The Best Mountain Bike Lights of 2023

While we certainly appreciate all the amazing technology present in some of the premier brands we tested, unboxing the Light & Motion Seca Comp 2000 ($230) was a welcome throwback to simpler times. It’s just a light, a handlebar mount, and a charging cord.

The self-contained unit is intuitive and boasts plenty of power and burn time. It charges completely in 4 hours with any standard micro-USB cable, is waterproof to 1 m, and is about as idiot-proof as it gets.

The Seca Comp 2000 was the overall favorite for anyone who loves night riding but hates the tech complexity of many of the other brighter lights. We’d heartily recommend this as a beginner light to everyone exploring night riding for the first time.

Its brightness and decent flood/spot combo beam let you ride trails with confidence. And it’s equally at home in a commuting setting with great daytime visibility modes and optional side lighting.

The only sub-$100 light to make our list, the Fenix BC30 ($90) has a lot going for it. It’s also the only light on this list to use replaceable (2×18650 or 4xCR123) batteries. Our adventure race team has been using some variation of this light for the past 5 years, and it’s still our go-to for many expedition races.

The V2.0 has a wireless switch that is welcome on any hair-raising technical terrain. Its burst mode activates a 2,200-lumen blast for 30 seconds — a great feature that comes in handy on descents and doesn’t impact the burn time bottom line by too much.

For big trips, we love that we can stock up on readily available and relatively cheap rechargeable batteries and still have enough power for nights upon nights of riding. But that comes with one catch — the unit’s waterproofness.

Its robust IP67 rating only applies when it’s sealed. Changing batteries in the middle of a midnight rainstorm is a delicate procedure that could lead to a shorted light if water gets into the battery compartment.

Check out our review of the Fenix BC30.

The Vis Pro 1000 Trail’s 1,000 max lumens are on the absolute minimal end of what we consider a viable light for serious night riding. However, we love it for bikepacking where light weight, durability, budget, and functionality reign supreme.

The Vis Pro 1000 ($130) has myriad features that make it our favorite for this discipline. At 120 g and waterproof to 1 m, the light is barely noticeable and bombproof. This self-contained unit also switches easily from bars to helmet so it can be used as a primary headlight in camp at night.

It charges completely via USB in 2.5 hours. And it can even maintain its 150-lumen output while charging, which is just enough light to grind gravel for as long as it takes to make that perfect camp.

We were not huge fans of the beam pattern on the Vis Pro 1000 for high-speed singletrack. And the simple rubber mounting system was not 100% stable on extremely rough terrain.

If you’re looking for one light to accommodate multiple disciplines — say, if your hardtail doubles as a commuter — the RAVEMEN PR1600 ($134) does a lot well on the trail or the road. For MTB use, it offers a remote switch, so you can amp up the lumens without stopping or taking your hands off the grips. And an external power pack allows you to extend the stated 1.4- to 4-hour runtime.

RAVEMEN’s design leverages a DuaLens approach. For sheer lumens and visibility while riding singletrack, the right-side lens boasts an automotive headlight-quality beam. This bright flood casts bright white light far ahead — up to nearly 500 feet — providing the visibility necessary to navigate challenging terrain.

In MTB mode, the lumens range from 400 up to the namesake 1,600. Plus, passthrough power allows you to extend runtime by connecting an external battery pack.

And when you hit the commuter bike path, the left lens of this adaptable light has a dipped-beam design so the ground ahead is visible. Also, oncoming cyclists, pedestrians, or motorists won’t be dazzled by your light. In this mode, the light toggles between 100 to 800 lumens (plus a flashing option) with an eco-mode runtime of up to 20 hours.

Together, this handlebar light and Hangover helmet mount light make a super-beautiful combo ($375) that gives one of the most pleasant beam patterns we’ve experienced. One of our testers swears it’s the best light on the planet.

And when the lights were working as designed, they do seem magical — not so much turning night into day like some of the overpowered behemoths in this test, but more turning night trails into ribbons of beautiful vivid contrasts that beg to be ridden fast.

The helmet light’s simple slick GoPro mount and 105g lamp head weight make it disappear on the helmet. The handlebar light’s mounting is secure but nothing special. It’s not a center mount, but this is hardly noticeable due to the amazing beam pattern.

The beam — wow — is designed more akin to a car headlight, with the philosophy that brightness matters less than the actual pattern of the light. In practice, this translates to performing far beyond its listed 1,800 lumens. But we still wouldn’t call it a downhill-specific light.

Our only reservation with the EVO Downhill system is we didn’t get near the advertised burn times in either light. The lights’ adaptive mode (which starts on high and slowly, unnoticeably dims as your eyes adapt to the dark) is great in theory, but we found it noticeable.

