The Best Bike Tail Lights (Review) in 2023 | Autance

If you’re looking to cover yourself during your rides and increase your safety while sharing the road with other vehicles, investing the best bike tail light should be your first stop. Below, we talk about what to look for in the right rear bike light for your riding requirements and give you the best bike lights to choose from, with the best prices available.

The Best Bike Tail Light

Best Bike Tail Light Buying Guide & FAQ

What to Consider When Buying a Bike Tail Light

• Brightness/Lumens

Arguable one of the biggest considerations for those who regularly cycle is the level of brightness that your bike tail light produces. Measured in Lumens (or lm), the brightness of your light improves your chances of being seen, whether that’s in the dark or during daylight hours.

However, it’s not always a case of simple getting the brightest bike tail light- in fact, experts argue that having a tail light with 300 or more lumens is more likely to cause an accident, by blinding the vehicle driver behind you. Instead, check out our explanation (below) of how many lumens are ideal for your bike light.

• Installation

There wouldn’t be much point getting a bike light that you aren’t able to affix to your bike, so check how easy your new purchase will be to fit before buying. If you know you’re not great with tools, or if you’re after changing your bike light regularly from one area or bike to another, you might be better off choosing a bike light that doesn’t require any tools to fit.

• Battery Life

There’s nothing worse than finding out, after your ride, that your bike tail light died at some point during your trip and not knowing. While it’s always important to check your batteries or recharge state, it can also be a pain to have to constantly run through batteries or remember to bring in your bicycle light to charge.

Instead, it’s much better to grab a tail light for your bike that has a very long battery life. AA and AAA batteries tend to have a shorter lifespan than those that run on C batteries will have a greater longevity but be harder to replace once they’ve run out. Of course, if you don’t want to change your batteries all the time, having a rechargeable bike light is the best choice of all.

• Modes

These are great for those who ride in all environments, as you can change the mode to match where and when you’re riding. For example, you could change your tail light to a flashing mode while riding in busier areas with lots of vehicles around. You can also now get lights that can change the level of lumens they provide, in order to best meet the time of day you’re riding in.

• Features

With so much competition out there, it’s often the additional features that provide the biggest factors in making a new purchase. This is very true when it comes to purchasing safety gear such as bicycle tail lights. For example, you might notice that many of our Top Picks come with an extra-wide viewing angle, which allows for a great reach when it comes to providing visibility to calls all around you- not just those who are directly behind.

Similarly, many newer models now come with audible warnings, as well as the basic light itself. This is perfect for cars who get too close while trying to overtake you on the road and can be a fantastic way to make other road users more aware of their driving, as well as being able to warn you to avoid the incoming vehicle as well.

You might also notice some great features in terms of the physical design of the bike tail lights. In particular, an increasingly popular option is to have removable lights that can be clipped elsewhere on your bike or body. These are usually tied in with items that require no tools, in order to be fitted- a great choice for riders who don’t want to spend half an hour adjusting and mounting their new bike lights, or those who like to bring their light onto different bikes with them.

Benefits of Bicycle Tail Lights

• Safety

Easily the most obvious and important aspect of having a bicycle tail light is the health and safety improvements that having a bike light attached to your bicycle brings. This doesn’t only count for you, either- you can avoid any potential accidents that can harm other road users, simply by adding a bike light either to the rear or front of your bike (or both).

• Law

In some states, making yourself visible to other road users is the law. In all states, it’s a legal requirement of cyclists to use both “active” and “passive” lighting in conditions that are considered to be of “limited visibility”.

In this context, the active lighting means having a light that is powered by electric or kinetic energy that works consistently. Passive lighting refers to reflectors or reflective material (the “passive” part being that the light provided by these is generated from other cars or streetlamps).

At this point, you might be wondering why you would need reflectors at all, if you have passive lighting but – as discussed above – the battery life of some active lighting isn’t always as reliable as we’d like. In these cases, you can consider the passive lighting as a failsafe mechanism that will get you buy in emergencies.

You should never rely on passive lighting alone, as often these are only lit up once the impending vehicle is very close to you. At this point, there are often only emergency avoidance techniques available to stop a collision, which can land the driver of the vehicle in a dangerous situation of their own.

While you do not, legally, have to equip or use lights in daytime conditions, you should be aware that “limited visibility conditions” also covers fog, heavy rain and so on. Thus, it’s a good idea to have bike tail lights available to you at all times, to ensure you are visible no matter what the weather or environment.

• Guidance

As well as being an important safety feature in warning other road users of your presence, lights are also a great way to keep you safe when used in poor conditions as they can help light up the way. Grabbing a bike tail light that is easily removed and placed elsewhere means you can utilize your new your bike light where you need it most.

Headlights vs. Taillights

While headlights are an equally important bike accessory, lights situated at the head of your bike are usually placed for the benefit of the rider. In these cases, the light is able to shine on the area directly in front of the bike, so that the rider can see what might be in the road of where they’re going.

This is especially important for off-road biking and rural cycling, where you are more likely to come across lumps and bumps in the road that can damage your bike and cause you to lose your balance and come to harm.

However, in terms of making yourself visible to other road users and keeping yourself – and others – safe, a headlight is limited by how quickly you are seen by traffic. Having a rear headlight not only makes your presence known on the road, but they’re also a great way of “watching your back”- since riders naturally face forward during riding and are more likely to lose their balance if continually looking behind them, having a light signaling your presence means you are less likely to need to look behind you, constantly.

Best Bike Tail Light FAQ:

Our Top Pick

With audio and visual aids for bike riders, as well as multiple different modes to give you a much greater flexibility in caring for yourself, during your ride, the Garmin Varia RTL510 hits our top spot of our Top Picks.

This is a very expensive option- however, for serious bike riders, you’ll find that there really is no comparison on the current market in terms of keeping you and your bike safe and sound on the road.

Sources:

1. Are Bicycle Lights Required? – Bikelaw
2. Importance Of Bike Lights And How To Choose Them Wisely – Thexfire