alert the driver.

Specs aside, we mounted each light to our bikes and compared the actual user experience of clicking through light modes and riding at the maximum (and minimum) power levels. Mountain bikers, on the other hand, are more likely to prefer something with a taller, circular beam, to illuminate branches and other low-hanging trail obstacles not found on the road. And they will sometimes supplement that with a helmet-mounted light, for better depth perception.

If, like our tester, you prefer to run a different cycling computer for your setup, you’ll have to download the Varia app and use your phone to take full advantage of the radar feature. Of course, this means that you’ll also need a way to mount your phone to your handlebar if you don’t already have one. Lezyne is so close to hitting it out of the park with this light, but for now, the Macro Drive 1300XXL falls just a tiny bit short of the bleachers.