Over the years we've clocked up thousands upon thousands of cold, dark winter road miles to test hundreds of rear lights. From brilliant budget beamers to retina-ripping radiants that demand even the dopiest driver's attention, here are some of the best rear bike lights you can buy, with quick links to our very top picks listed below this paragraph, plus plenty more road.cc-recommended rear lights further down the page.
Best rear bike light overall: Exposure Boost-R with ReAKT and Peloton
Our top super-bright rear light recommendation: Lezyne Strip Drive 300+ LED Rear Light
Cheapest road.cc-recommended rear light: Knog Plus Rear Light, Black
Best value rear bike light: Giant Recon TL 200 rear light
Best sidelight for extra visibility: Brightside Bright, Amber and Sideways
A rear light is a legal requirement when cycling at night, and using one that's brighter than the legal minimum seems like a sensible way of helping drivers see you — or at least defanging 'but I didn't see them' excuses. The best bike rear lights have long run-times, can be seen from a good distance, and are sufficiently tough and waterproof to fend off day-to-day abuse.
Rear lights for cycling universally use one or more red light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to generate their light. LEDs are very efficient, putting out lots of light for modest electrical power, which makes them cheap to run but effective at boosting visibility. Most rear bike lights are now rechargeable, taking power from a USB source like a standalone charger or your office computer. Battery-powered lights are still available, and have their adherents who appreciate being able to revive a dead light at any filling station or corner shop.
A flashing red light says 'bike' to most drivers; we recommend using a constant light as well so your position can be easily followed. It can be hard to track the position of a flasher on an otherwise unlit minor road. Rear bike lights are increasingly intended as day-time safety lights too, with super-bright flash or pulse modes designed to be impossible for drivers to ignore. They can be very annoying to other riders though; please use them only when necessary.
How we review rear bike lights
While we don't deploy the famous road.cc Beam Comparison Engine to test rear lights, the procedure for reviewing rear lights is much the same as front beams round these parts. Our reviewers, with centuries of riding experience between them, use products for at least a month before writing up their findings and coming up with final verdicts.
Rear lights are assessed on construction quality, design, ease of use, waterproofing, weight, durability, brightness and value. We'll always take price into consideration when scoring a rear light on its features and specification: e.g. a £15 light won't get slammed for its lack of modes and beam power compared to a £100 one. With a huge review archive, we can keep it fair by comparing like-for-like.
Why you can trust us
All products included in road.cc buyer's guides will be things we've reviewed in full, or are highly recommended among multiple members of the team (the latter scenario is rare, but occasionally happens if it's an updated product we can't get hold of for review, or something that has been discontinued).
Because we've reviewed a lot of rear lights over the years, the ones you'll find in this guide will all have scored 8/10 or more to be considered for inclusion. No matter how big the brand is or how many units it's shifted on Amazon, it won't make it into this guide if the review score was average or worse... which sometimes annoys our commercial team and advertisers, but that's the law of the land.
Of course, the road.cc team members who write our guides are all experienced cyclists too. This means you can be sure we've made carefully considered product selections, and the advice you'll find at the bottom of the page is based on our real-world experience.
If you want to see our top picks of back, front and combined lights all in one place, you can also check out our overall guide to the best bike lights. Just looking for a front beam? Head on over to our guide to the best front bike lights instead.
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