Let there be light

I’ve been commuting to University and work by bike all year long for almost two decades and found that a good bike-light makes your ride in the dark not only safer, but also more enjoyable.

I remember having had boxy bike lights with mechanical switch, chunky C battery cells and not even halogen light bulb back in the 90s. My first proper light system, that was more than mere position signal, was a Sigma Sport Evo halogen light with an external battery pack. From there I switched to the Sima Sport Powerled and the Karma helmet light.

For some years now, I’ve been using lights by the German manufacturer Lupine Light Systems (external link), starting out with a second hand Wilma and Piko. Lupine lights are on the expensive side, but their service is superb. I once shorted out a light during heavy rain and bad positioning of the cable connection to the battery. They didn’t ask for a receipt or even date of purchase. I was simply asked to send in the light with a description of the problem. They replaced the PCB and kept me informed of every step. Within 5 days I got the light back as good as new with the battery reconditioned. I only paid for shipment once and got a the light repaired for free without any arguing.

While all those lights mentioned provided descent to great illumination, unfortunately they were not glare free and thereby not street legal according to German street code. A fact that especially Lupine reflected by advertising clamps for their light as intend for use with tent poles and some guy asked in a forum about how to best attach a light to his “all-mountain tent”.

Lupine’s first street legal bike light

In 2016 Lupine announced a street legal bike light fittingly named SL. So I sold the Wilma, which had provided me with illumination on countless night rides and some 24h races, and bought an SL lamp. It has an aspherical lens, like modern front fog lights on cars, to provide a sharp cut-off of the light cone. With that the 900 lumens output end up in front of the bike in a homogeneous blanket of light and don’t bleed off partially in the night sky. With all the output projected towards the ground, the SL easily rivals non-glare free lights with twice the output. The illumination also extends well to the sides, which significantly reduces the cycling-through-a-tunnel-feeling and shines some light into tight corners.
The SL also had a bonus-feature in the form of automatic switch to a daytime running mode, which consumed a lot less power. There were light sensors on the back of the light, which would monitor the ambient light levels and switch to between daytime and night time mode.

By holding down the switch on top to the lamp you could cycle through and select from a couple of modes and also adjust the threshold for daytime mode.

A bike light with high beam

In 2019 Lupine released the improved SL AF with Bluetooth remote control (named Peppi) and a genuine high beam aka trail mode. The light will not just become brighter by changing the modulation, but by switching on additional LED to provide light above the cut-off line of the low beam and boosting the overall output to 1300lm.

Separate lamp and battery pack have their advantages and disadvantages. When you put the lamp on your helmet, you can use an extension cable and put the battery in a back/hip bag or in the pocket of your jersey. This way you keep the additional weight on your head low.
A major drawback is having to install/remove both before/after each ride. But also there is the problem to keep and find both in my rucksack. In order to protect the lens and the cables in the depth of my backpack I put them in this a case for glasses with a soft lining.

Mini-me

In July I lost my SL AF – I’m not sure if it fell off or if someone removed it. All I can say is, the base adapter was still on my bike, but the lamp was missing together with the GoPro adapter.
As I mentioned before the Lupine lights are a bit of an investment, but since I am an early riser and commute for round about an hour one way, I prefer to have good illumination. In a bid to safe some money, I bought the SL AF’s little sister the SL Nano AF. It’s about half of the size, lacks a switch other than the Peppi and offers 700lm nominal output with high-beam mode at 1000lm. The brightness is effectively the same as with the SL, but the light is focused more in front of the bike in a narrower light cone. As with their predecessors the light will switch from daylight to nightlight mode by itself. Every thirty seconds or so it would shortly turn off for a fraction of a second and check ambient light levels. If it is dark below the threshold, it will switch to full on night running mode. Unfortunately it will not switch back, on it’s own. You can trigger the daylight mode by holding a button on the remote for a few seconds.
There is a good comparison of all the lights and their modes on the Lupine website (external link to Lupine lights comparison).

Back to the SL AF

The Nano is truly a compact powerhouse. But with the slow shift of the sunrise and increasingly longer ride times in the pre-dawn darkness, I found I miss the wider illumination of the SL AF.
Members of the German Mountain Bike Association (DIMB e. V.) get a discount for some supporting companies and shops. In case of the SL AF I could reduce the listed price by almost 50€ (more than double the annual membership fee). The light still was not cheap, but with the darker months ahead I decided to buy another SL AF and sell the SL Nano AF.

There is an even more powerful bigger sister: The SL AX with up to 2200lm high beam and 1300lm low beam. Why not try that one?
For starters the SL AX is a lot bigger, heavier and a lot more expensive than the SL AF and quite frankly the SL AF is plenty bright. There are motorised vehicles who’s headlights are outmatched by it. Bear in mind that increased brightness comes at the cost of power consumption and runtime.
If I really need to light up the trails bright as day in the middle of the night, I still got a Piko helmet light with up to 2100lm.

I noticed a few changes on my new SL AF compared to the first one:

• There is now a threaded steel insert, where before the thread was cut directly into the body of the light. On the other hand, the thread is only on the left side, whereas before the lamp was supported from both sides with the fixed mount.
• There was a second carrier for the Peppi for bigger bar diameter, to provide the matching size when the remote is mounted close to the stem.
• The option so select from different preset modes seems to be gone

Comparison

Summary

The Lupine SL AF and the SL Nano AF are powerful lights in a compact housing. Both will provide plenty of illumination for your rides in the dark and with their day running mode they’ll make give you a little edge to be more visible. Make no mistake even at only 2W the light is definitely noticeable even in bright daylight.
On top of that they give you

• a homogeneous glare-free and warm light
• high beam and low beam
• automatic switch between day and night running mode
• BT remote
• lots of mounting options
• there are specific e-bike tailored versions
• almost any part can be replaced and for certain lights upgrades are available

on the other hand

• the lights are quite an investment
• battery cost extra

So would I buy it again? Heck, i just did.

DISCLAIMER: I don’t have any affiliation with any of the companies or brands mentioned. I bought all the parts you see in the pictures from my own money and I don’t get any compensation for this article.