The nights were drawing in and our regular club Wednesday evening MTB rides started to end in darkness for me, as the batteries failed on my ancient, but up until now reliable, halogen Cateyes. It was time to invest in some new and far more modern lights.

I’m the type of person who usually spends a whole lot of time researching a product before buying, but this time I thought, I’ll just buy an Exposure Maxx Daddy, the daddy of all lights. As I searched for the best deal I soon came to realise I was going to have to spend the best part of £300 and even I couldn’t think up a good response to the question “You spent HOW MUCH?……….on a TORCH!”. There must be another solution……….and there was.

It was while discussing the problem with a fellow VC10 member that Four4th lights were mentioned. Now, I knew nothing about these lights other than they’d been developed by a bunch of mountain biking engineers who needed a solution to the very same problem……so I bought a set.

What's in the box

The box arrived and I opened it excitedly to find a very compact and well made light which oozed quality. As I’ll be using it mainly for off road and was looking for a long burn time I chose the 10°  spot lens and the  4500mAH Lithium Polymer battery set in a black and red 500ml Four4th drinks bottle. In the box was also a very light and well made handlebar mount and a battery charger.

I plugged in the battery charger and connected the battery  to find it was already fully charged and ready to go, so it was off to the shed to fit the light.

Four4th LED Light

The handlebar mount has a foam backing and is attached to the bars with a simple rubber ‘O’ ring band. This was slightly too big for my standard bars but once I’d found a smaller replacement it fitted neatly and quickly to the bars. The light itself then slots into the mount and has 5 positions, so one will be right. It was a bit fiddly to fit the light to the mount as the ‘O’ ring, although the same thickness as the one supplied, slightly fouls the light as you slot it in. This isn’t too much of a problem and wouldn’t affect the optional helmet mount.

Four4th Handlebar Mount

The battery fits snugly into a bottle cage and has a 1.2m long cable which attaches to the light with a waterproof screw fit connector. Any excess cable can be easily stowed in the top of the bottle by simply removing the top and pulling it through. The battery itself only takes up about half of the bottle.

Once fitted it was time to test it out on the trails.

I set off on the short road ride to my local bridleway and decided to keep the light on low power until I was off the tarmac. First impressions were that it’s 4 LEDs were brighter on low power than my old 35w of halogen were at their best and the spot lens would be fine for the road. I arrived at the trail and with a simple push of the big button on the back of the light the bridleway was hit with the full 1200 lumens. Wow! This light is bright…..very bright! The difference was amazing.

Four4th button and waterproof connector

I can ride in the dark now in much the same way as I do in daylight. The ground is lit well ahead and there’s enough spread to lessen the effects of shadow in holes. I’ve run this light for about 3 hours constantly on full power with only  slight drop in brightness and with this battery I should have up to 6.5 hours of burn time on full power.

Overall the whole package is exceptionally good and with a retail price of under £200 it’s also good value.

The light weighs just 67g and the mount 16g so together they’re very light and aren’t at all noticeable on the bars. The battery including the bottle comes in at 478g but if you didn’t need such a long burn time the 2600mAH battery would be considerably lighter and will still burn for 3.5 hours. There is also a battery pack option which would be lighter still and combined with the helmet mount, could be kept in your jersey pocket.

Pros: Value, 1200 lumens, burn time, quality, easy fitting, loads of options

Cons: None so far

Niggles: The ‘O’ ring fouling the mount is a bit annoying, I must find a thinner one. The foam on the mount  is starting to come off the back, so I have to put some rubber from an old mount underneath to protect my carbon bars.

The Score: I was going to knock this light down because of the above niggles, but the pros  far outweigh what are really very minor faults and the light really isn’t that expensive, so it’s got to be………

Four4th

On a recent visit to Sigma Sport I spotted a new rear safety light called fibreflare.
Doing a fair amount of night riding on my road and mountain bike I always seem to have the wrong light or no light on the bike I am just about to ride.

The concept of fibreflare is a quick to attached and remove rear light.

It is powered by two AA batteries at either end of the flare which illuminate two led’s that shine down a clear acrylic rod.
Looking at the pictures on the packaging it also looked really bright and visable.

Does it work?
Really well in fact.

It has two methods of fixing to bikes, bags or clothing. These are two clips like a pen lid or straps which can be used to attach the light to a chain stay or seat post. On the evening MTB rides we attached the fibreflare to my Camelbak using one of the pen lid clips and the rubber band at the other end.

On my second ride a car pulled up next to me and I thought hear we go a happy slapper. The driver called out “excuse me can you tell me about that light” So I stopped and had a chat. He turned out to be a cyclist and was so impressed with the light. He commented that he had seen the light hundreds of yards away.

So far it has been really good. Highly visiable and easy to attach to bikes, clothing or bags. If I was fibreflare. A half length version would really good. It could be used by children walking home from school or walkers . It would also be handy for cyclists.

We will keep you updated on how it stands up to real world use and how long the batteries last.

Initial Conclusion
Well made, Innovative design. Bright and highly visible. Easy to attach.