Your guide to bicycle light prices

By way of a handy supplement to our existing buyer’s guide articles discussing battery and lamp technology, here’s a quick and dirty rundown of what sort of lights you can expect to lay your hands on for what sort of money. Obviously there are a lot of lights out there and there’ll be plenty that don’t fit into these categories by virtue of offering either exceptionally good or disappointingly poor value for money – these are just average specs to give you some idea whether what you’re looking at stacks up.

In a nutshell, the more you pay the lighter, brighter and more sophisticated your lights get. Occasional users should look towards the cheaper systems, serious night-ride addicts or year-round commuters towards the pricier ones. As with most things, for most riders the optimum price will be somewhere in the middle – most of the lights that you can get for around £150 will be perfectly satisfactory for nocturnal off-road antics without you having to slow down too much…

Under £50

• LED or halogen commuter lights
• Basic halogen rechargeable systems

£100-200

• 32W halogen, NiMH batteries
• 3W SLED, Li-ion batteries

£200-350

• 32W halogen, Li-ion batteries
• 9-10W SLED, Li-ion batteries
• 10W HIDs, Li-ion

£350+

• 10-28W custom HIDs, Li-Ion batteries, microprocessor controls