Lezyne Mega Drive front light

Stunning light, the best

10 p bracket, the worst.

I got one of these for riding on unlit lanes during the dark winter months this year and it has vastly increased the quality of my winter training. 40mph descents on pitch black roads are really no issue with this thing.

I would however still recommend a bright helmet light like the Exposure Joystick to compliment for unlit country roads, as ultimately a bar light only illuminates where the bike points, and you tend to look into a bend before you turn the bike. I say this as someone who absolutely abhors helmet lights for in town use as the most antisocial and needless thing ever, but on unlit Scottish roads the combo cannot be beaten.

Hace you considered replacing the knurled knob with the appropriate sized allan screw?

One of the main reasons I bought one of the first Lezyne Super Drive lights a couple of winters ago was the fact that I could replace the battery. Extra batteries, as well as chargers and cases for them, are cheap and easy to find on the web. I think it's sad that replaceable batteries have become sufficiently unusual that they now market this as some amazing "infinite light" feature, but having a spare along has allowed me to do several rides I otherwise wouldn't have been able to.

However, it hasn't been quite the perfect light I was hoping for, for two reasons. Firstly, the switch started playing up in (not particularly) cold weather; it sometimes wouldn't register a click, which meant that the light was often stuck in a certain mode, or I had to try for several minutes just to get it to switch on when I headed out. A few times I had to resort to taking the battery out when I got home because it just wouldn't switch off.

Most annoying to me, however, is the bar clamp, which I believe is the same one used on all their "(something) Drive" lights. I'd wanted to use the light on my cyclocross bike, which has auxiliary brake levers on the top of the handlebars. The whole of the clamp's closing mechanism (bolt, bracket, everything) is positioned so that it'll be right in front of the handlebars, and there simply isn't enough distance between my brake levers and the stem for the brake cables to get that far out of the way. So I can only mount the light pointing either at the ground or the sky, neither of which are useful, or radically reposition or remove my brake levers, which I'm not willing to do. No other light or computer clamp I've ever come across has caused this problem. I've seen some very bulky locking mechanisms, but these have been at the back of the clamp where there's never been anything for them to interfere with. I'm disappointed that a company that prides itself on product design clearly didn't test that use case; I'm sure they could design a new clamp that would solve that problem and still work with their existing lights. (Incidentally, I witnessed someone in an LBS decide against a Lezyne light simply because he thought the clamp looked simultaneously flimsy and clunky, without even thinking about the issue I have a problem with.)

TL;DR version: Clamp design means this light could be incompatible with bikes with cross-top levers.

Through a combination of luck and Father Christmas I possess no fewer than three Lezyne lights, two front and one rear. They are all extremely well made, completely waterproof and tough. And they look good too.

But they are not perfect. My Super Drive, just like this Mega Drive, is recharged through a micro-USB socket and if there is a more unsuitable connection I have yet to find it. By their very nature USBs are fragile and the tiny metal connecting strips are flimsy, especially in the shivering hands of a cold, wet rider. In my haste to plug in before locking the bike in the garage one windy evening I snapped off a piece of the plastic socket housing. Everything still works OK but it's only going to get worse. Give me a robust co-axial socket every time.

And although the light behaved impeccably throughout its guarantee period, soon afterwards the recharging indicator began to flash intermittently or not at all. Once again, charging takes place successfully but now I have to watch the clock rather than rely on the lamp.

Overall I am satisfied with the lights and still think they are from the top end of the market, but they demonstrate beautifully that nothing is perfect. Not even a £100 bike light.

This light is a weird package. A Philips Saferide 80 can be had for less than 90 GBP, packs a little less punch but doesn't illuminate the sky as much, works with normal AA rechargeable batteries and has better battery life.

It's also made from aluminium, the charging mechanism works, and it's StVZO approved.

Granted, it doesn't flash annoyingly (how I hate this antisocial "feature"), but it looks like the Lezyne is considerably worse in every aspect.

How can this get 4 1/2 stars?

It's for the loaded pack mind. Normal one easily found for 100 notes or so

"£165...and best of all, doesn't cost the earth"

We have very differing views on pricing.

0/5 for this very poor review. Did the editor not check this before publishing? Or does a lot your sponsorship / advertising revenue come from Lezyne?

Oh, and just to add balance to my post. I have a Lezyne Mini Drive XL on my bike and I was happy to recommend it to others.

This is fine at either 250 or 500 lumens in traffic

' Flash.....the slightly less antisocial options handy in traffic.'

Mind boggling.

As the review implies, it's down to the charger AND board issue. It's not great, as stated.

But, to be frank, I'd not really want to charge this from a PC. I do mine with a wall USB (Original iPad charger). It's flawless.

Kudos as well to upgrade bikes, the UK importer. I dropped mine on a dark path and the tiny metal clamp bit fell off. Rang up, explained, new one in post. In fact they sent a spare as well.

"Lezyne confirmed that there has been a batch of circuit boards that are not registering correctly on the charge indicator. "

Then why haven't they recalled that batch of lights? If I had purchased one of this dodgy batch, it would certainly put me off the brand.

If it helps, mines fine.

How on earth can you give this £165 light a 41/2 out of 5 rating in view of all the charge / discharge problems you encountered? It's all very well Lezyne claiming its all going to be fixed, but my similar experience with a similarly priced light from Light & Motion a few years ago does not bear this out.

This charge / discharge flaw is so fundamental in a "quality" light such as this that you should have given it a 3/5 at best, until the manufacturer provides you with an amended product for further testing. If the problem has been fixed then by all means go ahead and upgrade the rating at a later date.