Features:
Digital Pro – 12; 12 and 20 watt twin bulb headlight controlled through a remote handlebar mounted digital processor to give light levels from 3 to 32 watts (with automatic power saving) as well as flashing and ‘SOS modes’. Ni-Cad bottle cage battery.
Digital Headtrip; 15 Watt helmet light with digital processor to give four levels of light 6, 9 and 15 watts, with automatic power saving function. Ni-mh pocket battery.

Test logbook: Mountain biking in all weathers and enduring assorted crashes and abuse for the last 3 months.

Twin headlight in heavy duty unit, with remote switch off to one side.

Niterider Digital DP-12

Niteriders have been a cutting edge system for a while, with a whole lot of cunning packed into the remote control switch to give multiple run times and light options. Now they’ve been upgraded with a lightweight Ni-mh battery pack (for full battery tech. see Kev Hodgson’s reader feature), so is it still worth the extra cash over similarly powered lights?

Starting with the engineering side of the unit, the headlight is an extremely tough sealed unit that survived a whole heap of the (unplanned) abuse that comes as part of the night riding game. The lights are pre-focussed to give a mid width flood for the 12 watt and a slightly thinner, longer beam for the 20 watt. Coverage is good and though the light isn’t as clinically clear as Metal Halide bulbs such as the Cateye Stadium and Specialized Fireballs it’s easy enough for most situations.

The small digital brain that controls headlamp velcro’s onto the bars inboard of the shifters for easy thumb operation of the single button, which scrolls it through it’s multiple twin or single lamp outputs. The switch runs through in alternating double and single light phases of reducing intensity while holding the switch down triggers the flashing alert signal or the impressively ‘boy scout’ SOS signal which – you guessed it – flashes SOS to passing ships if you get into trouble on the rocks.

The head block sits on an equally tough rubbery nylon (rather than snappy plastic) clamp with an angle adjust ratchet for aiming the lights vertically. The fixing to the bars is offset so the headlamp sits dead centre of the stem and the clamp itself fixes with an adjustable hook and cam action (like those used on metal watch straps) which holds everything nice and secure if it’s adjusted tight.
The cabling is thickly rubber insulated for maximum durability (considerably better than other systems we’ve seen) with thick, tight rubber seals around the jack plugs and light sockets to keep the weather out. The battery cable is a coiled ‘telephone cable’ type that stops excess length flapping about.

We got Ni-Cads but all new batteries are Ni-mh which saves serious weight

The battery we got was last year’s which is a simple bottle full of Ni-Cads set up, but all the new systems use a Ni-mh battery upgrade which drops weight to 36oz (1020g) for the full set up where the old battery alone used to weigh more than that. Run times range from 1 hr 25 mins at full twin light belt, through to 6.5 hours in the gentle illumination of 6 watt power and 8.5 hours if you trickle along in the 3 watt “walk home” mode. Obviously switching between different power ratings and outputs depending on what you and the trail are doing affects these figures. A ‘smart charger’ also takes care of the battery to stop you frying it if you leave it on overnight.

The battery power is also handily displayed by a row of LED’s on the remote switch which flicker and then go out as your battery loses charge, so you won’t suddenly be left stranded in the dark. Not quite as clear are the little peephole light indicators above the lamps which let you see which of the headlights are on. The trouble is with 9 different options to scroll through from the single button it’s very easy to find yourself lost amongst the possibilities and you won’t be sure whether you’re burning through battery life too fast. You can scroll through the options and work out which is brightest from the 6 main choices, but it’s not the easiest or most convenient task when you’re trying to thread your way through technical singletrack at night, and some more obvious indicator would be useful to make the most of the light.

On the head, sun

The Headtrip is the smaller, top of the range, helmet mounted (no, really) single lamp from Nite Rider. It uses a 15 watt bulb which can be scrolled through 9 and 6 watt options and will revert to a 3 “walk home option” if battery power really fades. It also has the same SOS and flashing modes for emergencies or unconvincing UFO impressions. In normal modes the light is a slim flood beam which is spot on for picking out detail a good way ahead or round corners. It also has an LED bar for the battery life but as it sits on top of the light you’ll have to take off your helmet to see it or get a (tall) friend to read it for you. Expect to get a useful 1hr 45 mins run time if you’re running at full bore.

The lightweight, sealed head unit uses two long velcro straps to secure through helmet vents and this works fine as long as you get it set straight – otherwise you’ll be riding with a permanent squint off to one side. The same ratchet angle adjuster as the bar light is used on the mount, but once we’d got it on our head we always forgot which way to pull the tab to get it to move to correct the gradually increasing downwards droop that you seem to get with all helmet lights. It does mean you can run it as a lightewight bar light with the existing bracket though, if you get neck ache. The low profile button switch is well sealed but sometimes difficult to locate with fat winter gloves.

The thing which really sets this way ahead of other headlights though, is the lightweight Ni-mh battery which is only the same (roughly cigarette packet) size as those flat batteries Wonder lights used to take but weighs a lot less and slips easily into a jersey or jacket pocket. Hurrah.

Now it’s got it’s battery updated to a lighter Ni-mh unit the Niterider is back in contention with the new generation of lights pioneered by Lumicycle. It’s a great, super durable system with enough output for serious trail riding and very useful run time extending multi power options (once you’ve worked out their scrolling order). It’s Nite Rider brothers have also got some great long term reliability reports from our users. However it’s still over £100 more expensive than the Lumicycle which means you’d really have to like the dimmer switch action, or be a regular user of the SOS button to make it worthwhile.
The Headtrip uses the same bombproof construction and multi power options for tuning run times but it scores heavily thanks to the tiny lightweight battery which won’t drag your pockets down and still gives a decent run time. It’s still a pricey little blighter though.