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road.cc front bike lights Beam Test 2024/25 — our big Beam Comparison Engine is live to help you choose the best front light for your riding

The clocks have gone back, so we've added another 35 lights to the road.cc Beam Comparison Engine. Compare the output, beam shape and strength to help you pick the right bike light for you

Here we go again! The clocks have gone back in the UK, it's dark before teatime and we’ve flipped the switch on the latest version of our famous(ish) road.cc front light Beam Comparison Engine to help you choose from the best bike lights (or more specifically the best front bike lights) for your riding.

The above video is from 2022, but all the info is still relevant

The big Beam Comparison Engine: an introduction

The beam test is now an annual tradition at road.cc Towers, which sees Dave and Oli head to a pitch black country lane with a bunch of snacks and Manny the mannequin to get photographs of all the beams in the test, before Dave locks himself in the shed for a few hours to plot shapes and make some graphs.  

Our beam test comparison data contains beam shots and data for 35 lights this year, and also includes historical data going back to 2015. That's quite a lot of lights, so you can directly compare hundreds of lights with one another. After it, we'll take a brief look at the various options in lighting technology and explain how we collect and express the data.

If you're looking for more detailed recommendations, be sure check out our guides to the best front bike lights and best bike lights (front and rear) with more buying advice and links to reviews of all the products that have made it in. While our reviewers reference the beam test where possible and compare to similar lights when scoring, beam shape and brightness isn't the be-all and end-all, and it's important to consider other practicalities like run time, modes, size, and mounting. Between this feature and our buyer's guides, hopefully there's plenty of info to help you make a more informed choice before choosing your ideal front light. 

...anyway, back to the beam testing. If you have a nice big screen you can click here for the widescreen version (1400x1000px), and you'll need to be on a desktop computer or tablet to view properly. 

This year's lights – what have we learned?

Although some manufacturers try and update their lights every year, there are plenty of lights in this year's selection that are a few years old. Niterider and Ravemen both have lights that are still current and have been in the range for a few years. There's nothing wrong with that: they're good lights. Other lights have been updated: Cateye's range is all-new this year, for example. When we started collecting this data eight or nine years ago the pace of change was brisk; it's slowed a bit now, but lights are still getting better.

We've got some enormously powerful lights in this line-up – mostly for the sheer hell of it – but really they're for off-road use and not designed for your road bike. At the top end of road (or all-purpose) lights, about 2,500 to 3,000 lumens is where we're at now, and that's more than you'd ever need for a road ride. I'm pegging the optimum high beam for a road light at no more than about 1,600 lumens, especially if the light features a lens that flattens off the beam so less of it is going into the sky and more on the road.

Every year there are some "German beam" SvTZO-compliant lights in the mix; this time it's the Magicshine lights. Although this particular mix of lights doesn't have any more SvTZO-beam units than previously, I think the tide is turning to a certain extent: Lezyne has been making them for the European market for many years, but for the first time they're showing up on the UK distributor's website. We'll try and get one in for testing. Even so, it's more likely your bike light will either have a basic round beam, or it'll use some kind of refractive lens to shape the output a bit and maximise the illumination. Ravemen, Gaciron and Moon for example all have lights with refractive lenses.

LED technology and battery technology continues to improve incrementally behind the scenes, and the improved efficiency means improved runtimes for the same output. These days it's not hard to find a small torch-style light that'll run all night, on a beam setting that'll allow you to ride at a decent pace. If you'd offered 25-year-old me that when I was getting about an hour of usable light out of my Lumicycle system with its chunky battery pack and bulb straight out of your bathroom ceiling, I'd have bitten your hand off. You've never had it so good, kids.

> Do you remember Ever Ready bike lights? 

As we've said for a few years in a row now, the trend is still heading towards brighter and brighter lights; or at least, the most powerful settings on a lot of our selections are super bright, and more than you'd ever need on a road ride. 

