Lezyne Super Drive 1250XXL

Lezyne's Super Drive 1250XXL sits second tier in its Performance range of front lights, and for the price of £104.99 it offers a lot of bang for its buck. The actual light that is; the clamp is a bit of a pig.

The main body is a CNC machined lump of alloy, which always provides a quality starting point in terms of aesthetics and all-round durability, with it being a pretty much sealed unit to keep water and dirt out.

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At the rear you'll find a tight fitting rubber cap, which covers the charge port, and it works well with no signs of water ingress when riding in heavy downpours for a few hours. The rubber cap is quite bulky though, which can make inserting the supplied USB cable a bit of a pain as it sits a good half an inch inside the light body.

Performance is good, with the maximum output being selectable when in the Overdrive setting – a claimed 1250 lumens. This lights the road up for a fair distance, although I'd say it is a little too bright for oncoming cars, especially as our beam comparison engine shows the light pattern as being quite round with a bit of a peak at the top, mimicking its LED layout. Personally I'd prefer a wider, flatter beam for road use, like that of the similarly sized and shaped Hope R2i tested back in 2015.

Losing that bit of extra width means the 1250XXL doesn't have the spread to pick up both verges on a country lane descent clearly enough, affecting perception.

Going back to Overdrive mode, once selected by pushing the main button for five seconds, you have two modes available to you. The 1250 lumen (1hr 50m burn time) and 250 lumen Economy (9:15) which is a bit of an odd choice. I'd like to have seen the 625-lumen (3:45) Enduro mode from the Race setting used instead, as the 250 lumen isn't bright enough to use on unlit roads. Using a 1250/625 combo would give you good output for general use, with the Overdrive being available for high speed technical sections – a main beam/dipped beam setup like you would use on your car.

For the majority of my riding, then, I was using the Race setting where you get a choice of five modes: 950 lumen (2:40) Blast, 625 lumen (3:45) Enduro, 250 lumen (9:15) Economy, and two 'be seen by' 150-lumen offerings, Flash (30:00) and Pulse (35:00). Both of these last two are bright enough to be seen during daylight hours without being too high powered for riding in urban traffic at night. I never found it ideal filling a driver's rear view mirrors with a strobing sun at rush hour.

Again I've got some niggles here. I'm not a fan of having to scroll through a flash mode to get from low beam back to high again. For instance, I might want the brightest setting because I've just turned onto an unlit road from a lit one, so at the darkest point of my ride I have to go through a flash and a pulse before being able to see again. I'd prefer to see them on a separate setting of their own.

Saying that, though, the three solid modes are perfect for flicking between on the road for various conditions and help to really prolong the battery life. You can easily do a three-hour-plus ride without worrying about running out of juice.

The main power button is lit and shows various colours for differing battery life: green for full, red for 50%, before flashing red when you have just 5% left. Burn times were very close to those quoted once the battery had run a few cycles, as it is normally after three charges that they settle down.

Charge times can take up to eight hours from flat, or six if you use high efficiency charging from some USB ports.

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The clamp is a curved piece of rubber attached to the base of the light, with a ladder style rubber band looping around the handlebar and over the clip of the bracket to keep things tight. To make fitting easier, you can twist the light body by 90 degrees to attach the rubber band.

The trouble is, the light not only slips around the bar (a 257g light is quite a lump for such a small clamp to hold firm), but on rough roads it can easily twist left and right rather than pointing straight. I felt that I was constantly tweaking the light to get things right. There is the option of purchasing an alloy thumbscrew clamp for £11.99, which I think would make a good investment.

As far as value is concerned, I think the 1250XXL is pretty reasonably priced against similar others I've tested. It feels just as well made and durable as the Hope R2i I mentioned earlier, and even if you consider adding the alloy clamp the Lezyne comes in at around 70 quid cheaper. They are practically the same weight with similar power outputs too, although as I have already said the R2i has a much better beam pattern and is just so much better to live with on a daily basis. So it's a toss-up of how much extra you'd pay to avoid the frustrations of the 1250XXL.

The recently tested Tumble & Fall sounds like it suffers from a lot of the same issues as the Lezyne, and although brighter for the same money, it is much heavier.

In conclusion, there's a lot to like about the Lezyne; it's a solid feeling light with some decent modes and burn times, but there are too many niggles for me to be able to live with it on a daily basis, for commuting, for instance.

Verdict

Good output and battery life from a small light, but an annoying clamp and mode selection