LED commuter light

It's the purity of delivery that separates Cateye's Rapid 3 front light from a wealth of similar blinkeys. I don't like watts as a measure since it's concerned with consumption, rather than output. However, ours has saved my blushes (possibly my life too) when a high power main system packed up ten miles from the nearest stretch of street lighting, let alone my front door.

Pumping out a very respectable 550 lumens in top mode, Silva's Pavé Sport bike light is the sort you can scoot around the suburbs in standard/flashing before clicking into top and indulging in some seriously spirited back road scratching. Not impressed? Well, how about 183g for the whole shebang-battery n' all?

The Omni 5 is a brand new front light from Cateye and offers a near full 180 degree range of visibility making it a a very good commuting light in its own right or as an emergency backup light to a brighter main beam.

Inside the new lens are five LEDs and the light they produce is reflected through prisms carefully placed to split their beams. This ensures there is a healthy amount of light reflected sideways as well as straight ahead, and really seems to work.

If you're familiar with Cateye's excellent Loop Light then these lights from Nite Ize will look pretty familiar. Nite Ize make the Loop light for Cateye, and this is their version, which is a bit different and just as good.

Electron's Micro 1W light is a commuter light with, as the name implies, a single 1W LED. This puts it at the being seen rather than the seeing by end of the bike light spectrum, even so it does provide a degree of road illumination, as our light data shows; enough for badly lit urban streets.

Knog's cheeky, no-nonsense approach to LEDs made a splash when they hit the UK a few years back with the Frog. The Aussie company had solved the problem of complicated fixings and brackets to keep your light and bicycle in happy attachment. Plus, they were fun and simple.

Since then Knog have developed their product range impressively. These Knog Frog Strobes - arriving at road.cc in front-and-rear tag team - are an evolution of the original Knog Frogs, the small single LEDs encased in stretchy, easy-to-attach silicone that were the company's first hit.

BBB's Ultrabeam is a useful light but it has to be said the design is starting to show its age, looking frumpy alongside the latest generation of super bright rechargeables. On the other hand, it's an honest to goodness compact companion great for occasional scoots round town or cosying up to old school dynamos.

Build quality and side-visibility have been greatly improved and the highest setting is just about good enough for navigating suburban cycle paths while a deluxe USB chargeable AAA variant is also available should you prefer.

Lezyne's new family of lights are very pretty and our Shaun rated the Super Drive when he reviewed it, so how does it's little brother, the Mini Drive, stack up?

The Knog Boomer Wearable is very similar at first glance to its big brother, the Boomer Rechargable, being a brash, bright LED illuminated rear light. But this is where the similarity ends, since for one thing, the Boomer Wearable is battery powered (using 2 AAAs), and if you're wondering about that name, it IS also wearable.

Exposure's range of lights and the Joystick in particular have been the weapon of choice for spendy MAMILs for some years now. Combining light weight, high power and smart design Exposure's lights have pretty much defined the template for all-in-one lights.