Light & Motion Vis 180 rear light

We reviewed Light and Motion's Vis 180 a couple of years ago and liked it. Since then, it has shed some weight, gained even more lumens and still costs a lot.

The Vis 180 is a (micro)USB rechargeable rear light that is seriously bright, and is visible through 180 degrees. It achieves this through two dedicated amber LEDs pointed to the sides, as well as obviously the main red rear facing light.

In the product video (http://vimeo.com/13816382), Light and Motion reckon that the Vis 80 delivers 10 times the light output to its closest tail light competitor. While I have neither the resources or the inclination to verify that, I will say that it's VERY bright. Easily the brightest rear light I've ever used (though I haven't been able to compare with an Exposure Flare, which was suggested in the comments when we reviewed it last). I'll go out on a limb here and say that it's not as a bright as a Hope District +, going by our review of an earlier version of that - the Hope is a chunk more expensive and to be fair isn't the kind of AA light that Light & Motion are making their comparisons with.

The main red rear-facing light has 4 modes which you cycle through with a single button: steady (50 lumens), high pulse (50 lumens), low pulse (25 lumens) and paceline (5 lumens). The latter only gives you side visibility, and switches off the main rear red light - so as not to blind whoever is sucking your wheel. Stated battery life is 4 hrs, 6 hrs, 12 hrs and 20 hrs minimum. My unscientific test of fully charging it, switching it on in steady mode and timing how long it takes before it switches itself off suggests that these are pessimistic times. I got nearly 6 hours out of a full charge on steady - only fair to say that was at room temperature.

The rear lights battery status indicator (found at the bottom of the light) is described as "novel" in the product video, claiming it's a "true" indicator. I found it pretty useful in any case. As the guy in the video says, if you're in high pulse mode, a green status tells you that you have 6-8 hrs of battery life left, on amber that's 4-6 hrs, red means 2-4 hrs and when it starts flashing red you've got less than 2 hrs left and it's time to find that microUSB cable to charge the Lithium-Ion battery, which takes around 5 hours.

A micro-USB cable is included in the box, but not a wall mount. Chances are you've got one of those kicking around anyway.

The mounting system is tool-free and consists of a mounting bracket with a rubber strap that goes around the seat post. The light then clicks on to this; you can adjust the angle of the light so that it's perpendicular to the road by holding down the little red button on the side of the light. According to the website, you can buy a rack mount. At nearly 100 quid, I would have liked to have seen that included.

The manual states that the light can also be clipped in to the little strap you find on many seat packs and saddle bags. I tried this on a Topeak medium saddle pack; sadly the light wasn't there anymore when I arrived at my destination. That's seriously not funny if you've spent all those notes.

At the risk of going on about it, while the light itself is excellent, out of the box it can only reliably be mounted to the seatpost. That's a serious limitation to me, on my bikes there's a saddle pack in the way.

The light is rated to IP65, which means "totally protected against dust and can withstand low-pressure jets of water from all directions - with limited ingress acceptable". Translated: is fine with rain.

Verdict

An impressively bright light at a pretty impressive price; let down for me by its mounting hardware.