Kip Reviews: Bike Lights

I hate to be the first one to tell you this, but our days are getting shorter, the evenings are crisper and the trails are emitting the undeniable crackle of fall. Nine months of winter are just around the corner. Until then, fortunately, we have a brief window of bug-less, amazingly beautiful riding.

The trouble is, it’s tough to fit that ride into our hectic schedules. For those of us who battle “the grind” until 5 or 6 every night, the only options for a trail ride is during the 30 minutes of daylight left at the end of the day. For anything longer than that, we’re going to need lights. Luckily, we at ORS have the best, most cost-effective lighting systems in stock that’ll blow away last year’s options!

NiteRider continues to dominate the lighting market

“Wait a minute!” you say, “I thought you told me the NiteRider MiNewt Cordless 250 was the best light out there for the price last year?” Well, you’re right, it was the best…last year.

We seem to be in a kind of Moore’s law period with LED and battery technology. Whereas Moore’s law refers to the historical trend of exponential gains in computer circuitry (thank you, Scott, for explaining Moore’s Law so we all know what’s going on). We’re experiencing a doubling of LED lumen output for the same price every year or two. For us bikers, that’s a really good thing.

Case in point: the aforementioned 2010 NiteRider Cordless 250 retailed for $130 and had an output of 250 lumens. This year, we’re stocking the MiNewt Cordless 350 light with 100 more lumens at $110! What’s more, the MiNewt Corldless 600 will be arriving shortly with 600 self-contained lumens at $150—pretty sweet.

If all this talk of “lumens” is making you all confused and a bit light-headed – let me try to simplify the jargon by giving you a few comparisons: your trusty Black Diamond Icon headlamp? That only sports about 90 lumens. Your old 2 AA halogen MagLite? Probably something like 40 lumens. That NiteRider Digital Evolution 15 watt light you still have kicking around somewhere? That was probably only about 200-300 lumens of a vastly different yellow light at three times the weight of the newer lights and almost twice the price. As Zach would say, “Are you smelling what I’m stepping in?” The newest crop of lights make night-riding just that much more fun, accessible and affordable for all.

In addition to the newer cordless NiteRiders, we’ll also be stocking the MiNewt Mini 300 USB Plus system. This resembles the classic lighting system most closely: the light mounts to your helmet and a cord either connects the battery pack to the back of your helmet or runs down to your hydration pack. If you’re looking for the lightest piece of hardware on your head and an option that allows you to keep the battery warm (therefore working more effectively) in your coat for winter use, this is an excellent light. Bonus: whereas last year’s version had 150 lumens at $120, we’re now looking at 300 lumens…for the same price!

New kid on the block: Serfas

NiteRider is a reputable company with a long history of making excellent bike lights. Are they the only ones doing it well? Absolutely not. There are many players and many doing it well. That brings me to company out of California called Serfas. Better known for their bicycle travel cases and saddles, Serfas is making waves with their own line of “True” rechargeable lights. We first saw picked up these babies earlier in the summer and have had excellent feedback. Their base model, the $85 True 150, boasts 150 lumens of output, comes with handlebar and helmet mounts and recharges in only 3.5 hours via USB port or wall charger. While 150 lumens is enough for trail riding, I’d say just barely. This light would be an excellent option for the rider on a budget, roadies with a penchant for evening rides or commuters. Serfas leaps to 250 lumens and then 500 lumens with their $110 and $150 models, the aptly-named True 250 and True 500.

 

Ok, so you’re smart, you’re doing the math and saying to yourself, “Hey, I thought he said these things were great? I’m running the numbers and these lights are equal in price to the two NiteRiders that he was talking about that have 100 lumens more each!? What does he think I am? A sucker?!” Touche. But what I haven’t mentioned yet is why these lights are so cool. We broke out our handy-dandy little gram scale (don’t ask) and discovered some interesting numbers. While the NiteRider 250 we have in stock (equal in size and weight to the new 350 and 600 models) weighs in at a respectable 202 grams with the helmet mount, the Serfas True 500 and mount tips the scales at 138 grams! “Is a difference of 64 grams actually significant? Don’t my fingernail clippings weigh more?” you ask. First off, no, you’re fingernail clippings don’t weight more (they weigh 8 grams) and, second, 64 grams perched on the top of your head is significant. That was the one flaw in the NiteRiders that we discovered after thrashing them in porcupine-infested woods last fall: a few grams on your head makes a difference, especially when bouncing down the rocky, rooty, twisty singletrack of Vermont. Also, the True 150, 250 and 500 lights come with a replaceable Lithium-Ion battery pack. No, that doesn’t mean that Serfas is planning on the batteries prematurely dying on you. They just wanted to make it easier to carry a couple extra batteries for those epic night rides and endurance races. At $30 per pack (interchangeable amongst the three models), that’s awesome. Thanks, guys.

My advice? Give up the 100 lumens extra that each of the NiteRiders give you over the comparable Serfas models (I challenge you to come in and differentiate between the two, anyway!) and go for the lighter weight True lights. If you’re a handlebar mount kind of rider, you absolutely must have that 100 lumens or are a die-hard NiteRider fan, go for it. The NiteRiders are still super-solid and worth the cash. But I’ll take that weight savings and run with it any day.

Either way you go, the next time you leave your night-riding friends in the dust or narrowly escape the dreaded face-full-of-bark, feel free to come in and thank me…with beer.