There's so many bike lights out there for cyclists it can be hard to know where to start! In this video Sam, breaks down everything you need to know about bike lights and what you should be looking for. It's important that we as cyclists get seen, so, ensuring you have the right lights for your riding is important especially when it can be the difference between seeing where you are or aren't going! We look at the different light requirements between road, gravel, commuting and mountain biking and tell you exactly what you need to have for those different types of riding.
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00:00As the temperature drops and the evenings draw in, one of the most important things
00:04you need to be thinking about when riding outdoors is how visible you are. Which is why today
00:10I'm going to run you through everything you need to know and everything you need to be thinking
00:14about when buying a brand new set of lights. As with any question in cycling, it's always
00:27going to depend on a number of factors but the first and most important is what type of cycling
00:33are you doing? If you're riding on the road in unlit areas then you're going to need a front
00:39light with a minimum of 500 lumens and a rear light of a minimum of 30 lumens. If you're riding gravel
00:46you will need a bare minimum of 800 lumens on the front and if you're mountain biking then you would
00:51need a minimum of 1000 lumens. Lastly, if you're commuting and you're mainly riding in areas that
00:59are lit up then a set which has around 200 lumens on the front and again 30 lumens on the rear will
01:05be absolutely fine. Matching how bright the lights are to the riding you're doing is the first and
01:12absolutely the most important step in figuring out which lights are going to be best for you.
01:18Everything beyond here is very much about refining what's important to you and how you want to
01:23interact with your lights. Now of course with additional features comes ease of use and extra
01:29layers of safety but it's also worth mentioning that not all lumens are created equally so be sure
01:35to watch on and find out where you should be spending your money.
01:44As I said the lights on the market today often have a whole raft of features and one of the best
01:49known brands to innovate and incorporate the latest and greatest tech is Lezyne. So I have a rather nice
01:56range of their offerings here to help me showcase what you should be looking for if you were to buy a set
02:01of lights. Now if you want any of the details of any of the lights that you see in the video today
02:05then I have linked them all down in the description below. Like most electronic devices these days smart
02:12features can now be found in lights and it does make for a much easier way to interact with them. For
02:18example with Lezyne smart connect you can now link both front and rear lights together. Now this means
02:25that you only have to use the one control button to control both lights and not only that but you can
02:31now control both lights via a smartphone app so you can really get into the detail and really refine
02:37how you want your lights to be set up. Now this does make it so much easier to switch between modes
02:43on the fly and it puts an end to fumbling around with your rear light when you're just trying to ride along.
02:49Lezyne also features race mode which allows you to toggle between the brightest overdrive setting
02:57and the dimmer economy setting and a feature like this is really useful for maybe when you're out
03:02riding on the trails you're waiting for your mates to catch up you can just drop it down onto that lower
03:06setting and save a little bit of battery life before popping it back onto that brightest setting before
03:11you hit the next run. Alternatively it can be really useful for commuters so that you can drop it
03:17down onto that dimmer setting so that you don't dazzle other road users and maybe when they've
03:21passed you can then step it back up to that brightest overdrive setting. Finally one last feature which
03:28i think is absolutely crucial on any new light anyone buys is actually just making sure that the batteries
03:34are rechargeable. Most brands and most lights out there are usb rechargeable there's only a couple of
03:41brands out there that have their own proprietary charging system but the point still stands.
03:46Disposable batteries are very much a thing of the past.
03:55Since there are so many lights on the market it needs to be clarified that they do different jobs.
04:00Some lights are great to be seen by and others will allow you to see where you're going. For
04:05commuters and riders who ride in lit areas or maybe just on those shorter journeys then a set which allows
04:11you to be seen by other road users will suffice. Now to determine the difference anything below a 200
04:17lumen light on the front would constitute a light to be seen by. Any rear light over 30 lumens would
04:24also get you seen but we recommend a rear light which is over 50 lumens for maximum visibility. To allow
04:31you to see where you're going when cycling on the road you would want a minimum of 500 lumens and as i said
04:36previously you'd want a minimum of a thousand when you're off-road.
04:46Something which has become abundantly clear in the automotive industry in recent years is the
04:51standardization of daytime running lights and the logic perfectly translates to bicycles. More visibility
04:58of cyclists at any time of day is important especially as we're more vulnerable. Most lights will have
05:05several modes and for the daytime using a short flash will not only prolong the life of the battery
05:11but it will also help catch the attention of other road users without the risk of startling them. We'd
05:17recommend using a flashing mode for both front and rear lights to give yourself the best chance of
05:22being spotted by everyone around you. One thing we've noticed in recent years that's become quite
05:34popular is actually running two rear lights and it makes a lot of sense since they're behind you if one
05:39were to fail you may not know that you're actually riding without a light whereas running two massively
05:46negates this risk. Now as mentioned previously opt for 30 lumens or more and also consider how much
05:53light is escaping through the sides of the light. If you're riding on roads then having some form of
05:58side lighting will ensure the excuse of I didn't see you there isn't used and your side lighting can
06:05also be improved by the use of running two lights as you can point both of them at slightly different angles.
06:16Here in the UK the law stipulates that you must ride with a front and rear light when you're riding
06:22at night and this must be mounted centrally or to the offside and positioned up to one and a half
06:28meters from the ground and conform to British safety or EC standards. Over in the US the wording
06:35does vary from state to state but if you boil it down you must be riding with lights between sunrise and
06:42sunset or when you're in conditions of limited visibility. Essentially you must have a white
06:48light pointing forwards and a red light pointing backwards. It's the Germans who have the most
06:53stringent rules around the lights that you can fit to a bike. Any bike light must conform to the STVZO
07:00standard and any brand that sells such lights will signpost it very much like these ones from
07:06Lezyne where it clearly states at the bottom that they do. Lumens are used by the bike industry to
07:17measure the power of a light now a lumen being a single unit of visible light this was adopted by
07:24the industry when they started using LEDs rather than incandescent bulbs is measuring power in watts
07:31doesn't really make much sense for LEDs when they consume a fraction of the power the old bulbs used
07:37to. The more lumens the light has the faster it will burn through its battery this is also why lights
07:43have several modes so that you can decrease the brightness to conserve power. Of course using a
07:50device which has a lot of lumens will in theory create a lot of light but it's also important how
07:56the device emits the beam. If there's no spread of light then you'll end up with one very bright spot
08:02in front of you but then have very little light to cover the rest of the road. This is why Lezyne
08:08spends a whole lot of time working on their beam patterns to ensure that when you purchase a light
08:13with a lot of lumens the lumens are put to good use and they will be distributed in a way that it shows
08:19you everything in front of you. So there we have it that's everything you need to know and consider
08:25when buying a new set of lights for your bike. As I mentioned at the start if you want to find out
08:29more about the lights that I've shown you today they are linked down in the description box below.
08:34If you have any questions just drop them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them.
08:38If you enjoyed the video drop it a like, subscribe to the channel for more content
08:42and I'll see you again very soon!