Light & Motion Seca Comp 2000 front light

The Light & Motion Seca Comp 2000 is a high-spec and very bright light for on and off-road riding. The beam pattern means you can ride into traffic at full beam and not annoy anyone. With its well-designed mount and mode options, you'll be enjoying it long after forgetting the hefty price tag.

On the face of it, the £250 Seca Comp 2000 is an expensive all-in-one light with relatively low power output for the price. But lighting is all about what you do with the photons on offer, not raw power – and the L&M team have hit a home run with the beam design of the Seca Comp.

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The design of the light is pretty much the same as a thousand others – a rubber ladder-strap mount, pivoting light, on-off button, micro-USB charging... The only notable extra is the second smaller button that controls the amber side lights in a pulse or on mode, but these are so weak as to be unnoticeable on foot at a dozen paces off, let alone from behind the wheel of a car on the other side of an intersection with dashboard lights in your face – so I'm going to ignore them.

The rubber-band strap mount is very well done – thick yet pliant, with a feed through-and-over routing that then secures tightly and doesn't budge down the roughest off-road trails. The light pivots firmly on the mount, so you can fine-tune the beam angle.

The rubber-ladder mount can be removed by undoing a screw under the rubber bung, to install a provided GoPro adapter that allows you to attach the Seca Comp on an upwards-facing GoPro mount. Obviously, with the beam orientation it needs to be facing upwards, so no, this isn't a hang-under out-front option.

There's a 'friction strip' of thin adhesive-backed rubber included, which you can wrap around your bar to prevent any hint of slipping. I didn't need it on any of my bars, but they are all shot-peened so have a rougher surface than standard alloy or carbon.

Charging

Charging is via the Micro-USB port underneath, covered with a rubber o-ring'd captive bung. These days USB-C really is the standard, allowing much faster charging as well as power output – it would be good to see the next Seca Comp come with USB-C.

Unlike with some lights, you can't charge and run the Seca Comp at the same time. This might rule it out for some long-distance riders, which is a pity considering how traffic-friendly the beam is.

Claimed charge time is four hours – which I measured pretty much bang on at 1.6A input (if your USB charger has a lower output, expect a longer charge time, obvs). Handily, the main button changes colour to let you know how charging is progressing – from red flashing, to orange flashing (at least 50%), to green flashing (75%), to solid green at 100%.

Operation

Turning on the Seca Comp is a single press of the large button to enter normal mode, starting with 2,000 lumens (90 minutes run-time), another press for 1,000 (3hrs), then another for 500 (6hrs), then a fourth press for 500 pulsing (9hrs).

The other mode is 'Race', where you only get high and medium, with a single press to toggle between. Entering Race mode is just a long press from off.

There's no memory mode – L&M expects you to learn how to start the light the way you need it. Personally, I'd prefer a memory function.

There's a lock-out function for travelling with the light in a bag, activated/deactivated by a four-second press of both buttons.

In use

I spent most of my time alternating between high and medium in Race mode, thereby getting about 2 1/2 hours out of the light. Having awareness of the charge status (green 100-50%, orange 50-25%, red 25-10%, red flash 10-5%, fast red 5%) made it easy to moderate behaviour, and the run-times slightly exceeded the claims.

Clearly, at 90 minutes on full and 3 hours on medium, with no ability to charge en route, this isn't the light for all-night audax use. But for commuting by road or evening mountain bike trail blasting, it's a winner.

I often completely forgot the light was on 2,000 lumens as I rode through towns and villages; not once in months of riding did a driver or cyclist flash their lights or complain. Not once. Yet I always felt I had enough visibility of trail or road hazards, even in towns with lights reflecting off wet winter roads. The beam down the road shaped by the two upper LEDs is perfectly tuned not to annoy – it's not German STvZO-certified, but it's a similar look. The diffused lower LED lights the immediate terrain for lower-speed manoeuvring.

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Going off-road on mountain bike trails in the dark, there was plenty of side, downwards and spot light to pick out the way. A bar light is never going to do the job of a helmet spot for seeing around corners or removing trail shadows, but I was perfectly happy knocking out red-graded rides. On long, fast gravel descents I felt there was plenty of light to do 40-odd km/hr without getting spooked.

The Seca Comp 2000 really is about the beam first and foremost, with the charging-awareness, mount and build quality ensuring it's a daily-use winner. The niggles regarding Micro-USB charging, lack of memory mode or power bank function are quickly forgotten in the joy that is a perfectly shaped beam you don't have to worry about when passing other road users.

The build quality is first-class and it comes with a two-year warranty. The battery should last between 300-500 charge cycles and is replaceable by Light & Motion for a cost – 'We charge a nominal price for repairs and if we can't repair it we will offer you a discount to upgrade to a current product'. Nice. The price to have a new battery fitted if/when needed is about £95 plus postage – you need to return it to L&M's US HQ. Given the investment up front, that seems reasonable to keep the light going.

Does all this add up to £255-worth of value? Not if you measure it in pounds-per-lumen – there are plenty of lights that deliver a better ratio on paper. It's seeing the light on the road or trail where its worth becomes evident.

The closest competition to the Seca Comp 2000 has to be the Ravemen PR2400 that Stu liked so much. The PR2400 hits the wishlist of USB-C charging, ability to charge other things, and you get a remote too – but there's the issue of having to cycle through all five modes, including flash, to go from high to low and back. Sigh.

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Looking at the beam comparison engine up top, the PR2400 puts a lot more light above the road than the Seca Comp does – that's my experience of other Ravemen lights, and you need to use the high/low switch to avoid annoying other road users.

So it really comes down to whether you want the fit-and-forget experience of running the full 2,000 lumens into oncoming traffic without worry, or if price and other features are more of a priority.

If your commute involves a few hours of fast road or trail with oncoming users needing consideration, I'd say the Light & Motion Seca Comp 2000 should be high on your list of options.

Verdict

All-in-one unit with an excellent traffic-friendly beam that throws a lot of light