Night Riding Lights | What You Need To Know For Mountain Biking At Night

Mountain bike riding at night can be an exciting way to keep riding through the dark winter months, or is a great way to get out for a lap in the morning before the sun rises! What lights should you buy? How many lumens do you need? Should you look for a helmet or handlebar-mounted option?
BRIGHTER IS BETTER, RIGHT? This is everything you need to know about riding MTB at night!

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Doddy: Just because the sun’s gone down, it  doesn’t mean you need to stop riding your   mountain bike. What you need is a decent set  of lights strapped on your bike and get going.   This is GMBN Tech guide to lights  and everything you need to know   about night riding. [music] 

Okay, first things first. What lights should  you be buying? Well, it really comes down to   two main things here, the budget you have and  what are you going to be using them for. Let’s   just go to the very beginner here. If you’re  just commuting for example riding A to B,  

Then you don’t really need much of rear lights,  you need to be seen. You don’t necessarily need   to see. USB lights like these little feathers  from Lezyne will be perfect. Charge in about   about 2.5 hours and lasts for about 20 hours as  well. Great, but you won’t be seeing with them. 

Your next option is to step up slightly to a  slightly more advanced commuter based light.   This one is also from Lezyne and it’s 800 lumens.  Actually, it offers a surprisingly good beam   and really quite usable for some minor off-road  use. If you were to go on a group ride, you  

Could actually probably get away with something  like this. If it’s your first time night riding,   you don’t necessarily have to go whole hog. Next up, the slightly more occasional rider.   Any sort of major off-road riding, we  recommend anything north of 1,000 lumens.  

Just don’t bother with anything less than  that, because you simply need more to see.   There’s plenty of cheap offerings, if you want  to look online you can get a bit of a bargain.   This one here, Nestling, whatever brand that is,  got it for 18 quid online in a kick out, I claimed  

1,400 lumens. The perfect light, in theory,  to start your night riding experience with.  However, I do feel a bit ropey, the bar  mount isn’t exactly that sturdy. You have   a separate battery on the bike, which is a  point of weakness because it’s easy to snag  

The cables on them. If I’m completely honest,  I don’t feel that comfortable charging the   battery because I don’t know anything about the  brand. I’d probably charge it in a saucepan,   but you can’t deny that 18 quid for 1,400 lumens  is great value and actually it’s worth a punt. 

When you’re riding on a more occasional basis,  it’s a good idea to head out on group rides. Local   bike shop might organize it or there might be a  local riding group. Have a look online, Facebook,   things like that, that you can find groups  to go riding with. A great thing about these,  

If you haven’t delved in fully into buying loads  of expensive night riding kit, you can light share   with people. You could go out with something  800 to 1,000 lumens and share the pool of   light that every other rider has. If you sandwich  yourself in-between two riders with some heavy,  

Heavy-duty lights, you can actually have a really  good experience. Actually, you may even decide if   you want to invest in some more decent lights. If you’re going solo, it’s an altogether   different game. You need to be very well  equipped. You need to have spare lights,  

You need to have back up lights, you need  to have really good powerful lights, so you   can see what you’re doing for obvious reasons.  I’d say at the minimum, you want 2,000 lumens.   A light like this one from Exposure offers 2,000  lumens and you’ll happily sit on that for hours.  

It also got a feature called reflex on it and  actually, it will jump it up to 3,100 lumens.  It has an accelerometer built into it  and it senses when you’re going faster   or you’re going to have a rough terrain. It will  give you an expanded beam. It will give you much  

More light power. When you slow down again or if  you pause maybe mid-ride just to have a break,   the lights will dip to save battery power.  That is an extremely handy feature to have,   because it all too easy to leave your lights  on the same setting and just wear them down.  