We had a great experience with customer service when one of our lamp heads had a faulty cord connection. All of our testers loved this light the best for any short-duration (sub-90-minute) cross-country rides!

If Apple and Tesla collaborated on a mountain bike light, the result would be something like the 3,200-lumen Wilma R 7 Light System ($605). Sleek, powerful, amazing form factor, expensive — and named after a Flintstone?

On the upside, all the batteries work with all the lamp heads. And most of the seemingly infinite accessories are highly cross-compatible. Still, we found the process of building a light system and setting it up a bit daunting.

For example, the lamp head bar mounts only fit a precise bar diameter, which will render your light unusable if you choose wrong. Once set up, this light felt and looked like it belonged on my custom-built dream bike.

We could spend an entire article on all the options and configurations available with Lupine. But instead, we’ll just say the possibilities feel endless compared to every other brand on this list. Want the light on your head, helmet, bar, or boat? No problem.

Need a huge battery for a mega race or a tiny emergency battery for your huge light? Gotcha covered. Monitor your battery life and adapt the brightness settings via smartphone? OK. The Lupine Lights Wilma R 7 can handle it all.

Lupine is best thought of as a lifetime investment in a lighting system that can grow or adapt as your desires do.

Designed in New Zealand (but readily available through U.S. distributors), the X2 Adventure ($269) was not a standout in any specific category. But it is certainly one of the best values out there for the money.

It just does everything pretty well and is super customizable. It comes with the hardware to center mount on bars as well as a helmet (GoPro) and headlamp strap mounting configurations. Unlike some lights in this review, the svelte 209g battery and lamp head make it barely noticeable up top.

The max 1,700 lumens is just enough to let you feel confident at speed. And the 1.5-hour burn time (on high) is just enough for most of our casual night outings.

The X2 Adventure light is preprogrammed with a commuter mode with two brightness levels. Plus, it has a flash (with a much longer burn time) and a trail mode with four lighting levels.

It’s also completely programmable, allowing the more particular user to set light levels (and needed burn times). But the features that really clinched its best-value status were the wireless remote switch and the multiple lenses included, which allowed us to optimize a beam pattern for each rider’s personal preference.

The Six Pack ($508) was one of the most unique lights we tested and a hands-down favorite for a few of the riders. It’s a whopping self-contained unit (about the size of a beer can), and its name comes from the cluster of six intense LEDs.

With an anodized aluminum body, a robust centered bar mount that adjusts for 31-35mm bars, and a max 5,000-lumen output, the light would be a solid contender for several categories.

Its Reflex+ technology uses four sensors in the light to collect data. It automatically changes the light to maximize burn time and output, depending on the need. It brightens when you are raging downhill or taking corners at speed, and then it dims on those long, arduous climbs.

Stop to take a break, and the sensors dim to almost nothing. In short, it does all the things you would normally do if you were riding and trying to conserve power but with no buttons to push.

For us, this was a game-changer. There are certainly riders on the GearJunkie staff who have dropped their bike to get a remote race checkpoint on foot, only to return 30 minutes later to find they’d left on the high beam and don’t have enough power left for the rest of the ride.

With the Reflex+, we know the light will create the best possible adaptive lighting for an all-night ride. The light has several other programmable modes and some simple online tutorials to ease the complexity for a technophobe.

The Six Pack is available in a sync version if you want a wireless remote, but we found this unnecessary due to the reflex mode.

One tester dubbed this the “portable sun.” The NiteRider Pro 4200 Enduro ($498) is the pinnacle light designed for high-speed, long-duration, intense trail riding.

Many lights in this test have better beam patterns, more programmability, nicer form factors, and wireless functionality. However, few can compare with the Pro 4200 Enduro’s ultimate usability when it comes to going fast downhill after sundown.

Most of our testers never even felt the need to switch it to the blazing 4,200-lumen high beam. The Pro 4200 Enduro feels a bit brutish rather than elegant. It has a wired remote switch and a massive eight-cell battery that can give the light a 16.5-hour burn time at 600 lumens. NiteRider’s center bar mount will also fit the new enduro standard 35 mm bar.

It comes at a high price tag, but if you want to strap on your armor and ride things at night that make most mountain bikers tremble during the daytime, there’s no better light system. And if you’re concerned about weight or price, it’s worth checking out the Pro 2200 Race ($309).

The only potential downside is the IP64 water-resistant rating. It will stand up to serious rain, but it might not fare as well as some of the other lights we tested if your adventures see you swimming your bike across rivers. For this, check out the Lumina Dual 1800 ($180).