This tiny self-contained BYB Tech Focus LED headlight may be the highest-output, most-compact bike light we’ve ever seen. Cranking out a peak 5000 lumens of intense white light, the made-in-Italy Focus is as bright as a car’s headlights, so you will be seen. Yet, it is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, weighs less than fifty grams, and will light up the road in between flashing your high beams to alert other road users to your presence.
How does it work to make you safer? How long does it run? How does it not overheat? How much will it cost? Let’s take a closer look at the details…
BYB Focus ultra-compact 5000lm high-beam bike light
The BYB Tech Focus high-beam bike headlight is a bit different than most cycling lights we usually see. Instead of focusing just on delivering a high output all the time, or even just a constant flashing output, the BYB Focus is meant to be an ultra-bright high-beam that you flash to get the attention of other road users. Use it essentially like you might flash the high-beams in a car at another vehicle that might be about to pull out in front of you.
Since it is so incredibly bright at a peak 5000-lumen output, it’ll be hard to not get noticed either night or day. Plus, as it isn’t running peak output for more than a couple of seconds, the Focus doesn’t have overheating issue even with its tiny form factor.
How does it work?
Essentially you can run BYB’s Focus in three regular modes. In the most basic High-Beam only day mode, the light is off until you need it, then you can flash the high beam to alert another road user with either the button on the device, a wired remote, or a wireless remote on your bars. BYB says you get more than 200 of the peak 5000lm flashes on one charge, visible 2km/1.25mi away day or night.
For constant daytime visibility, you can also run Front Beacon mode which regularly flashes that peak output on & off for 20 hours of continuous use in one of four blinking/strobe modes.
Lastly, there’s a Low Beam mode that puts out 200-1200lm of constant light output, which is enough to illuminate the road ahead for 1.5-6 hours of low-light or night riding (and will still let you flash the high-beams when needed!) There’s also a Rear Red light mode that converts the Focus to a blinkie taillight instead if you need it.
The trick to it all is BYB’s almost infinite customization in their paired app.
Customization
We already know BYB Tech from their data-heavy mountain bike telemetry systems that compile a wealth of suspension & performance data and analyze it, in order to better help users customize their bike setup to go faster. And there’s definitely a good bit of geeking out on the data and customization here as well.
BYB teamed up with fellow Italian lighting engineering specialists Relio² to create the smart Focus bike light, and built a smartphone app that lets you easily configure your custom setup, and see how the changes impact your battery runtime.
Tech details
The BYB Focus is meant to be pocket-sized at just 66 x 41 x 16mm, and just 49g with a high-performance 1000Ah Li-ion rechargeable battery developed for racing drones, and all the electronics built-in. It even can be fast-charged in just 15mins by USB-C (or wired into an e-bike power system).
Inside, tilt, motion, temperature & brightness sensors allow for on-the-fly optimization of light output and improved functioning.
The Focus light comes standard with a GoPro style mount AND a Garmin-compatible quarter-turn mount for universal mounting. A wired remote to activate the high beam is included, said to be ultra-flat so it can be installed under your bar tape unnoticed. Or there’s an optional battery-powered wireless remote if you plan to move the Focus light from bike to bike.
BYB Focus high-beam bike light – Pricing & availability
Much like they successfully did with their first MTB telemetry analysis kit, the new BYB Focus high-beam bike light is being crowdfunded now on Kickstarter, through April 25. Starting at 125€ there are a few Super Early Bird deals remaining, but it will soon go up to 149€ for the standard Kickstarter deals (discounted from the anticipated 249€ retail price.)
BYB has already passed their Kickstarter funding target, Serial manufacturing is set to start in May – all made in Italy where BYB Tech is based – with deliveries slated for October 2022.