The move to USB-C from Micro-USB for charging is continuing to gain pace, with almost all the brighter lights now charging with USB-C. Shorter charge times, a double-sided design and more widely-spaced contacts arguably makes USB-C better than Micro-USB for charging bike lights, so this steady evolution is a welcome one. 

How we collect beam data

We've collected lots of beam data so you can compare and contrast the different lights. Light manufacturers use a number of different metrics to describe light output. We've used lux here, but measured at a number of points across the width of the beam. That gives an indication of the brightness of the beam at the centre, the amount of peripheral light and the throw of the beam. We think that's the most useful measurement to compare directly. Specifically, we measured the lux value of the beam at two metres distance, in 10cm increments from the centre of the beam to 1m from the centre, giving eleven readings.

We've also included data on the shape of the beam, by taking a picture of each beam with the camera in the same position. Wider beams should appear wider, and if a beam isn't round you should be able to see what's going on with the shape.

To get a good idea of what each beam looks like, we set up a bike on a rig so that we could photograph the beams of all the different lights in a comparable way. Each of the beam shots was taken using the same settings on the camera: 28mm (effective 45mm), shooting for 1s at f29 on ISO6400, if you fancy doing some of your own. They're as directly comparable as they can be. If one looks brighter than another, that's because it was. Manny the high-vis-wearing mannequin is at 10m (the cones are 2m apart) and the car is 20m away.

Although we use the same piece of road every year, it's very hard to make the beam shots directly comparable to other years. The camera is never quite in the same place, and weather conditions vary: this year's shots are on a wetter road than last year, so there's less reflected light and the images appear darker for the same brightness of light. So the only directly comparable shots are the ones taken in the same year. 

A word about logs

The graph displaying the beam data uses a logarithmic scale to display the output of the lights. If you understand or care about such things, here's why:

First, light beams follow an inverse square law regarding the strength of the light at increasing distance, because they're illuminating a two-dimensional plane. So at twice the distance, the light beam is spread over four times the area. Consequently, a light that is measured as twice as bright at its centre won't let you see twice as far. The logarithmic scale produces a more realistic visual comparison because of this.

Second, the variations in the amount of peripheral light, though much smaller than the variations in the centre, make a big difference to how much peripheral vision you get. The logarithmic scale amplifies these differences relative to the centre of the beam, so it's easier to see which unit is putting out more light at the sides.

And finally…

As we've already mentioned, bear in mind that having a very bright beam isn’t the whole story when it comes to deciding how good a bike light actually is. There are loads of other factors to take into consideration when it comes to finding the best light for the cycling you do, such as runtime, durability, ease of recharging, weather sealing, how good the clamping mechanism is... the list goes on. It is a start, though.

Any of these lights we haven't already reviewed in full will be getting sent off to road.cc reviewers very soon. Our road.cc light beam comparison engine is pinned to the top of our features section, and lives on the road.cc homepage throughout the winter. It's also linked in both our bike lights and front bike lights buyer's guides.

Contributions from Dave Atkinson

Jack has been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of the website including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named Editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master's degree in print journalism and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it's a long story). 

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20 comments

Avatar
Robert Hardy | 1 week ago
3 likes

Motorists can quite rightly be prosecuted for failing to dip headlights and will fail an MOT for incorrectly adjusted beam angle. I have been completely blinded on the East London bike super highway by oncoming bikes, particularly with very bright flashing front lights. This trend to ever brighter front lights on the road is deeply antisocial and there is much to be said for the German regulations on beam intensity and shape.

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to Robert Hardy | 1 week ago
1 like

Arms race - the visual environment has become brighter in urban areas at least and there's more motor traffic.  Have car lights got brighter (that should have made cycle lights less important if so)?

Also "because we can" e.g. lights have got far brighter for given weight (don't mention the Everyready ...) - so why wouldn't people with a bit of cash get one that goes up to 11?

Horses for courses with lights.  Being seen and seeing are different applications.  Also with cycle lights being points we're at a disadvantage compared to motor vehicles.  With those you've got two lights with separation so you can gauge distance.  Cyclists?  I know at least one's out there (perhaps they have multiple lights) but I've no idea how far they are.

