Giant Recon TL 200 rear light

Giant isn't the most obvious choice in the bicycle lights market but its new Recon TL 200 is an excellent rear light, offering lots of brightness, useful modes and decent run-times. It's become my favourite rear light for all rides, day and night.

The Recon TL 200 is a bigger and brighter version of the previously tested TL 100. Which you choose comes down to personal preference, but for the extra tenner the 200 gets my vote for the extra brightness and run-time it offers.

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The rectangular housing contains two LEDs pushing out a maximum 200 lumens, with 270 degrees of visibility thanks to two strips in the side of the light unit. That's useful for ensuring you are visible to motorists approaching from side streets and at junctions.

You can mount the light vertically or horizontally; I favoured the former as it sits on the seatpost nicely this way. The light can be removed from the bracket, but I found it an incredibly tight fit and resorted to simply using the silicone band to remove the entire thing when it needed charging.

Charging is via USB with the port nicely protected under a rubber flap. On the opposite end is the on/off and mode cycle button. As mentioned, there's a silicone band for attaching the light to the bicycle, and once mounted it's secure and doesn't wobble.

There are seven modes to choose from, with high providing 100 lumens for a real-world verified 2.5 hours. Low mode drops the brightness to 50 lumens and doubles the run-time. I favoured the flash modes, with the high flash mode delivering 6 hours using the full 200 lumens – I've used this on several 100-mile/6-hour rides and it's kept flashing from start to finish.

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You get a power status indicator – the on/off switch lights up – to let you know the battery is running low before it eventually runs flat.

Also included are two smart modes, one for the night and one for daytime. The smart mode will automatically switch from steady to flash at night, and according to Giant allows motorists to see you from as far away as 1km. I've started using a light during the day, and the 6-hour smart day mode has been my go-to setting for day rides.

A nice little detail is the light memory mode. It means when you switch the light on it'll use whatever mode you were using the last time. So once you find a favourite, it's a simple case of turning it on and off. All those seconds you save not cycling through the different modes to find the one you want do add up!

Durability has been excellent. I've ridden through horrendous rain and mud, jet washed the light and dropped it in a bucket of water, and it stills works just fine. Giant says it's IPX7 waterproof rated, which means it's good for immersion in 1 metre of water for up to 30 minutes.

Value

It's not the cheapest light out there, but when you look at outputs it compares very favourably. The Strip Drive 150 Rear from Lezyne is £35 and offers fewer lumens at 150, though it's arguably more than bright enough and has lots of low modes to extend the battery life – up to 30 hours in the economy mode.

Spend less and the Blackburn DayBlazer 65 Rear (£28) is a usable, small and bright light at a decent price, but it doesn't have the same IPX7 waterproof rating.

Conclusion

Overall, I've been highly impressed with the Giant Recon TL 200. It's bright, easy to use (apart from the sticky mount), reliable and very bright, with a good selection of modes and decent run-times. No wonder it now lives on my bike.

Verdict

Excellent bright and reliable rear light for day and nighttime cycling