You’ll also find on some of the more advanced  lights, that have LED displays on the back.   They’re very accurate and tell you how much  life time you have left on that battery charge.  Finally, there’s the more hardcore offering. If  you want genuinely go and ride the same as you  

Do in the daytime, under the blanket of darkness,  you need some severely powerful lights. This one,   for example, is called the Six Pack, it offers  4,750 lumens, nice genuine lumens as well. I’ve   been to the factory where these guys make and test  these lights. What this thing can do is insane. It  

Also has that reflex technology built into it,  save power, and to give you the full-beam when   you really need it. Which means no hands off the  bars, adjusting the power on the light itself.  You’re also going to need a decent light  on your helmet as well. Two-part system,  

You have the one on the bars, your major front  light. There’s also lots of blindspots when you   have cresting in and out trees, that having  a helmet light is really beneficial for.   It doesn’t need to be anywhere near as big or  powerful as this. 1,500 lumens is all you need. 

Brighter is better, right? No, actually no, it’s  not. Your lights have settings on for a couple   of reasons. The first one is obviously to save  battery power. Battery power is your friend on   night riding, because you can ride longer and it’s  safer. Also your eyes can adjust to your lights  

Much better than you’d ever imagine.  Even a light with 4750 lumens,   it’s amazing how fast you get used to it.  Sometimes it can feel like it’s not quite   as bright as it was when you started your ride. Use the settings on your light when you’re riding  

Less severe terrain or maybe you’re riding  to the trails. Use those dip-down settings   to save the battery power and that way,  when you hit a hard and fast bit of trail,   hit it up to full charge and it feels great. Just  think about what your nana used to say to you when  

You had your outdoor jacket on indoors, “You won’t  feel the benefit when you go outside, will you?”  [music] Night riding doesn’t have   to be expensive. Everyone thinks it does, but it  honestly doesn’t. It’s possible, like I’ve proven,  

To get a set of lights like these for under 20  quid. 1,400 lumens for under 20 quid, they say   they’re weatherproof as well, that’s a bit of a  bargain. I’ve got to say I wouldn’t expect them  

To last. There’s lot of points they could fail,  lots of bits where the cables are coming out,   it looks a little bit shonky. However, you  can’t deny that that’s great value for money   if you just want to give night riding a try  to see how it is and see if it suits you. 

If you get the bug, it’s going to start  getting expensive. If you want top-quality,   reliable lights that keep working year after  year then it’s going to cost you some money. Now,   Exposure offers lights all the way up to over  400 quid, which does sound like a lot of money,  

But what you’re paying is the quality of the  manufacturing and the after-market service.   They are not throwaway lights. This is a  light that you will have for years to come.   Very different thing. Now, if you want to learn a  little bit about why their lights are so special,  

Check out the videos in the description  underneath. I went to see how they make lights.   Pretty cool tech. [music]  Just like the rest of your mountain bike, you  need to be maintaining your lights as well.   In particular, look at a couple of examples I  have here. One of these lights has an external  

Battery. That means you need to firstly,  make sure the cable routing is neat enough,   make sure it’s not taut enough that it doesn’t  pull out in the event of a crash. You also need   to be checking at those terminals. Making sure  that they’re actually okay, water’s not getting  

In there, you’re not pulling them out the light.  Anything, essentially, that can make them fail.  Look at the actual connection as well. Use  some contact cleaner, electrical isopropyl   alcohol-based stuff. Make sure you drive out  any moisture so you don’t get any corrosion on  

There. Even a light like this can last you  quite a long time if you take care of it.   The more expensive lights as well, you still  need to take care of them just as much as   the cheap offerings. You need to charge  them just like the manufacturer suggests. 

Most lights these days you can top up charge,  but some lights will still recommend that you   run them flat before charging. Just check on  that and you’ll get the most amount of battery   life out of them. A lot of them will also advise  you to not store them completely charged as well,  

So do check on that because, obviously, there  could be a long time in-between using them.   Do check them before you venture out for  your first ride, because if your battery is   fairly depleted, you won’t know about it till  about 20 minutes in a ride and it turns off. 

