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BikeRay IV 1500 Lumens Light Review

Reviewed by: Essex Herts MTB - September 2013

This 1500 lumen light from BikeRay offers great run times, low heat & a very effective reflector. As night ride season approaches we run a detailed test.

Introduction

BikeRay IV Light Specification

• 1500 lumens 4 LED Cree X-PG
• 4.4 Hours Run Time @1500 lumen
• Handlebar & helmet mount + cable extension
• 12 Month Manufacturers Warranty
• Gift bag for storage
• User guide & battery care info
• Power Modes: Hi 100% Low 50% & Flashing
• Reflector: Mould optical glass lens 15 degrees
• Power supply: 6x 18650 cells - 6.6AH Battery
• Casing Material: Aluminium Alloy 6061 Aircraft material
• The battery is sealed & then has a third layer of heat-shrink over the top to secure the wire & ensure the seal stays tight.
• Run time: Hi 1500 lumens 4.4 hrs; Low 600 lumens 13 hrs & Flash 1500 lumens 150hrs
• Charging time: 4.5 hours (st&ard charger)
• Battery Indicator: 3 step fuel gauge Green 100~75%, blue 75~30%, Red 30~5%
• Weight: 465g fitted including battery
• Price: £109.95 from BikeRay

BikeRay IV Features & Design

• The light comes in a smart box with clear & easy to understand instructions.
• The inclusion of a head mount & storage bag is welcome.
• The BikeRay's aluminium body is well crafted, with some of the most extensive cooling fins we have seen. They wrap around the body increasing the cooling area like a big heat sink.
• The 4 Cree X-PG's are well positioned in the head, & the reflectors look smooth & well positioned. Overall it all looks tightly put together.
• The X-PG LED's are the same size package as the XP-E, but with a larger die. Therefore the resulting beam has a little more flood. This was evident when running the light.
• The BikeRay IV power /settings button is one the of the most tactile we have used. The little rubber indentations felt great.
• The extension cable means that you can choose the right cable length when either bar or head mounting the lamp.
• The battery looks to be well sealed & there is a reasonable amount rubber around it to protect it from impacts.
• The 6.6AH battery is not very large or heavy allowing it to be mounted in a variety of positions. When bar mounting, it fitted neatly under the front of the top tube.
• The BikeRay IV battery bag has a large Velcro loop & a secondary buckle to keep everything in place.
• Battery Indicator on the lamp is clear & easy to understand & when riding.
• Coming in at well under 500g the light is a very competitive weight.
• The light is only £109.95!

• The Cree X-PG’s aren’t the latest in LED technology, with the newer XM-L & XM-L2 offering slightly better efficiency & output.

BikeRay IV In Use

• The BikeRay IV charge time was as advertised. It seems to do a fast charge for the first 2 hours followed by a trickle up to 100%. As a result you get a lot of run time off only a couple hours charge.
• The fin covered housing, does a great job of keeping the lights temperature down. It’s one of the coolest lights we have tested even after being run for a few hours.
• The beam is very much a flood. The centre spot is not the brightest but the spread of the light beyond that is superb. We really liked the optics used on the BikeRay & they seemed to maximise the light generated by the 4 X-PG’s. Scroll to the bottom of the page for beam shots.
• The LED's are slightly tinted with just a hint of yellow. This helps you pick up trail features & is comfortable on the eyes.
• Unlike a lot of other lights, the blink mode is genuinely useful as its not blindingly fast. It’s a sensible speed on the Bikeray, & we used it extensively when getting to the trail head.
• The big backlit button on the rear made it very easy to switch between modes, even when riding. It looked nice too.
• We got 3.8 hours run time rather than the stated 4.5. That’s still excellent to be honest. The X-PG's can produce up to 493 lumens @ 4.9W. So in order to achieve 1500 lumens they would need around 15W. Over 4.4 hours & using a 8.4v battery, that needs a pack with capacity of roughly 8.0AH. That's 1.2AH more than the included pack. That may account for the 3.8 hours run time we got.
• The 3 step fuel gauge was useful & accurate. Each stage seemed to accurately cover about a 1/3 of the battery’s life.
• Without an elaborate test rig, its difficult to say if the Bikeray does pump out 1500 lumens. It uses 4 X-PG R5's which at 1000mA can produce 348-370 lumens each. So on paper it seems accurate. In use, its power seems to fit in between the 1000 & 2000 lumen units we have used.
• Durability so far has been good. The lamp has gotten pretty muddy recently, and after a good wipe down is a good as new.

• The excellent flood, comes at the expense of the lights throw, which is fairly average.
• You will need to supplement the BikeRay IV's flood, with a light on your helmet for fast single-track riding. We always ride with 2 lights anyway.
• Only having one button to cycle through options felt a little restrictive. It meant that sometimes you would activate the strobe, when you just wanted to switch between high & low or vice versa.

Test Info

• Tested when - Summer, Autumn for 2 months.
• Tester night riding experience - A couple times a week, for most of the year, for the last 7 years.
• Level of care for kit - Left muddy & wet.
• Other similar products used - Hope, Exposure, Ay Up, Light & Motion, SG-T2200, Magicshine.

BikeRay IV Beam Shots