BBB Strike Duo 1200 LED Front Cycle Light

The BBB Strike Duo 1200 LED Front Cycle Light is well made and boasts both great battery life and a very bright output, for a good price, but it's not without its flaws. For more options, check out our guide to the best bike lights.

As the name suggest, this has a maximum output of 1,200 lumens, and is a very capable light to ride with in the dark and see any upcoming obstacles with ease.

With five solid output modes, from 50 lumens up to that headline 1,200, it offers run-times from 40 hours down to 1hr 45m at full brightness.

The beam pattern is oval and perfect for seeing all of the road ahead, with the brightest section in in the middle but a decently wide throw.

Using the full 1,200 lumens it's impressively bright; I would never find myself needing any more. It's plenty bright enough to light your way down a dark, twisty and technical lane descent, while providing plenty of lighting for the edges of the road – so you can see any wildlife that may be lurking there. You can ride in this mode for an hour and a half, so if you're a less confident night-rider you could easily light your way on a shorter ride.

The BBB didn't arrive in time to be in our beam comparison engine, but check it out if you want to look at other lights' performances.

Most of the time I found the 500-lumen Standard mode to be sufficient to ride on the road in the dark, and that gives a crazy four hours of night riding.

For the majority of the riding I do, though, my favourite mode is the daytime flash, or Dayflash as BBB calls it. This puts out 400 lumens in a quick flashing pattern, and has a pretty incredible run-time of 100 hours. There's also a 200-lumen flash, which lasts 60 hours.

I was pleased to see that BBB has thought about glare for the rider, too, designing the case so it overhangs the top of the lens. This means that, unlike some, no light will shine up into your eyes, which can be super distracting. This makes night riding a more pleasant experience.

Mount

Mounting the BBB Strike Duo 1200 is a straightforward and simple affair. It comes with a silicone band that's super quick to just wrap around your handlebar, and then the light itself has a quick release connector to the mount, so out of the box the light can be on your bike and good to go in less than 20 seconds.

I say good to go, but I did run into an issue: if I mounted the light on a section of handlebar without any bar tape, there wasn't enough friction for it to not slip when I hit a pothole. I had to mount it on the electrical tape at the end of my bar tape, where it's sat fine since without any problems.

Another slight grudge I have with this mount is that it can't be rotated, so if you like having your light mounted on your stem, you can't do that with this one. However, it does sit quite far forward and reasonably high, so I haven't once run into the issue of hitting my knee on it when I'm out of the saddle, which is something that can happen with others.

Operation

Operating the light is straightforward. It has just the one button, which you press and hold to turn on, with a single tap cycling through the constant beam modes, and a double-tap taking the light into its flashing modes.

BBB has included a memory function, too, so when you turn the light back on you get straight into where you left off. This is great if you like using the daytime flash and don't want to go through the hassle of getting back to it every time you go for a ride.

Run-times and charging

Charging the light is easy: there's a large bung over the USB-C port at the back of the light, making it super easy to get at and plug in. It takes around two and a half hours to charge, as claimed, which isn't super-speedy, but the long run-times make up for it.

It is possible to charge the light on the go, too, if that's something you might find useful, but just be aware that this means it wouldn't be waterproof, as the bung is what gives the light its protection. It's good to have the option to use external power if you are out for a super long night ride, though.

One fairly major issue I ran into, though, was not knowing how much life there is left in the battery. Though the Strike Duo 1200 has an LED under the button, it doesn't display the battery percentage, so there's no way to tell how long you have before the power runs out, which is a big drawback.

The only indication you get is when the light is running low, then the blue LED flashes, telling you it needs recharging, but it's a bit late by then. The beam also dims rather than stepping down to a lower output automatically, if one is available.

At the very least I'd have thought that a single tap when the light is off could give an indication as to the battery level.

Value

That aside, at £74.95, it's well priced when you look at some of the competition.

The Cateye AMPP 1100, for example, is now the same price (reduced from £94.99) but you lose 100 lumens, while the Cateye Volt 1700 can put out another 500 but costs £179.99. (Iwein reviewed the Volt 1700 last year.)

The Blackburn Dayblazer 1000 is a tenner less, but as its name suggests, you lose out on max brightness. (John reviewed it last year.)

Conclusion

Overall, I have been really pleased with this light. Its daytime flash is super bright, with an incredible battery life, and its night riding capabilities are excellent for the price. Once I'd put it on a taped section of bar, I loved the quick release mount, with just the one button to take the light off without having to remove the entire mount. The only real drawback is that there's no way to see how much life there is left in the battery. It does last ages though – so just keep the power topped up and it's a great light for the money.

Verdict

Well priced and more than bright enough for fast riding in the dark, but needs better indication of battery life