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review

Lezyne Strip Drive 150 Rear

7
£35.00

VERDICT:

7
10
Plenty of brightness and eye-catching modes for day and night use, for a decent price
Weight: 
61g

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Redesigned for 2019/20, the Lezyne Strip Drive 150 Rear covers every eventuality with a huge array of modes and outputs that are bright enough for use on a sunny day as well as the dark depths of winter. It's certainly eye-catching, though sometimes it's better to have a little less choice.

  • Pros: Plenty of low modes that allow you to stretch battery life; quick recharge time
  • Cons: 11 modes; mount doesn't give a tight fit on larger round posts

Straight out of the box the Strip Drive is easy to use. Press and hold the power button to turn it on and single presses will scroll through the 11 – yes, 11 – modes, which use the five LEDs to create some pretty patterns. Press and hold again to turn it off.

> Find your nearest dealer here

The modes are split into three 'sections', constant, flash and day flash.

There are three constant modes: Blast (45lm/2hr15), Enduro (15lm/7hr), and Economy (3lm/30hr). Blast gives you plenty of visibility in the dark out in the back lanes and in an urban environment too, when battling against the sea of light from other vehicles and streetlamps.

Enduro does a decent job if you want a solid-state light with decent battery life, but Economy could be culled as, at 3 lumens, it is just a glow.

Lezyne Strip Drive 150 Rear - button.jpg

The six flash modes use the LEDs in various flashing patterns so they do grab more attention than their lumen output would have you think, which is just as well. For night usage I like something like the Exposure Blaze with its 80-lumen max output.

Flash 1 on the Lezyne is the brightest, offering 25 lumens and a run-time of 8hrs which it achieved easily as I got between 8:05 and 8:15 consistently. Rather than having various LEDs flashing in sequence to get you noticed, Flash 1 uses all five together in a more traditional on/off flash which is less distracting for drivers when on dark roads. That 25-lumen setting puts out plenty of light for you to be seen by, plus there is a decent pool of illumination on the road behind you.

> Buyer's Guide: 17 of the best rear lights for cycling

The next brightest is Flash 4 at 20 lumens (10hrs), which puts out quite a distinctive light pattern. Other than those two, and the 5-lumen Flash 5, which will get you home in an emergency with its 29-hour burn time, I didn't really find that I used the others much at all, with their outputs putting them at bright enough without really standing out.

The two day flash modes, though, are very noticeable. Day Flash 1 delivers 150 lumens (6hrs 30mins) and Day Flash 2 offers 100 lumens for 7 hours, both with attention-grabbing flashes and a super-bright pulse every third or fourth flash.

They are too bright to use in the dark as they'd be too distracting to following drivers, especially out in the sticks, but you should be seen from a fair distance even on a sunny day.

Charging

When it comes to charging, the Strip Drive is definitely a light designed for commuter use. Remove the rubber cover at the bottom and you'll find a USB that'll plug directly into your PC or USB-equipped socket/plug and the light will go from flat to full in just two hours.

Lezyne Strip Drive 150 Rear - USB port.jpg

That rubber cover fits snug as well, which keeps the rain out. Riding without mudguards sees a lot of spray chucked up over the light, but prolonged rides in heavy downpours saw no issues with water getting in or around the USB point.

With a lot of road bikes coming with aero seatposts these days, it's good to see Lezyne has incorporated a mount with flexible rubber that moulds around any seatpost to deal with all options. In fact I would say that it works better on aero posts than it does on large diameter round ones as it can slip round slightly when the road is rough. You just need to glance back occasionally and give it a nudge if needs be.

Value

At £35 it's not a bad price, especially when you compare it to something like the Knog Cobber Mid Rear Light.

The outputs are about the same – the Knog is 170 lumens – and the burn times are pretty similar, but the Knog will cost you £59.99. It does have some cool flashing modes, though.

The Niterider Omega 300 rear light has double the output for an extra 20 quid, which looks great on paper but I did have some issues with keeping the water out.

Conclusion

Overall, the Strip Drive 150 is a good light for the money. I'd cull some of the low power modes to make things quicker to scroll through, and the mount isn't the best for keeping the light straight on round posts, but when it comes to performance there is little to fault.

Verdict

Plenty of brightness and eye-catching modes for day and night use, for a decent price

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road.cc test report

Make and model: Lezyne Strip Drive 150 Rear

Size tested: 150 Lumen

Tell us what the light is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

Lezyne says, "Redesigned for our Year 13 collection, the Strip Drive Rear features our new Wide Angle Optics lens that provides up to 270° of visibility. It also features an increase of 27 hours in runtime for a maximum of 57 hours. Its co-molded construction is more compact, but still boasts five LEDs for up to 150 lumens of output. With 11 output modes, including a Daytime Flash mode, it's got options for any time day or night. A versatile mounting system attaches to aero or round posts and it's micro-USB rechargeable."

A decent light that balances output versus battery life.

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the light?

Lezyne lists:

MAX LUMENS: 150

MAX RUNTIME: 57 hours

RECHARGE TIME: 2 hours

Rate the light for quality of construction:
 
8/10
Rate the light for design and ease of use. How simple was the light to use?
 
8/10

Simple to turn on and scroll through the modes.

Rate the light for the design and usability of the clamping system/s
 
6/10

It can spin round on round seatposts.

Rate the light for waterproofing. How did it stand up to the elements?
 
8/10

The rubber cover keeps the rain and road spray out.

Rate the light for battery life. How long did it last? How long did it take to recharge?
 
8/10

A very quick two-hour charge time.

Rate the light for performance:
 
7/10
Rate the light for durability:
 
8/10
Rate the light for weight:
 
7/10
Rate the light for value:
 
6/10

Tell us how the light performed overall when used for its designed purpose

For me it works best as a daytime flashing light.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the light

Stands up well against the elements.

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the light

Too many similarly powered modes.

How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?

It is priced pretty competitively, with brands like Knog offering similar outputs and run-times for an extra £20 or so.

Did you enjoy using the light? Yes

Would you consider buying the light? Possibly

Would you recommend the light to a friend? Yes

Use this box to explain your overall score

A few little niggles like the mount and the sheer number of modes, but it performs well and stands up to the weather.

Overall rating: 7/10

About the tester

Age: 41  Height: 180cm  Weight: 76kg

I usually ride: This month's test bike  My best bike is: B'Twin Ultra CF draped in the latest bling test components

I've been riding for: Over 20 years  I ride: Every day  I would class myself as: Expert

I regularly do the following types of riding: time trialling, commuting, club rides, sportives, fixed/singlespeed

As part of the tech team here at F-At Digital, senior product reviewer Stu spends the majority of his time writing in-depth reviews for road.cc, off-road.cc and ebiketips using the knowledge gained from testing over 1,500 pieces of kit (plus 100's of bikes) since starting out as a freelancer back in 2009. After first throwing his leg over a race bike back in 2000, Stu's ridden more than 170,000 miles on road, time-trial, track, and gravel bikes, and while he's put his racing days behind him, he still likes to smash the pedals rather than take things easy. With a background in design and engineering, he has an obsession with how things are developed and manufactured, has a borderline fetish for handbuilt metal frames and finds a rim braked road bike very aesthetically pleasing!

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1 comments

Avatar
Sriracha | 4 years ago
3 likes

Micro USB is not "Redesigned for 2019/20".
Seriously, if I'm spending that kind of money, I don't want to be getting my old USB wires out of the bin to charge it.

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