BIKE LIGHTS

Bike lights are vital for cranking up your safety through winter. We test four…

- JAMES WITTS

It raining through winter brings its own unique set of challenges: lack of motivation, cold weather, rain and less daylight. Those last points are vital ones, as they mean you’re likely to be cycling in low visibility conditions. In these times, it’s incredibly important you take the right steps to see and be seen. While high-vis clothing will help somewhat with the latter, a set of bike lights is essential.

With that in mind, we’ve sent our tester out into the dark, gloomy wilds of South Gloucestershire to investigate which set of lights are best suited to lighting your way this winter. But what do you need to consider when purchasing bike lights? Well, it depends on where you’ll be cycling. In urban areas, the lights need to make sure you’re seen by other road users. Elsewhere, they’ll need to illuminate the way ahead of you.

Aside from that, other things you’ll want to consider include ease of use, how simple the lights are to mount, battery life, durability, value, whether or not they’re rechargeable, how many different settings are available and any extra useful features. This was the criteria we used when reviewing the bike lights in this test and you can read the results on the opposite page.

TOPEAK HEADLUX 450 USB AND TAIL LUX