iFlash One magnetic bike lights

The iFlash One magnetic bike lights are a great idea, reasonably well-executed, but their magnetic attachment isn't up to the job.

There's a lot to like about the design ideas in these simple, compact front and rear lights, but we had the rear one bounce off over a fairly small kerb, which makes it impossible to recommend them unless you only ever ride on very smooth roads.

You get a pair of iFlash lights for your money with ingenious mounts that wrap round your seat post or handlebar and are held in place by the mount for the magnet, which clips in. They're very tidy and thieves will probably be puzzled enough to leave them alone.

The lamp unit then pops into place and is held in place by an NIB magnet. Each lamp has a colored band in the back to indicate whether it's front or rear, and the two have opposite polarity so you can't put them in the wrong mounts. That also lets you clip them together in your bag.

You can switch the light between constant and flashing modes with a tiny internal switch tucked in the body, and turning the lens against the body switches it on and off. It also switches off when you take it off its mount. Unfortunately, it turns back on if it touches anything ferromagnetic in your bag, like coins or keys.

If it sounds like there are a lot of clever, likeable details to the iFlash One lights, you're right. Unfortunately, they fail in two important respects.

The first, as mentioned earlier, is that the magnetic attachment isn't consistently up to the job. It bounced off after a fairly gentle bump down a kerb. Then, of course it turned off. Fortunately, this was on a fairly well-lit road, so it wasn't hard to find.

Its other shortcoming is that it's simply not very visible compared to similar lights without the cleverness. There's only a single LED and the lens concentrates its light into a very narrow beam. If you're not directly behind it, it's harder to see than other LED lights.

A less damning, but still annoying problem is that it runs off four CR2032 lithium cells. Buy them in reasonable bulk from Amazon and they'll cost you 20p or so apiece, but run out unexpectedly and dash into Asda and you'll pay almost ten times that. That makes these expensive lights to run if forward planning's not your strong suit.

The price is converted from Krone, so may change if the iFlash one finds a UK importer.

Verdict

Lots of clever ideas, but the execution and brightness isn't up to the job.