Ravemen PR2000 USB Rechargeable DuaLens Front Light with Remote

Switching on the Ravemen PR2000 is to become Oppenheimer at the Trinity test as 'the radiance of a thousand suns burst at once into the sky', and as with that first nuke, the Ravemen has a user-friendly remote switch. At 2,000 lumens this is absurdly bright and, if not quite a destroyer of worlds, it's really nicely made, and at less-fallout-inducing settings it lasts well too.

I'm starting to think there's a point where more power is just more, rather than actually better, when it comes to lights. Switching the PR2000 between the full 2,000-lumen and next setting (1,000 lumens) on an unlit road shows that the distance you can see doesn't really change. Rather, the unit just floods the middle section with more light, which is nice, but 1,000 lumens is already plenty even at 20-25mph on pitch black and winding country lanes. I certainly found it enough even for poorly surfaced and debris-strewn roads, at almost any speed, and rarely reached for more. No doubt oncoming drivers were pleased about not melting like the Nazi at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, too. Or was he a Roman? It's so hard to tell.

To be fair, Ravemen's own recommendation tops out at 1,000 lumens for road use, with the full 2,000 reserved for mountain biking. There the extra power might be useful for blasting rough trails at speed, but you'll still need a headlamp as well to really read the details.

Sticking to 1,000 lumens helps the run-time, because full power drains the 6,000mAh battery like Nosferatu in a nunnery after Dry January. The big red numbers of the fuel gauge are very easy to read, but as they count down the hours in increments of 0.1, they theoretically (I'll come back to this) tick down once every six minutes. Decent accuracy, sure, but it's fast enough to induce a little anxiety once below one hour on a cold night.

At least dropping to 1,000 lumens doubles the run-time to around two hours, and you've got usable settings below that should you want greater duration still. I found even 500lm usable on slow/medium roads in total darkness, and you can climb on 250lm without issue. The lowest 100lm setting would let you crawl home in a pinch. In lit areas, even 500lm does a great job of getting you seen and clarifying what's heading for your wheels, and lasts a claimed 4.5hrs from full charge.

Helping make the dimmer settings useful is a smoothly consistent beam with no noticeable dark patches and lots of spread to the sides. The only issue I had on the road was with noticeable shadows from the hoods; the supplied bolt-on clamp is fairly tall, but not that tall.

The clamp is strong and secure, so I've zero complaints there, but the rail-type quick release for the lamp means there's no chance of getting this on an out-front mount. That's a shame, though for urban use the QR works well, and on flat bars there's no issue anyway.

The build quality is pleasingly good, and the largely aluminium body cools efficiently – this can get hot if stationary in warm air, but on cold nights or with airflow it's fine. It will noticeably step down the output if it gets too hot, then flick back up once cooled – something that affected my full-charge-to-flat bench test as it seriously stretched the run-time. Out in the real world the PR2000 basically matched the run-time claims, such as on a 2°C night ride where it dropped 0.3 on the LED readout every 20 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, indoors it didn't even drop 0.1 over 20 minutes; it actually took 45 minutes to do that. This obviously makes a mockery of the readout numbers, as they don't adjust even though the unit knows it's dropped the power output (seems you have to officially switch modes to get an updated time), but still, the countdown remains a useful indicator in real life.

Wireless remote

Meanwhile, the remote makes adjusting between outputs easy, even purely by feel and in winter gloves. That said, while it's physically easy to use, I feel the two buttons could function better. Click into road mode with the top button and you get five settings (1,000, 500, 250, 100 and a steady 100 with a 500lm flash) to cycle through via the lower button, but if you're on, say, 500lm and want to go brighter, you have to click through all the others first.

Another press of the top button puts you in mountain biking mode, which has just three settings – 2,000, 1,000 and 500lm. Again, you cycle through them with the lower button, and it's fewer to go through, but this time you might be unleashing the light of a thousand suns when you really don't want to.

For me it would be better if the top and lower buttons went up or down on power, so you didn't have to cycle through dim/incandescent/flashing modes you don't want, and the less-called-for mode switching was done via long presses. These buttons support that: the lower button gives you instant full beam for as long as you hold it.

As it is, the only way to switch from full beam to dip and back is to keep swapping modes via the top button, which effectively gives you a 1,000/2,000lm dip and main; a 2,000lm main you don't really need and a very bright 'dip'...

With barely over one hour (1.1 claimed) run-time, that headline 2,000lm is not something to rely on for constant use anyway, and unless you're going mountain biking (even on gravel the 1,000lm setting is fine) you have to wonder if it's really worth having. As good as this light is, there are less powerful yet more usable options for all kinds of riding except running on pitch-black singletrack trails. Still, if you do want that power and need more duration, you can plug in external cells to the USB-C port, though it'll only work to a maximum 800lm while charging. There's also a USB output so you can use it as a powerbank to charge other devices – if it has the juice.

Value

While £149.99 seems reasonable given the quality, performance and spec, you can still spend quite a bit less – so long as you stick with direct-sale brands. The £89 Magicshine Evo 1700 Underneath Mounted Bike Light is almost as bright, can hang from an out-front mount and also has a remote, though that remote isn't as easy to use by feel, the beam shape is odd and it's also short-lived at full blast. It's a big, chunky unit too. Mount aside, the PR2000 works better, especially off-road.

Magicshine's Allty 2500s is more powerful still for £119.99, and has a good beam, but the app that controls it all isn't up to much and the unit can get pretty hot.

I personally still really rate the Gaciron Kiwi-1200 Anti-Glare Bike Front Light, which is not nearly as madly bright, but still excellent even on pitch-black country lanes. It's a great balance of performance, size and weight with a reliable run-time and build, and costs just £50.97 (or £59.06 with a remote).

Check out more options in our guide to the best front bike lights.

Overall

With its rigid metal and plastic build, chunky mounting, official one-metre rating for impacts and strong IPX8 waterproofing, the PR2000 feels up to the task for proper off-roading, where the three-brightness loop will cause no real problems. For road riding, however – especially as it misses a real opportunity with its fundamentally impressive remote – it actually needs to make up for its megaton overkill in brightness, size and weight, rather than rely on it as a reason to buy. And again, as good as this is, it doesn't really do that. It's a good light, but others work better.

Verdict

Really well made and very bright, but would benefit from less power and more control