• Lumicycle Halide 2003
• £299.99 (£199.99 lamp unit only)
• www.lumicycle.co.uk

Since appearing on the market a good few years ago now, Lumicycle have built up a great reputation for making really good bike lights at eminently reasonable prices. Their original twin halogen/NiMH battery light is about half the weight and three quarters of the price of most comparable units, and is deservedly popular. The company’s latest model, though, is heavier and twice the price of the old. But that’s ‘cos Lumicycle have gone all hi-tech on us…

You’re probably familiar with the icy blue headlights that posh German cars all have these days. They’re metal halide lamps, brighter and more efficient than traditional halogen. Lumicycle’s High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamp works on a similar principle but scaled down. The advantages of the lamps over halogen are greater light output for the same wattage (Lumicycle reckon they’re around three times as bright as a halogen bulb), which means more light for longer.

This isn’t the first HID bike light. That honour goes to Cateye’s Stadium. But there are a couple of important differences between the two units. The most obvious is physical. HID lamps need a ballast circuit to provide a 6,000V “kick” to get the lamp going. Cateye house this in a separate unit that you need to find a home for somewhere near your bars. Lumicycle have built it in to a splendid retro-futuristic Dan Dare-style CNCed podule. It’s sort of egg-shaped with cooling ridges over the back and looks just great. The first Lumicycle light units were held in place with reusable cable ties, a little bit home-grown but we always appreciated the simplicity of them. The slightly heavier HID unit needs a bit more holding power, though, so there’s a new nylon quick-release clamp (also available on the halogen units).

The lamp itself is a 10W unit, half the power of Cateye’s offering which goes all-out for maximum brightness, using a 20W HID lamp. But half the power means twice the run time, and this is where the Lumicycle really scores with an epic four-hour run time. Or, to put it another way, about four Mountain Mayhem laps. Which is roughly twice as many night laps as we’ve ever been called upon to do…

But enough of this idle conjecture, what’s it like to ride with? Pretty bloody good, in fact. It’s actually a tad disappointing when you first switch it on, but it’s a quirk of HID technology that it takes a little while to warm up and attain full brightness. Full brightness is undeniably impressive. No, it’s not as bright as a Stadium, but it’s brighter than anything else. The unit’s available in two versions with either a six degree or 13 degree beam angle. We had the 13 degree model which offered an effective in-between beam pattern – not too spotty, not too floody. We certainly didn’t miss having two separate lights – there’s enough output here to go around. The bluey whiteness of the light also makes it look brighter than it actually is, and certainly succeeds in making everyone else’s halogen lights look all sickly and yellow and pale. And the new mounting brackets kept everything pointing in the right direction.

One of the theoretical disadvantages of HID lamps is that they don’t take kindly to being turned on and off a lot. We’ve got used to flicking halogen lamps on and off with twin-beam systems to tune the lights to the conditions. But the HID’s got enough run time (and runs sufficiently cool) that there’s really no problem just switching it on when you set off and off again when you get back. It’s actually quite refreshing, sort of singlespeedy – no faffing about trying to get the right amount of light for the trail or worrying about conserving power, just ride.

What else? There’s a choice of black or silver anodising, the system weights 860g and, er, costs three hundred quid. Yes, three hundred quid. Well, OK, £299.99 then. Now that’s a lot of money. It’s about the same price as the Stadium too, which is a bit of a departure for Lumicycle. But this is small-volume stuff from start to finish – Lumicycle don’t make many of them, the bulb manufacturer doesn’t make many of the bulbs and it all adds up. Owners of existing Lumi systems can just get the lamp unit for £199.99 as the batteries and charger are the same.

Median bulb life is around 1,000 hours – replacements are a hefty £75 but 1,000 hours is a lot of riding (eight and a half months of daily four-hour rides…) and they should last most people a few years. There’s a six-month guarantee should it fail prematurely.

So, big money. Is it worth it? Really only you can answer that. Occasional night riders and commuters would probably be better served with one of Lumi’s halogen systems. If you absolutely have to have the brightest lights available, then get a Stadium. But if you’re a dead keen night rider who values extra time on the trails and you’ve got the money, then this is a splendid bit of kit.

Verdict: It might not be the brightest light on the market, but we think Lumicycle have struck a great balance between output and battery life. We love the looks and the simplicity of it – switch on, ride, switch off. And it’s certainly bright enough. We can’t see ourselves spending three hundred quid on any bike light, but if we were it’d be this one…