Knog Lil Cobber Rear Light

The Knog Lil' Cobber has a cute, quirky exterior but behind it there's a seriously good light that ensures excellent visibility, particularly from the side. It has a clever integrated USB plug for cable-free charging, and while it's plugged into a computer you can customise its modes via Knog's ModeMaker app. All this does make it more expensive than other lights with this lumen count, but if you're after a commuter light with exceptional side visibility you might decide it's worth it.

The Lil' Cobber has a lot going on for such a small light. The most important thing – and obviously the whole raison d'être for a bike light – is visibility, and it does an exceptional job of that. Passing a junction whether during the day or at night is always a tense time for a cyclist, and with the Knog's curved bank of miniature LEDs I felt able to relax more than with lights that point straight backwards.

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I wouldn't say it produces the 330 degrees of light that Knog claims – unless I missed something in trigonometry at school – but I would give it at least the 270 degrees that the Moon Cerberus claims.

Compared with the 150-lumen Cerberus, which uses a similar system of Chip on Board (COB) LEDs, the Lil' Cobber is not as searingly bright with just 50 lumens, but on flash mode it looks far more than a third as bright.

The popular Exposure TraceR supplies a more intense beam with its single LED and 75-lumen output and would probably be a better choice for road riding in the countryside, where most traffic approaches from directly behind, but for city commuting with roundabouts, junctions and heavy traffic coming from all angles I would go with the Knog despite its lower power.

Modes and app

The Lil' Cobber comes with five pre-programmed modes. If you download and install the ModeMaker app you can choose from 12 more and customise them all for flash speed using a slider. The only issue with this is that the default modes have their factory listed run-times, but once you start customising you have to go and find out run-times for yourself.

I slowed down the day flash mode to give it a bit more than the listed seven hours, but I was pretty happy with the five default modes otherwise, so didn't find the ModeMaker app particularly useful.

> 6 tips for cycling at night

As I mentioned in the intro, you don't need a cable to charge (or program) the Lil' Cobber, it has its own USB plug that you stick straight into a USB port. However, it is possible to plug it in the wrong way round, and if you do that, the red ring around the switch won't come on and it won't charge. Unfortunately, the right way round in the back of my iMac turns it upside down so that I can't actually see if the ring has turned green to indicate full charge, and have to hold a fingertip underneath to check.

In use

The Lil' Cobber comes with a mount for a round seatpost and one for a bladed seatpost, plus four rubber bands of different sizes. It takes a bit of practice to slide the light into the mount – again, there's only one right way round – but once there it's secure, with an extra magnet acting as the braces to the belt of the plastic clip system.

I've used the Knog on three-hour rides on bumpy lanes with some fast descents as well as for commuting and have found it stays perfectly in place. Really, it's so lightweight at 22g that there's no danger of it bouncing out.

Many lights are not easy to operate with gloved fingers, especially on the move, but if you set off having forgotten to switch on the Knog it's easy to reach back and do it, thanks to a positive-feeling button that protrudes just enough.

IP67 waterproof rating (standard for modern phones, electronic devices and the like) is justified – it got a drenching on its first ride and has been left outside in rain on my commuter tandem and has always worked fine.

Run-times

The default flash, which uses the full 50 lumens, was the one I used for solo daytime riding. Before I slowed down its frequency via the app to eke out a bit extra, I found I was getting about 6 of the claimed 7 hours out of it, but the ring around the switch would turn red to indicate low charge after 2.5 hours, meaning I would need to remember how many hours it had done unless I wanted to keep topping it up.

On full constant mode (claimed 1.4 hours, I got 1.3) the ring turned red after 25 minutes. This is the opposite of what Steve found with the Knog Big Cobber. In his case the ring would only turn red with 15 minutes of charge left.

Value and conclusion

The Knog Lil' Cobber is expensive for its lumen count compared with other lights. The Giant Recon TL200 is a tenner cheaper for four times the lumens, while the Moon Cerberus is also £10 cheaper at 150 lumens.

The much-loved Exposure TraceR Mk1 comes in at the same price (for 75 lumens) but is made from metal rather than plastic.

However, the Lil' Cobber is better than any of the above lights at being seen from side-on and more, thanks to the wraparound LEDs, so for ultimate commuting confidence you might be happy to pay slightly more.

> Buyer’s Guide: 18 of the best rear lights for cycling

In its description, Knog calls this a commuter bike light – in fact it claims the Lil' Cobber is 'the best commuter bike light of 2020'. That's not an unreasonable claim, but to get full marks I would like more information from the battery indicator, more detail about custom run-times from the app, and I wish it wasn't upside down when charging in the back of my iMac.

Verdict

Literally brilliant for side visibility in a commuter environment; expensive because of clever but not always essential features