NiteRider Lumina 350 front light

NiteRider is an American brand with an impressive portfolio of bike lights, including the Lumina 350, a sturdy and compact front light with a range of brightness options. For commuting and city riding there are other types of light which are better, but the Lumina 350 is very good for most types of leisure cycling on the road.

The 350 in the name refers to the lumens. NiteRider also make 550- and 700-lumen models. For general road riding on dark roads, a 350-lumen beam is plenty bright enough to see where you're going. And plenty bright enough to warn on-coming cars of your presence, although for extra attention-getting you might want to combine a fixed beam with a flashing light.

The Lumina 350 has five modes. As with all lights, the brighter the beam, the shorter the battery life. Your options are: High (a claimed 2 hours of battery run-time); Medium (4 hours); Low (6 hours). There's also a flash mode and a very low-power mode called 'walk' that lasts for 21 hours. Even that is pretty good compared to some of rubbishy lamps we used to put up with before LEDs were invented.

On my test rides, the quoted battery run-times were correct for the High and Low modes. In fact the light lasted for almost 7 hours in the Low mode. When the battery is almost drained of power, a red warning light comes on and, whatever mode you're in, the light switches atomically to Low.

The beam is wide and circular, which means also illuminating tree branches overhead if you direct the beam as far down the road as possible. If you point the beam down, to get more light onto the road, then of course you can't see so far ahead, but that's an issue with any light with a circular beam (as opposed to a horizontal oval beam, which some riders find more useful). For more on this, including a diagram of the Lumina's beam, see the great road.cc comparative light test widget, below.

It's worth noting that the beam points ahead only. It cannot be seen from the side, which makes you less visible to car drivers pulling out from side-junctions. Again, this is a feature of many lights of this sort.

The Lumina 350 has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Recharging is via a mini USB port on the light. The Lumina comes with a USB cable, which you can plug into a computer USB or a wall charger. Recharging time is a claimed 4.5 hours. I found it nearer 5 with the light plugged into a computer, but that's an acceptable variation.

The Lumina 350 is a handlebar-mounted light, and the mount is easily attached to your bars without needing tools (which also means it's easy to nick, so you might want to take the mount as well as the light itself with you when parking your bike).

The mount stays firmly in place '' there's no drooping as you ride along '' while also allowing you to alter the horizontal angle of the light and point the beam slightly to the left or right.

The light unit slides easily slide into and out of the mount, when you need to take it inside for re-charging for example. However, the easy-sliding fit has a disadvantage: the light unit vibrates slightly in the mount. It doesn't shake loose, even on bumpy roads, but this vibration may irritate some riders (like me). On the first test ride, I spend a distressing hour checking valve collars and mudguard bolts before I worked out what was causing the noise.

In the event of the light getting knocked loose from the mount (if you're unlucky enough to fall off in the ice, for example - a catastrophe recently suffered by your humble author) the Lumina's casing is strong and sturdy. A few more deliberate drops on the workshop floor further confirmed that the Lumina is reasonably durable.

The recommended retail is a penny under 90 quid, discounted to £80 or less at some bike shops and the usual on-line stores.

There are cheaper front lights available from NiteRider and other manufacturers, and there are many brighter options with longer battery life if you're an all-night audax rider or after-dark mountain biker going hard on single-track. Likewise, if you're a commuter on city streets that needs to be seen, rather than see, there are better lighting options to tell car drivers that you exist. But for general cycling in winter, where you're making pre-dawn starts or coming home in the dark, and need to see where you're going for just an hour or two – perhaps using flash mode for the bulk of your ride – then this Lumina 350 is an ideal combination of compact size and bright light.

Verdict

Sturdy, bright and compact front light, ideal for long audax and leisure rides.