CATEYE AMPP1100
£109.99 Night light
The AMPP’s built-in 2500mAh lithium-ion battery has a fast recharging circuit and can be fully charged via its Micro-USB to USB cable in three to five hours, depending on the specific power supply used. Cateye says it can be fully charged and discharged around 300 times, and even then should still have a rated capacity of 70 per cent.
The light measures 105 x 48 x 34mm, and ours weighed 207g. Cateye’s tough FlexTight bracket quickly fits on to handlebars up to 35mm in diameter, tightening with a knurled, threaded knob from behind and gripping securely, thanks to its integral rubber strip. Optional brackets are available for helmet and fork crown mounting, too.
Twin LEDs with Cateye’s OptiCube lens technology cast crisp, white light a surprisingly long way. In its low-power position, the usable light pool reaches around 10-15m forward with evenly graduated light illuminating a wide country lane from hedge to hedge. Its 400-lumen output with 4.5 hours’ run time is plenty for steady rural riding, and probably too much for lit urban environments. Middle mode doubles output to 800-lumens with two hours’ run time, enough to see clearly for 25-30m and ensure you don’t miss a thing, but the 1100-lumen high mode produces virtual daylight and hard shadows from your levers on each side.
Its claimed 1.5 hour run time is impressive from a small package, but it will dazzle oncoming traffic. HyperConstant mode mixes a constant 400-lumen light with an intense, pulsing 1100-lumen flash and somehow manages a claimed run time of 6.5 hours, whereas the 200-lumen flashing mode can last 50 hours, but really is binary, like strobe lighting.
Sideways visibility is very good and we’ve been impressed with the quality and scope of illumination. Over the course of one typically mixed ride that required all three constant lighting modes (mainly middle and low) we managed just under three hours usage on a cold night. Our other static tests supported Cateye’s claimed run times.