Avatar
TimPedaller replied to chrisonabike | 1 week ago
0 likes

When driving back into town after dark this evening I found myself behind a man on a bicycle which looked like a Brompton, with just it's factory-fitted low power pin-point rear light, about 17" above the road. He was wearing black and dark grey clothes and a black helmet... almost invisible! This is why I wear a factory type hi-vis vest - some people say it has no 'style' but if the cars around me have their ultra bright headlights on, it's wide reflective strips mean they can SEE ME.

Avatar
mdavidford replied to Robert Hardy | 1 week ago
1 like

Minor correction:

Robert Hardy wrote:

and will should fail an MOT for incorrectly adjusted beam angle.

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ChasP replied to Robert Hardy | 1 week ago
0 likes

Several of the lights listed have high and low beams. Having used lights in the past with only a low beam I find a powerful high option useful for dips in the road, fast descents and car drivers who think there's no need to dip their headlights for a cyclist. I'm a bit frustrated that the comparison here doesn't show both settings. Lights with dip and main should have 2 entries.

Avatar
TimPedaller | 1 week ago
0 likes

May I add a couple of relevant thoughts?

I ride as much as I can on roads for pleasure and as physio for a damaged leg and drive a small car (Kia Picanto) when I have to. Most bike handlebar lights are close to car drivers' eye level, so I make make sure my Nitecore BR35 front light is angled downwards (not horizontally forwards) to avoid dazzling or temporarily blinding oncoming car drivers.

Whenever I ride I wear a factory-style hi-vis vest or jacket - unlined, with reflective bands on the sleeves - to be seen in daylight, obviously, and because the wide reflective strips reflect cars' and vans' headlights very effectively. The newer LED lights are increasingly bright, so I think "Use them" - reflect their light back to the drivers.

Avatar
mdavidford replied to TimPedaller | 1 week ago
2 likes

TimPedaller wrote:

May I add a couple of relevant thoughts?

Heretic!

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chrisonabike replied to mdavidford | 1 week ago
1 like

There's an article??

Avatar
AndyPara | 1 week ago
1 like

Grouping the lights by year makes finding a specific model very hard - particularly if, as I suppose is the case for most of us, you have no idea which year your model came out.

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quiff replied to AndyPara | 1 week ago
0 likes

Very hard? Sort the list by name, there's only a few from each brand in each model year. Makes sense to me to group them so that (a) you know which photos were taken when (and so are directly comparable); and (b) you have some idea of which lights are still on sale - there's not much point in me comparing a Volt and Blinder from 2015 if I'm trying to find a new light now.

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ChasP replied to quiff | 1 week ago
1 like

Useful having the older lights listed as you may want to compare your current light (bought a few years ago) with a potential replacement.

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Sriracha | 1 week ago
0 likes

Can anyone get this "beam engine" to work on mobile?

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ktache replied to Sriracha | 1 week ago
1 like

I can't get the slidey thing to work on my tablet.

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mdavidford replied to Sriracha | 1 week ago
4 likes

I wouldn't have thought of a beam engine as something that would normally be that mobile, to be fair.

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chrisonabike replied to mdavidford | 1 week ago
7 likes

Watt are you talking about? Are you newcomen to this site?

Avatar
belugabob replied to chrisonabike | 1 week ago
2 likes
chrisonabike wrote:

Watt are you talking about? Are you newcomen to this site?

Is that all you've got, or are you building up a head of steam?

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to belugabob | 1 week ago
2 likes

I could Boulton some more puns but I'd just be compounding, which would come to McNaught.

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mdavidford replied to chrisonabike | 1 week ago
3 likes

Have you pumped the well dry, or is the pressure just getting to you?

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Rendel Harris replied to mdavidford | 1 week ago
3 likes

I think he may be having an attack of the vapours.

Avatar
TimPedaller replied to chrisonabike | 1 week ago
2 likes

McNaught? Are you telling Whoppers?

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