Lezyne’s Strip Drive Pro packs plenty of punch and it’s easy to fit to a range of bikes. Battery life is on the short side, but it’s a good choice for faster roads where you want to maximise your visibility.
The light itself is a hard plastic unit covered with a silicone rubber cover. That keeps the light waterproof (no issues at all during testing) and there’s a separate rubber cover at the bottom which hides the USB charger. You plug this light directly into a USB port to charge – it doesn’t require a lead.
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Two plastic hooks poke through the silicone, and you hook a segmented rubber band around them to fix the light to your seatpost. The rear shape of the light is designed to work with either aero or round seatposts and it stays put pretty well. If your seatpost is small you’ll end up with a flappy bit of band, but you can cut it off if it bothers you.
Like many lezyne rear lights the Strip Drive has a veritable cornucopia of modes. There are three steady modes including a group-friendly economy setting, and six flashing modes up to a 100-lumen day flash that’s very, very bright. Suffice to say that whatever type of riding you’re going to do, there’s a mode in there that’ll fit the bill. I gravitated towards ‘Knight Rider’ (not its real name) for most riding, and economy steady mode for rides in a group. The day flash is certainly good for faster riding and busier roads, though. The light remembers which mode you were in when you turn it back on.
> Check out our guide to the best rear lights
Battery life is, for the most part, pretty average. The economy steady mode will keep you lit for 15 hours (we found the Lezyne claimed times to be pretty accurate) but it’s not that eye-catching. The better flashing modes give you around four hours of continuous use.
When the battery is low the Strip Drive Pro changes to economy to eke out as much ride time as it can. I never arrived home at the end of a ride to find that the light had gone out, but several times I managed to drain it to the point where it went into battery-saving mode.
If your rides are shorter, or you’re looking for something you can sling on your bike for riding on busy roads – say a main road commute, or for your time trial bike – it’s a better choice than as a more general purpose light. You need to be fairly on the ball regarding keeping it charged, but so long as it’s topped up frequently it’s an effective and well-built option.
Verdict
Good performance and build quality with enough power to use as a daylight flasher
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road.cc test report
Make and model: Lezyne Strip Drive Pro
Size tested: n/a
Tell us what the light is for, and who it’s aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?
Lezyne says: “Extremely powerful five LED taillight. Light and durable co-molded lens/body construction. Unique aero and round post compatible design. Five market-leading, ultra high-output LEDs delivering up to 100 lumens. Mode Memory function returns to selected mode after turning off. 9 combined lumen and flash modes. Enhanced MOR (Maximum Optical Reflection) lens with built-in side visibility. Integrated cable-free recharging USB stick.”
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the light?
MAX LUMENS:
100
WEIGHT:
69g (without strap mount)
SIZE:
87x37x34 mm
RECHARGE TIME:
2.5hrs (1A) / N/A (2A)
Tell us how the light performed overall when used for its designed purpose
It’s a good rear light for your fast bike so long as you’re happy to be rigorous with your charging schedule.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the light
Bright, easy to fit to all sorts of post.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the light
Battery life.
Did you enjoy using the light? Yes, in the main.
Would you consider buying the light? Probably not because I can’t be trusted to remember to charge it.
Would you recommend the light to a friend? Yes, depending on their needs.
Use this box to explain your score
It performs very well and it’s easy to mount; battery life is average.
About the tester
Age: 43 Height: 189cm Weight: 92kg
I usually ride: whatever I’m testing… My best bike is: Kinesis Tripster ATR, Kinesis Aithein
I’ve been riding for: Over 20 years I ride: Every day I would class myself as: Experienced
I regularly do the following types of riding: road racing, time trialling, cyclo-cross, commuting, club rides, sportives, general fitness riding, fixed/singlespeed, mountain biking, Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling, track
14 thoughts on “Lezyne Strip Drive Pro”
It’s pretty good overall I
It’s pretty good overall I thought. You do need to charge it more often. The amount of modes is too many. But the real killer function for me is that it sits nicely on a seat stay and not many do.
I use it to give me a bit of off centre visibility.
But I’d opt for a See Sense Icon on my seatpost every time.
I find it a great light when
I find it a great light when charged but it’s not a good fit in a USB port so sometimes I take it out and it’s not charged at all. Might just be me though!
still you don’t charge it
still you don’t charge it more often than front macro drive, so no problem remembering. and you don’t get many rear lights of this power. i particularly like taht rear lenses work, you can see definite light pattern if you point it to a wall.
I’d agree with other comments
I’d agree with other comments that most of the modes are a bit silly and there are only a couple of useful ones.
Also, it will plug into a USB port either way up but only charge if it is the right way around. Took a few frustrating non-charges to realise what the problem was. I’d recommend picking up a couple of short USB extension cables (very cheap on fleabay), as the light is quite bulky so you can’t plug things into adjacent ports.
I bought this light about a
I bought this light about a month ago, my new philosophy with lights is to buy them bright and get use lower settings, to get decent battery life. This looked good.
My notes are:
The red plastic looks like a children’s toy – I would have preferred a black version (which I believe is now available)
The rubber band seems flimsy but it does seem to do the job.
I find the fact that it sits flush with whatever it is mounted annoying, why can it not have an angular fitting to sit at 90% to the road?
I do not necessarily agree with the other posters and review with regards to battery life. I think the battery life is pretty decent. It may be that I use it on the bright flash mode most of the time. 45 mins commute each way and I need to charge it once a week or so.
The mount does not work well with oversized seatposts, it simply sits against teh side. From the design I would think the intention was for the rubber to mould “open” to wrap against the post, but it does not happen.
I did however buy an Exposure Flare the next week, with the saddle mount – the Lezyne goes in a side pocket on my backpack.
Bontie wrote:
I wonder if this small single bright led is really more visible than big block of five here? really not sure of it.
Artem wrote:
I didn’t say its more visible at all, but at 75Lm on pulse mode its definitely visble enough.
And you’d be surprised how visible the Lezyne is through a light mesh sidepocket on my backpack, angled more or less flush.
Wrong angle = waste of 100
Wrong angle = waste of 100 lumens = completely useless during daylight…
BBB wrote:
I do wonder about the angles on many of these.
I love road.cc front-light compartor, surely there should be something similar for the rear-lights? It’s really helped me in choosing where to spend for the front.
Very upset. Purchased light.
Very upset. Purchased light. Very impressed with brightness, battery life, ease of charging. But worried about flimsey strap – with good cause. Lost light within a couple of weeks. Very poor design in my opinion.
Any setting recommended for
Any setting recommended for the longest battery life please? Mine conked out yesterday, but I’d had it on for the best part of 50 miles.
dottigirl wrote:
Decent rear lights are so small and light these days I tend to carry 2 of them – use one most of the time and switch to the other if the first one dies. Also insurance against one being killed by rain and if it gets hairy, you can turn both on.
If you don’t have enough seatpost space, put on on the seat stays or wishbones – I have to do that anyway on my bike with an aero seat post.
LastBoyScout wrote:
Yep – luckily I had a second light (one of those Bikemate thingies) on my helmet. I rarely cycle with only one light either front or back. For rides where I know I’ll be out in the dark, I’ll have three on the rear (the third usually a Fibre Flare).
dottigirl wrote:
I have the Strip Drive. Not sure if it is the ‘pro’ version. IN Daylight Flash mode I get over11 hours of battery life. On Flash 3 (the setting before Daylight Flash) I get over 14 hours. Tried and tested and very close to what is on the ‘times’ chart on the packaging. Good lights these.
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