I've always liked Cateye lights. They tend to be more expensive than other lights, but have attractive styling, seem to be well made, and last a long time. I still have a battered but functioning Liminax Micro Halogen by Cateye.
LED's
Most commuter lights nowadays use LED's rather than standard or Halogen bulbs. LED's have several advantages. Namely very long bulb life. 60,000 hours is not unusual for an LED bulb, and is significantly longer than the expected life of a commuter light. The other major advantage is LED's waste less of the energy as heat compared to halogen bulbs. This means more light for less power. As a rule of thumb a 1 watt LED is approximately equivalent to a 3 Watt Halogen bulb.
LED's produce a very bright white narrow beam. Halogen's and HID's (very expensive off-road lights) produce a light that is closer to natural daylight and has a much better spread. LED's work like spots, lighting up a small area and creating very deep shadows, which leads to poor depth perception.
LED commuter lights are designed to ensure you get seen when cycling at night. They're not for riding down unlit roads. If this is your riding then you need a more powerful set up.
Well first off it's big and chunky. Most of the weight comes from the 4 AA batteries required to power the LED, making this a heavy light. The light itself seems to be pretty durable. Mine is still going strong 18 months later.
The LED light is without question very bright. Bright enough to cause dazzle to oncoming road users. It however produces a very narrow beam, which only lights up a section a few inches across of the road ahead. There is also a wide but quite dim halo around the central bright spot. This light works well in lit areas, where visibility to other road users is important. In unlit areas, the tight beam and wide halo is a serious handicap. The lack of spread will force you to slow down on road. Off-road it will serve as an emergency get you home light, if time gets away with you and you get caught by failing light. It works quite well at dusk when riding tree covered single track. It is not a light to be used off road at night. You need proper off-road lights for this. I do use it as a backup light. Turning it on when riding off-road means that I'm not plunged into sudden darkness if my main lights suddenly fail - which has happened on more than one occasion. it also serves as a handy torch in the event you have to conduct roadside repairs.
Waterproofing is extremely good on this model. The switch is magnetic meaning that no water can get around the switch into the body of the light. The reflector body has a simple twist on twist off locking mechanism, which is well sealed with a substantial O-ring. I have never experienced a problem with this light in the rain. I have however experienced light failure in the rain with cheaper lights, which is a tad dangerous to say the least. This lights waterproofing is a big safety bonus if you ride in rain a lot.
The big let down on this light is the flex tight bracket. Cateye use this same bracket design across several models. It's like a plastic jubilee clip which you tighten by turning the knob. Getting it tight enough so the light won't slip can be a real headache. The bracket has a tendency to loosen off in use, meaning you have to periodically tighten it. I have had a bracket fail trying to get it tight enough so it wouldn't slip. The thing is Cateye already had a perfectly acceptable tooless bracket, which you can still buy - the H31for oversize bars and the H32 for normal bars. This is the bracket I use for my Cateye, after I binned the flex tight when it annoyed me too much. The H31/H32 has exactly the same functionality as the newer bracket. My H32 bracket originally came with a Cateye halogen; is donkeys years old, but still going strong.
Overall
A bright, waterproof, reliable light, which is suitable for commuting on lit roads, and trails. On unlit trails and roads, it serves as a good backup light which will get you home in an emergency. It's big and heavy which may not suit some. But it's big let down is the poor bracket.
The only other stumbling block with this light is price. At £45, it's quite pricey.
More details
Price
£45
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