One23 Extreme Bright Quatro 1600 front light

The One23 Extreme Bright Quatro 1600 front light is an extremely bright handlebar light with a separate battery pack and a mains charger. It's easy to control and has good battery life, but its dazzling beam intensity and limited side visibility make it more suitable for quiet lanes or trail use. However, the handlebar clamp is barely robust enough for constant rough trails mountain bike use.

One23 produces a wide variety of lighting systems for both road and off road use. The Quatro 1600 is a step down from the top of the range, dual beam Duo 2000, which costs £20 more. The numbers refer to the lumen output. It's a good enough light for clearly picking out surface obstacles on rough roads and trails, but opinion will divide about its suitability for regular road rides.

The beam intensity is enough to dazzle those coming the other way, depending on its positioning on your handlebar, and there are no side-on visibility windows.

The light and handlebar clamp weigh 170g together and the handlebar clamp is easy to use, with a thumbwheel for tightening and spacers on the inside of the ring bracket for different bar widths. The top of the clamp has a ratcheted swivel adjustment so that you can set the light at different angles, but it's hard to get the handlebar bracket tight enough for it to take the regular jolts of mountain bike use on rough trails without it shifting position from time to time. It's fine on the smoother sections of trail and on the road.

The battery pack is a separate unit weighing 370g. Connecting wires between the battery pack and the light are long enough for you to attach the battery to the underside of your top tube or stem with its wide and secure Velcro strap. It's block shape is not designed for curved tubes but it stays put and does the job. An adjustable head strap and battery to light extension wire are included for helmet torch use. The strappage is designed to loop through helmet vents and inevitably it works better on some helmets than others.

The plus side of a big powerful battery is long run time. Four hours full beam is claimed. I was getting just over three hours, but as you don't actually need full beam in most scenarios this can extend to a full night of use on the lower beam settings. There are high, middle and low beam settings plus three flash modes and a gradual dimming function via the big, and usefully illuminated, green buttons on the back of the light. On full charge the buttons glow green, then go through blue to red to flashing red to let you know how much battery power is left. They're easy to use wearing gloves too.

So far, the light has remained rain-tight. The beam uses four high power white cree LED bulbs and you don't notice any delineation between the direct spot and flood aspects of the very impressive amount of thrown light. Charging is very straight-forward with the supplied charger, but you need to be aware that long periods of use without charging will reduce battery life. You're advised to charge and run down the battery several times when you use the light for the first time, and when using it again after periods of non use.

In summary, a bright dependable light that will almost certainly attract off road riders more than road riders. Superb beam strength for dark lanes though.

Verdict

Bright dependable light with superb beam strength for dark lanes but lacks side-visibility for round-town.

The light comparator

If you have a nice big screen you can click here for the widescreen version (1400x1000px)