Now, are two major styles of light. You get the  one that have a smaller head unit and they have   an external battery mounted on the frame. You  get the ones that the head unit has the battery   incorporated into it. Accordingly, they’re a fair  bit heavier because you’re not having the battery  

Elsewhere. One downside is that the actual  bracket itself, the way it mounts onto the bars,   you need to make sure it’s very  secure, both the bracket that clamps   on the bars and the one on the light itself. Every now and then it’s a good idea just to  

Check the bolts, there’s a four mil bolt on this  particular one, and make sure it’s got some thread   lock on it as well. Carry a spare light and a  beanie with you. When you have to fix your bike,  

It’s definitely when because it’s going to happen  at some point, you don’t want to be wasting your   lights. Get a beanie on to keep yourself warm,  and get yourself a little head torch. This one’s   literally about 5 quid. It’s all you need  to fix your bike, save that lighting power  

To get back on the trails again. [music]  Trail etiquette is just as important at night as  it is during the day. Now, if you’ve got a really   bright, powerful light, don’t run it on full power  when you’re riding to and from the trails, you’re  

Only going to blind motorists and it’s just going  to make it unpleasant for everyone. If you’ve   got the most powerful light in the group you’re  riding in, get your arse to the front of the pack.  You should not be at the back of the pack  because you’re going to ruin it for everyone  

Else. I’ve done this before by mistake.  Gone riding with a really powerful light,   and you create loads of harsh shadows for all the  riders in front of you and you mess everything up.   Finally, probably the most important one, don’t  ruin your friend’s night vision by looking  

Straight at them when you’ve got a head torch on. [music]  Bar-mounted or helmet-mounted? That’s  the age-old question, that one. Well,   in an ideal world you want one of each. Obviously,  it’s quite costly, so if you can only have one,  

I would definitely recommend going with the  bar-mounted option first. That gives you the best   overall beam. You can also carry the more powerful  light on your bike as well, as opposed to on your   helmet, so you’re going to get more functionality  from that. By having a bar-mounted light,  

You want to be facing this as far down trail  as possible. That way you can ride much faster   off-road and see those obstacles coming. Never have your light pointing too far down   towards your tire, because now you’re going to  be looking at your tire because it’s distracting  

To be fair. Also, you just can’t see obstacles  coming toward you far enough. You want to make   sure that you’re pointing over 30 foot down trail  at least. It does depend on how bright your light   is and the capabilities of it. The more powerful  the light is, the further down trail you can  

Have that big flood beam to light everything up. There are a couple of downsides though to having   a bar-mounted light on its own. The first  one is when you’re riding really technical,   twisty terrain, you can get little black spots  really, where you can’t see anything. Sometimes  

You might want to have a helmet light to help  alleviate that. Also when you’re going over some   blind crests and into bump holes and stuff,  again same thing you’re getting blind spots   which can feel terrifying or really good fun,  depending on how you prefer to ride things. 

The last thing is, if you’re riding trails that  have and got loads of overhanging branches,   you can’t always see them in time. I’ve  closed by myself a few times over the years.   I’ll always use a helmet light as well. But  you can’t just use a helmet light all the time,  

Because of the fact that you can’t usually get  them powerful enough to make the most of them on   their own. They won’t last long enough either. There’s also another downside to them.   The plus side obviously are the fact that  you can look everywhere. Wherever you look,  

You’ve got light. Brilliant for that technical  stuff where the bar-mounted loses out.   They’re also really good from the fact that  you can see under things, and over things,   over those blind crests, but your eyes will  be darting around all the time at night. 

It can actually be quite dizzying and a little  bit off-putting at times. Really, you want to   be pairing them up and you only want to have your  helmet light on the bright setting when you really  

Need it. Just like the bar-mounted light, keep  them on low power, jack them up to high power when   you’re hitting the technical descends and stuff.  That really is the best way to run your lights.  There we go. That’s the GMBN Tech  guide to night riding and lights.  

Just to summarize, don’t forget the bear minimum  for riding off-road. You really want 1,000 lumens   or more. In the ideal world, you  want bar-mounted light and preferably   a smaller, lower power helmet powered light. In  assistance to that, always carry spares with you. 

Finally, if it’s going to be a regular thing for  you, then really stop saving those pennies right   and invest in some quality lights, because  they will make it an amazing thing to do.   It means you can ride just the same as you can  all year round. No matter what the conditions,  

What the light is. All right, let’s make it fun.  You’ve been here. Let us know in the comments   underneath. See you next time. [00:12:45] [END OF AUDIO]