Budget vs Premium Bike Lights
Being safe and being seen on the roads should be a cyclists number one priority and that’s true all year round but especially in the dark winter months.
However, when it comes to choosing the right bike light, there’s a huge amount of options available, including difference in lumens, wearable options and much more.
However, when it comes to choosing the right bike light, there’s a huge amount of options available, including difference in lumens, wearable options and much more.
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SportsTranscript
00:00 [music] Being safe and being seen should be a cyclist's
00:13 top priority all year round, but especially in the darker winter months. Buying the right
00:19 set of bike lights is an absolutely essential purchase. However, when it comes to choosing
00:25 a bike light, there are loads of different options. There are differences in lumens across
00:30 bike light ranges, and there are also wearable options and ones that can be Bluetoothed together.
00:35 The buying process can really become a little bit confused. What should you prioritize and
00:40 how much should you spend? In this video, I'm going to tell you everything there is
00:44 to know about bike lights by comparing an entry-level set such as this to a top-end
00:50 set such as this. I'm going to touch upon things such as lumens and brightness, build
00:55 quality and design, and modes and battery life amongst many others. To help me do this,
01:01 I'm using a range of bike lights from CatEye. This is because they have an expansive range
01:06 that offers lights at every price point. It will be much easier to demonstrate exactly
01:10 what you get as you spend more money. Now, I'm going to primarily focus on the
01:15 front because that is where things change the most as you spend more cash. I'm going
01:20 to be focusing on this, which is the CatEye Volt 80 XC as an entry-level option for £19.99.
01:27 Then I'm going to compare it to this, which is the CatEye Amp 1 100, which costs a much
01:34 more premium £95. I will also talk about rear lights a little bit. I'm going to be
01:40 focusing pretty heavily on this, which is the CatEye Omni Free, which costs £12.99.
01:46 Now, I'll be comparing it to this, which is the CatEye Rapid X Free, which costs £50.
01:52 So, there's a pretty big difference in price there as well. So, with all of that aside,
01:58 let's get into it.
01:59 [Music]
02:12 So, when we talk about a bite light's brightness, we're typically referring to the amount of
02:16 lumens it outputs. Now, we typically break down bite lights into two different categories.
02:22 You'd have a 'be seen' category and a 'to see by' category. Now, the 'be seen' category typically
02:29 outputs smaller amounts of lumens. A great example would be this Volt 80 XC that outputs,
02:35 as the name suggests, 80 lumens. We typically consider this suitable for riding in well-lit
02:40 areas where you want to catch the eye of other road users to keep yourself safe,
02:45 maybe when you're riding home from the office or riding around town.
02:49 In comparison, top-end bite lights will typically output much higher levels of lumens. And something
02:56 like this, the CatEye AMP 1-100, outputs, as the name suggests, 1100 lumens, which is easily enough
03:04 to see with if you're riding in unlit areas such as the countryside. Now, as you might expect,
03:12 the more money you spend, typically, the higher number of lumens you'll get from a bite light.
