Aootek Bike Light
Aootek Bike Light
Simon Whiten
Preview of the Aootek Super Bright 300 Lumen USB Rechargeable LED Bike Light
Strange time of year to be looking at bike lights perhaps, but evening crits and chaingangs still require you to have some lights with you on safety grounds. Aootek are an Amazon retailer specialising in lights, and not just bike lights. In fact this is their only bike light, so we were a little curious as to what we would receive. On paper the Aootek bike light looks like a cracking little unit and once in hand, it does not disappoint…
For a start, as its name suggests, it is very bright. With it set on high, you certainly won’t need much more power than this, even if you live in the back of beyond. It has two other settings besides super-bright with a medium and a flashing mode. The 3 watt CREE LED provides 300 Lumen over up to 250 feet of coverage, which would be enough for even most off-road excursions, and it is certainly well up to the sort of late-evening training runs and post-evening crit commutes I find myself doing nowadays.
Run time is good with 2.5 hours for the high setting, enough for most training efforts after dark; then it’ll last 6-hours on the medium setting and 8-hours on the flashing mode. The Aootek bike light packs a Li-Polymer, 3.7V/1200MAH battery that is rechargeable, so you don’t have to worry about replacing the batteries every month or so. The simple USB connector means that you can even charge it at work via your computer with ease. They claim that the Aootek takes between 2-4 hours to charge. We will see.
It is very compact making it easy to carry in your commuting kit or race bag for the evening crit, and it doesn’t take up much room on the bars when you are riding. The aluminium and hard plastic casing is fully waterproof and it actually looks really good. I suppose you could say it looks aero as well?
Fitting the Aootek bike light to the bars is easy and, unlike many lights that come my way, you get two types of fitting. One is the usual bar mount tightened by means of a quick release lever that will fit most bars. The other mount is designated as a helmet strap but is actually very versatile and allows the light to fit to my hugely oversized Deda 35mm bars! Hurray! You can quickly remove the mounts from your bike to go into full race mode, or you can remove the light from the mounts if you are commuting and don’t need your bike fully stripped to the bone.
Final thing in its favour is that the Aootek bike light is currently, at the time of writing, just £15.99 on Amazon Prime, a huge saving off the £30.99 RRP, which even in itself is not a lot. In the box you get the light unit, two types of mount and a USB cable.
If you are in need of a new, small and lightweight, yet very powerful front light, perfect for those Spring and Summer nights when you stay out a little later than planned, then this Aootek bike light looks to be just about ideal. I am currently testing it and will report back soon with a full review.
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