How to Choose the Most Suitable Safety Lights for Your MTB or Hybrid Cycle

Riding Bicycle at night time is one of the most enjoyable riding experience for the Cyclists. However, since visibility of cyclists are very low during night time, having good safety lights on your MTB or Hybrid bicycle becomes very important. In this article, we will share details on how to choose good safety lights. 

What are Safety Lights For MTB or Hybrid Bicycle?

Safety lights are USB chargeable or battery operation Lights which can be attached at the front and rear ends of MTB or Hybrid Bicycle. During the night time or dim light, safety lights increase the visibility for you and other vehicles on the road. Hence they keep you and your bicycle safe by avoiding any collision with other vehicles.

Choosing the right Safety Lights for your Bicycle

Since there are many options of safety lights from different brands in the market which might confuse you in choosing the right kind of safety Light for your Bicycle. Keeping in mind the few parameters while choosing the Safety Light for your bicycle will help you find the best suitable lights for your MTB or hybrid Bicycle.

1. Brightness Of Bicycle Safety Lights

Brightness of light is measured in ‘lumens’. The higher the lumens value, the brighter will be the safety light. If there is no visibility of your cycle after 10 or 20 meters on high traffic road or highway, then bicycle light in not suitable for you. Also, if your back or front light is so bright that it blinds the vehicle coming from front, it may lead to accidents as well . Hence, choosing the lights with ‘right’ brightness level becomes extremely important.  

A Rear Safety light in the range of 100 to 150 lumens is ideal for city or Highway use .

But front lights have two functions,
1) To make you visible to other vehicles on the roads coming from front 
2) The ability to see other vehicles and other things such as potholes, etc. on the road.
Ideally, you should be visible to the vehicles coming to you at a distance of 200 -250 meters to avoid any collision. Considering all these factors, a front light in the lumen range of 200 to 300 is good enough.

2. Ease of attaching and detaching the Safety Lights

The lights have to be easily fixed on the cycle and quickly removed from the cycle when not required.

Some lights need tools like a screwdriver to be fixed and removed. This takes time and hence riders often avoid removing them regularly when not in use. This increases the risk of the lights getting stolen. 

The lights also need to be such that they don’t fall off during jerks on the road. You can also look for lights that can also be used on your helmet and even on your t-shirt when not being used on cycle.

You can watch the entire video here.

3. USB Rechargeable Safety Lights For Bicycle

Some people prefer battery-charged lights where you need to replace battery regularly which most people often not able to do regularly and end up going for bicycle rides at night time without safety Light. Also, batteries have a negative footprint on the environment. If you use USB rechargeable lights, you are helping the environment and hence your future generations.

4. Protection from water

According to the degree of protection from water, safety lights have different ‘IPX ratings’. IPX rating indicates how much a type of safety light is protected against the intrusion of water. Higher the IPX rating more is the protection. Most of the safety lights manufacturers mention the IPX rating on their product boxes.

There are three types of safety lights with different IPX ratings –

1. Water resistant – These safety lights have an IPX6 rating and they work well during rain and moisture. They work even underwater to the depth of one meter.
2. Water repellent – These are IPX5 and work well in rains. However, these won’t work underwater.
3. Moisture resistant – These lights are IPX4 and work well in moisture only.

Budget or Price

Many times, community riders or weekend riders purchase expensive safety lights when cheaper lights can be used without any problem. A community rider can get safety lights on a budget of around Rs. 500 which will serve his/her purpose.

Which light mode Setting to be used During your Bicycle rides?

Safety lights have a few settings which can be adjusted according to your riding conditions. These are generally blinking, rapid blinking, and solid modes of lights. If you are on a long-distance ride and a highway, you need to use rapid blinking mode as this makes you quickly visible to other vehicles. On a community ride or when not on the highways, you can use the solid or the slow blinking mode to increase the usage time of your light per charge.

This was all about how to choose the right kind of safety light according to certain parameters. If you have any questions please feel free to ask them in the comment section below.