NiteRider Sentry Aero 260 rear light

NiteRider's Sentry Aero 260-lumen rear right is an okay option for daytime visibility and some aero seatposts. It provides a bright day flash with good side visibility and is easy to operate. Run-times are good, with plenty of charge for several rides, but the form factor is rather large.

Boasting a super-bright 260-lumen output, the Sentry Aero 260 is a good rear light for daytime running in bright conditions. I found it good for solo rides during the day where the added visibility gave me extra reassurance when heading into heavily shaded areas. However, although it throws light to the side well, this seems to hinder the direct brightness.

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Getting the Sentry Aero set up is easy. A single press of the power button turns the light on, and there are just six settings to scroll through. Once you find the mode that suits your riding, the memory function will select it automatically after you switch off the light with a press and hold of the power button.

Although the Sentry Aero has a claimed output of 260 lumens, it seemed less retina-searing than Lezyne's 250-lumen Zecto Drive Max to my eyes, perhaps something to do with the amount of surface area from which light leaves the Sentry Aero.

NiteRider claims that the Sentry Aero is visible 260 degrees around the bike, and I certainly found the side visibility to be good, but there are excellent options that offer brighter side visibility from a much smaller profile. Moon's Cerberus boasts 270 degrees of visibility, and Simon found it to be just as bright from the side as it was from head on.

The Sentry Aero's battery life is good, with a run-time of a solid 4.5 hours on constant full power. This extends out to a claimed 30 hours on the lower-powered constant setting. NiteRider doesn't provide a breakdown of claimed lumen figures for the various settings.

I tended to stick with mode one, with a steady 260-lumen flash, as most of my riding has been in the evenings with the sun dipping down into the eyes of other road users. This saw me through three or four post-work rides, and the 2.5hr charge time makes recharging easy.

The Sentry Aero comes with two mounting straps, one short, one long. I used the long one for my aero seatpost, but while it was fairly secure, the curved rubber mount didn't sit well on the flat back of my seatpost and the light ended up at an angle on several occasions. Mounted on round seatposts, there was no issue.

The big issue (literally) that I have with the Sentry Aero is its size. NiteRider provides no data to suggest that the deep shape of the light is more aero, and there are some very good lights from Lezyne and Moon that offer similar power in a much smaller and sleeker form factor.

Moon's Cerberus is also cheaper at £34.99, with a larger field of visibility, though it doesn't provide the same claimed lumens (150 max). Lezyne has two excellent options in the form of the Strip Drive Pro 300 at £50 and the Zecto Drive Max at £48, so both a bit more than the Sentry Aero but both brighter too. All three offer a smaller form factor as well, if you're looking for something more sleek.

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NiteRider's Sentry Aero is easy to use, with a simple mode system and good memory function. However, I didn't find it as bright as others that offer a similar field of visibility. It's also a bit bulky and doesn't fit well with flat back seatposts.

Verdict

Good side visibility, but not as sleek or as bright as some