RSP Asteri 6 twin-head LED front light

RSP, Raleigh's product arm, make some very decent lights. Star among them is the excellent Asteri 3 so we were hoping the Asteri 6 would be twice as good. It's not though: the build quality lets it down a bit but the major problem is the beam pattern.

In the box you'll find a rechargeable Li-Ion battery and charger, and two light heads that attach to your bars with rubber straps. It's not the most secure way of fixing a light and they were prone to a bit of movement over rough stuff. You can adjust the beam from side to side if you have swept bars, but only if you're lucky, as the positions on the ratchet are too far apart.

Build quality is a let down compared to the Aluminium chunkiness of the Asteri 3. Everything's a bit shiny plastic, and though we didn't have any water ingress during testing the LED on the battery looks a bit of a weak point, just poking through the cover without any obvious sealing.

Turn the lights on full (they have two settings, full and flashing) and you'll be impressed: they're certainly bright. However, the beam is much, much too narrow. To put it in perspective, at the central point they're not far off the power of Exposure's mighty Six Pack, but even halfway to the edge of our testing arc - just 15 from centre - they're putting out less than a Knog Boomer. There's no peripheral light for spottig potholes at your wheel or picking lines round corners, which is continually annoying and sometimes dangerous.

There's no getting round this, really. You could use one head as a helmet light where the narrow beam isn't such an issue, but there's plenty of cheaper ways of achieving that. Where price is concerned you can have a set of these for around £90, a lot less than RRP. Even at that money, though, they're difficult to recommend. Burn time is a couple of hours on full down to absolutely ages with one light on flashing.

Verdict

Super bright lights but the beam is too narrow and the build a bit plasticky