I’ve been strapping old headlamps to my handlebars just to get by, but winters here in Finland are long and dark - and it’s downright miserable riding without proper lights. So I finally bought my first dedicated bike light, and oh boy, I should’ve done this years ago.

Unlike in the picture, I mostly ride trails, so what I really need is a wide beam rather than something that throws light 150 meters ahead. This one has both. From left to right: low beam, high beam, and both combined. It’s rated for about 4 hours of runtime on the max 1000-lumen output when using either beam, and around 2 hours with both on simultaneously. In my experience, the low beam alone is plenty, and I actually really like the warm color tone.

The light itself was only 60 euros, which isn’t bad at all. The only downside is the built-in (6400mAh Panasonic) battery. I almost went with the Fenix BC26R instead but decided against it. I did see a guy with a proper light bar on his bike once - that thing looked ideal, but I bet it set him back well over 200 euros.