03:17 [Music]
03:21 However, a light's lumen output is really only one half of the story. The rest of it is,
03:27 how does the bite light actually use that brightness? And of course, I'm referring to
03:32 its modes. Now, an entry-level option will typically have fewer modes available to the
03:38 user. And something like this has just two, constant and flashing, both of which are set
03:43 at the maximum of 80 lumens. Typically, the more you spend, the greater the number of modes you
03:50 get from a bite light. And something like this AMP 1-100 gets five different modes, including
03:56 three different levels of constantly on, running from the top level of lumen output all the way
04:01 down to 400 lumens. As you spend more money, you are also more likely to get sophisticated
04:07 use modes. Now, something like this has a daytime running mode built into it, which is where it
04:13 flashes separately on a maximum amount of lumens, and then also on a lower amount of lumens. And
04:18 this is to be used in the daytime when it's bright and you need to draw the attention of other road
04:23 users. There's also a significant difference between battery life and runtime between an
04:29 entry-level model and a more expensive model. Now, you can typically expect anywhere between
04:35 one and a half hours to five hours on a cheaper bite light. And that's depending on whether you're
04:40 using it on constant or on flashing mode. So as you spend more money, typically your bite light
04:46 gets bigger and with a bigger bite light comes a bigger battery. Something like this has a runtime
04:52 of one and a half hours in its brightest mode of 1,100 lumens, and then it can run for an enormous
04:58 60 hours in flashing mode. Typically, across CatEye's range, depending on use, you'll get
05:04 roughly 50 to 60 hours of battery life. Again, battery life will be a big factor for you depending
05:10 on your riding style. If you're simply going to be riding into town or into street lights,
05:15 then a smaller option with a lower capacity battery might be better for you. However,
05:20 if you're going to be depending on your bite light to see by, then you're obviously going
05:23 to have to prioritize a larger capacity battery to make sure that you can always get home.
05:32 If I hold these bite lights up side by side, there's a clearly a massive difference in their
05:38 design. I've explained that they sit at the opposite end of the lumen output spectrum,
05:43 but how exactly does that change their build quality? Well, lower lumen light uses a plastic
05:50 casing and slightly different materials in its build. Higher lumen lights will have aluminium
05:56 bodies to better dissipate the greater amount of heat that they're generating. However, when you
06:00 get to top end lights, which are putting out a greater number of lumens, you might be getting
06:06 two different lamps built into it. Not only does this increase the light size, but it'll also
06:11 massively increase the amount of heat that the light creates. Now, CatEye have a trade-off
06:15 between this weight and cooling, and they build the front end of the AMP 1100 in an aluminium casing
06:22 and the rear end in a polycarbonate casing to help keep the weight down. Typically, if you're
06:27 looking to spend a lot of money on bite lights, you should be looking for something that offers
06:31 that different blend of materials, or you'll end up getting a bite light that either gets far too
06:36 hot when you're using it, or it weighs far too much when you put it on the bars on the front
06:40 of your bike. One of the main things about build quality that you might want to consider, depending
06:45 on the type of riding you're doing, is a bite light's weight. Now, sometimes you don't get that
06:49 much choice over it, and as you might expect, a lower lumen bite light is going to weigh a lot
06:55 less, with something like this in a plastic shell weighing just a few grams, all the way to the top
07:00 end, this half metal, half polycarbonate build weighing 200 grams. Now, a bite light's weight
07:07 will change across the range, depending on its lumen output, with the greater number of lumens
07:12 creating a bigger light, which is obviously going to weigh that bit more. There's going to be a
07:17 difference in quality of lenses from an entry level to a top-end model. What lens quality
07:23 affects is how a bite light uses the light that it has available to it. For example, does it spread
07:29 it very widely? Is it sort of curving or weaker at the edges? Or does it focus specifically on what
07:35 you want it to do in front of you? A lower lumen light is more likely to have a less sophisticated
07:41 lens because it costs less money, but also because it doesn't need to do as much with the light that
07:46 it's outputting. Whereas a 2C light, or a more expensive light generally, is going to have a more
07:53 sophisticated lens because you need it to be much more precise in what it's illuminating to you.
07:58 Really, it comes down to use case. If you're going to be riding in the pitch black and you
08:02 need to see with it, then go for something that has quality lenses and spend that extra cash.
08:08 Whereas if you're just riding in town, that might not be as much of a priority for you.
08:12 So a bite light's build quality and design will affect how you charge it as well.
