Bike Lights
Riding a bicycle on the road or trail can be dangerous enough during the day, but after dark, the risk factor is significantly increased. Bike flashlights are designed to both increases your visibility when riding at night and help you see the path ahead of you.
Here at FlashlightWorld, you will find several models of high-performance and safety-focused bike flashlights, but what model suits you better? Below, we’ve put together some key points to help you choose the right model for you.
Types Of LED Bicycle Lights
We carry three main types of bicycle flashlights in our store: High-output bike headlights, safety lights, and tail lights.
High-Output Bike Headlights are bright LED bicycle lights designed to be mounted in front of your bicycle, typically on the handlebar, and are powerful enough to illuminate the path in front of you after dark.
Safety Lights are similar to headlights, but they are only intended to make your bike more visible to motorists and pedestrians with whom you share the roads and walkways. These lights won’t have enough output to light up the path in front of you, but they will keep you visible.
Tail Lights are mounted to the rear of your bike to help you be better seen after dark. These lights are typically red in color to emulate the tail lights of cars and may come with either steady or flashing output modes.
Why Do You Need An LED Bicycle Light?
The main reason most customers choose to add an LED lighting to their bikes is for safety.
Adding a light to your bike greatly increases your chances of being seen by vehicles and pedestrians both day and night, which greatly reduces your risk of injury. Many cyclists also add high-output bike headlights to their bikes or helmets so they can clearly see the road or trail in front of them. If you’ve tried to ride in a remote area after the sun sets, you surely know what we’re talking about.
How Bright Should An LED Bicycle Light Be?
If you’re shopping for a safety light or tail light, nothing too powerful is needed. The actual rating in lumens may even not be listed on safety lights for that reason, but most of them operate somewhere between 2 and 10 lumens on a full charge, you won’t really need more than that.
For a high-output bike headlight, however, you’ll want to choose a light that produces at least 300 lumens on a medium setting and throws for at least 70 meters. By doing that, the runtime on the medium setting will be longer and, when needed, you always have the capacity of using the light on the higher settings. Visibility and lighting, check. Impressive runtime, check. Safety, check!
Riders who intend to use their bicycle flashlights for nighttime mountain biking use will want to consider lights that throw at least 100 meters ahead, to ensure they have plenty of time to see and react to the trail in front of them.
Other Features To Look Out For:
Dual distance beams are a great feature and utilize two separate LEDs to project light both immediately in front of the bicycle and on the path far ahead, eliminating the dreaded “dark spot” in-between.
Quick-release mounts are handy as well, allowing you to easily take your light with you when you leave your bike, eliminating the risk of theft or the need for hand tools.
Finally, many of the bicycle lights you’ll find in our store also come with the same high-quality waterproofing and super fast USB-charging ports as our handheld flashlights, both of which in our opinion, are indispensable features.