BIKE LIGHTS

Will the Kryptonite Street F-450 shine brightly or fall flat? We find out

When the sun’s hiding below the horizon, you need lights on your bike. They help you see where you’re going and other road users see where you are. But different riding situations call for different types of light.

If all you’re doing is commuting home along lit streets, you can probably get away with just a small blinking light to make you more visible to others. If, however, you’re riding down twisting lanes that lack lampposts, road markings and cat’s eyes, then you need something more powerful, something with a strong steady beam that can illuminate any potential dangers in your path.

Being able to see potholes, wet drain covers and roadkill (nasty as it seems, it’s all too easy to get brought down by a rotting badger carcass) is only half the battle. You need to be able to spot these sorts of obstacles early enough so you can do something about them. Hence, the darker your route, the better your lights need to be.

The front lights in this test are all capable of covering both of those scenarios but are neither the most expensive nor the most powerful lights on the market. Instead, the lights have been selected based on price and practicality. They’re all USB rechargeable and they all use LEDs rather than the ‘more serious’ lamps that rely on halogen or halide.

Each light’s run time varies depending on the illumination strength and mode you choose so that’s been disregarded in this instance. Instead, the rating given to each light is based on their ability to illuminate the road in front of you, their value and how easy they are to live with on a daily basis.