6 best bike lights to help you stay safe on night rides

When the Garmin varia radar and rear light first landed on our desk, honestly, we thought it was a gimmick. How wrong we were. We first strapped it to our seatpost two years ago, and, with the exception of various test lights, it’s been the only rear light we’ve used ever since. It scans the road behind for approaching cars, alerting the rider of their presence, speed and proximity via the display on the head unit. It’s no substitute for having your wits about you, but it’s a precious extra layer of security for us vulnerable road users.

Radar aside, the light itself is excellent too. It has several modes, both solid and flashing, which can be controlled remotely from a connected head unit. This means you can cycle through different settings without having to dismount – a feature we’d hate to live without now. We use it mostly on “day-flash mode”, and it’s never died on us to date, including on one occasion when we put in a 16-hour shift in the saddle.

Granted, it’s not cheap compared to other rear lights, but it offers additional peace of mind that is hard to put a price on. Having ridden with the varia for a few years, we firmly believe it’s worth every penny, and for us, it’s the best rear light on the market.

We’ve been using the lite drive 1000xl from Lezyne as our go-to front light for road riding for over a year now. It’s a solid little unit with a robust rubber strap that’s easy to get on and off the bars for charging. The strap can also be removed to allow the light to be fixed to a GoPro mount instead, which is useful if you’re running aero bars on your bike.

We’ve found runtime to be excellent, with the battery lasting 1.5 hours on full whack (1,000 lumens solid beam) and up to 87 hours on the lowest setting. We tended to use the “enduro” mode most, which pumps out a solid 250 lumens, and lasts for around six hours.

Why let daylight limit your shredding hours? Strap a bright enough light to your bars and you can enjoy empty trails, sharpen your skills, and experience local haunts in a whole new light… quite literally.

Exposure is the leading name in the game when it comes to high-end bike lights, and the six pack mk12 is the biggest and brightest in the brand’s off-road offering. It has a built-in OLED display on the back to keep track of settings, charge and runtime, and incorporates Exposure’s clever “reflex++” technology, which monitors speed and terrain, adjusting the level of illumination accordingly to preserve power.

Lighting wise, this thing will kick out a staggering 5,250 lumens at full tilt, courtesy of six high-power LEDs. It’s more than enough to fully illuminate woodland singletrack in the dead of night, but this level of performance does come at a price… in more ways than one. There’s no getting around the cost of the six pack mk11, and the substantial 386g heft is likely to put weight weenies off. Still, if you’re the kind of rider who likes to push themselves and their gear to the limit, regardless of time of day, this is the light for you.

Maybe you’re not looking for something with heaps of specialist features that can illuminate the road 10 miles ahead. If the majority of your after-dark riding consists of darting around the city and weaving through traffic, your primary concern is probably being visible to motorists and other road users. In which case, this simple twin pack from Knog is just the ticket.

The lights are small, easy to attach and detach, and feature a handy charging system that allows them to be connected directly to a USB plug. They’re also fully waterproof, with clever graphic lighting patterns that set them apart from anything else on the market, and make the rider highly visible to everyone on the road.

We loved Garmin’s original varia rear light, not least because of the extra peace of mind it gave us when out and about on the roads. So, imagine our excitement earlier this year when the brand launched a souped up version, complete with a rear-facing camera.

The varia rct715 does everything its sibling can do, but with the addition of constantly rolling video recording (this can be turned off or set to be activated by the radar) to capture potential incidents. The new device also features USB-C charging, a newly designed mounting system and a microphone.

It’s a nifty piece of tech, but one key drawback is the price tag. At £350, this is by no means a budget option. However, if you’re in the market for an all-in-one safety solution, incorporating camera, radar and light in one small package, this may very well be the answer.

Straßenverkehrs-Zulassungs-Ordnung (Translation: Road Traffic Licensing Regulations), or “StVZO” bike lights are lights that conform to German road traffic standards by using a specially shaped beam to avoid dazzling other road users. Whether you live in Germany or not, it’s something that improves your safety when out and about, and might be worth investing in, particularly for those who frequent busy sections of road at night.

This front light from Lezyne casts a cut-off beam directly at the road ahead, keeping it out of the eyes of oncoming motorists. It has a runtime of up to 13.5 hours and can be connected to a remote switch to control light modes from the handlebars while in the saddle. The chunky rubber strap is secure, prevents slippage, and makes removing the unit for charging super easy.