08:17 Typically, there are three different ways to power a bite light. The first is using external
08:22 batteries, which is much less common on front lights and is rarely seen. The second is using
08:28 a rechargeable port, usually by micro USB or similar. And this is far more common, especially
08:34 as you spend more money on the light. Now, at a lower level, you might get something like this,
08:39 which is a USB stick stuck on the back of the light. Now, this could be quite useful to commuters
08:45 who typically use these lights to ride into the office or around town, and they might be sat at
08:49 their laptop and it's as simple as just plugging it in to the USB port to charge it up. However,
08:54 most of the differences between build quality and especially the size of the light is going to come
09:00 down to your use case. If you're just riding around town, then you're much more likely to stop
09:05 and take a light off, in which case a smaller light might be more suitable for you. Whereas
09:09 if you're using your light to see by and you're riding in unlit areas such as the countryside,
09:15 you're probably much less likely to stop and take the bite light off, at which point a larger light
09:20 is not going to be as much of a hindrance to you. Although it might not typically be your priority
09:29 when you're buying bite lights, we would actually urge you to take a closer look at how you mount
09:33 it to your bike because a light that's fiddly or frustrating to mount to your bike is one that you
09:38 are never really going to want to use. It also comes into play when you consider how large a
09:43 light is. Something smaller such as this Volt 80 XC requires a slimmer mount that can be twisted
09:50 around so you can kind of put it in different places on the bike, and it will only use little
09:55 rubber bungs to strap it to the bike. A heavier light is going to need a much more secure mounting
10:01 option. It typically will have a wider base plate to put on the bike and it will clip on
10:06 separately like so. So you can leave the mount on the handlebars when you want to get off the bike
10:11 and just slide the light off and take it with you. Now CatEye call their mounting system its flex
10:17 type mounting system and it's pretty smart because it can be designed in a way that you can use it
10:22 with aero bars or bars that aren't the traditional round shape. Now as you would expect you will
10:27 typically find this on slightly more expensive options and it's built in across the amp range
10:33 on all of their front lights. So that's everything there is to know about front lights and how they
10:42 change as you spend more money. But what is there to know about rear lights? Now I'm going to
10:48 demonstrate the key differences using this, the CatEye Omni Free and this, the CatEye Rapid X Free.
10:55 Now these sit at complete opposite ends of the spectrum and as you can see there are some pretty
11:00 significant differences in their design. For a little over £10 you'll get something like this,
11:06 the CatEye Omni Free. Now it uses three LEDs down the center and has just three different modes.
11:14 However what it does have is a humongous battery life boasting up to 200 hours. It's powered by
11:22 external AAA batteries which are easy to source but you do want to keep some on hand in case it
11:28 runs out. It's not as easy as just plugging it in to recharge. However rear lights do get more modes
11:34 and alternative functions as you spend more money and a lot of bike light companies have been
11:40 focusing on giving lights something called brake lighting which is just how it would work in a car.
11:45 So something like this, the Rapid X2 Kinetic has a built-in accelerometer which means the light gets
11:51 brighter as you come to a halt or if you're slowing down when riding along. Now this costs £39.99
11:58 so it is quite a premium feature. Finally at the top end you're going to get a good balance between
12:04 sleek design, form and function as well as multiple different modes and battery life.
12:09 This Rapid X Free costs £50 and it has six different modes including a smart group mode
12:16 which means it dims so as not to blind the rider behind you as well as a daytime running mode.
12:22 Really it comes down to exactly what you want the light to do. Do you want to fit it and forget
12:26 about it and have something that can run for up to 200 hours and never really leave you in the dark
12:32 or do you want something which is much fancier, has many different modes depending on the type
12:37 of riding you're going to do in which case a higher end more versatile option might be best
12:42 for you. So there you go, I hope that this video has helped you understand what you get from
12:48 bike lights as you spend more money and ultimately helped you understand whether you need to spend a
12:53 lot of money or a little money depending on the type of riding that you do. If you do have any
12:58 of the questions then please do leave them in the comments section below. Hit that like button if
13:03 you've enjoyed this video and don't forget to subscribe to the channel because it does really
13:07 help us out. Now I'll be back soon with some more great content and I'll see you then.