English
Lupine Light Review
Now that summer is saying its final goodbye for the year and the nights are drawing in most people will be thinking about bringing the lights out of the cupboard or possibly investing in a new set to keep the wheel rolling all year round. From the beginning of the year I have had the pleasure to be running Lupine lights for my training rides and racing. I have been provided with Lupine Betty 7 main lights and a Lupine Tesla headlight.
When choosing lights there were a few important features that I require as a racer. First and most important is the brightness and light quality. The Betty is simply amazing as it can put out 1500 lumens, which is basic terms is very, VERY bright! The light spread of the Betty is quite wide with a very even coverage. The Tesla can throw out 700 lumens from its single LED and is more of a spotlight, which suits its use as a headlight perfectly. When used together they provide a tremendous amount of light which makes racing in the dark so much easier.
Burn time is the next most important for me, as the events I do can have as much as 12hrs of darkness. Although any system would work with enough spare batteries, the ability to ride for a long period of time without having to change the battery is a big bonus. During longer races I will use a middle setting on the Lupine lights, which give a burn time of over 4hrs from the frame mounted battery pack. If mega-long burn time is most important to you, then Lupine do the Betty 14, which uses a bottle cage mounted battery pack.
Another consideration for me is the overall system weight, which I obviously like to be as low as possible. The Tesla is very comfortable when used on the head because of it’s low weight and you can even put the micro battery on the back of the helmet as its so light. Personally I use a slightly larger battery pack and put it in either my jersey pocket or camelbak to give a longer burn time.
There are always compromises to be made when choosing lights. The Lupine lights offer the best mix of the above 3 features which make them a superb choice for racing, or just for night riding. On top of the main features the Lupines are renowned for superior quality. Despite many, many hours of use I have not had a single problem with any of the systems I currently use, or the Lupine Wilma 5 I had last season. Another neat feature is the ability to program the lights to give different light outputs, dimming settings and various other things. I have set my lights up to have a 3-stage dimming, which gives a full power main beam, 60% setting used for longer races and power saving mode for when a little less light is needed, or when trying to extend the battery life.
Overall these are easily the best lights that I have had the pleasure of using and give me a real advantage when racing at night. I would happily recommend these lights to anyone who is looking for a high performance light set!