IB14: New Bicycle Lights from Light & Motion, Fortified and Gloworm

Light & Motion’s Urban gets completely rebuilt from the inside out. It looks the same, but it’s all new where it counts. The original was getting about a 4% return rate, so they wanted to make something better. Now, it has an IP67 rating, which means it remains waterproof for an hour in a meter of water and passes a 1 meter drop test. It’s also thermally more efficient, so they could bump the output up to 800 lumens on the top model.

It also gets new packaging and colors, with each model getting a basic and bright color option. Choose from 350 up to 800 lumens with prices from $69.99 to $179.99.

They also updated a few other models and added options. Those, plus a look at two more brand’s latest goods, below…

The Urban keeps the side light ports to enhance others’ overall ability to see you at night.

A new tail light mount (sold separately) will fit aero seatposts.

The VIS360 now comes as a running kit with a proper head strap (shown on right and below) as standard with the 120 lumen model. The helmet mount still comes included with that and the 250 lumen option, for which the headband is an added option.

They get about three hours run time for the combined head and tail light set.

Not shown, the Taz commuter light got a massively bright 1500 lumen upgrade this spring for $299.99. Light & Motion is a big proponent of the FL-1 testing standards and has arguably pushed its main competitors to adopt the standard, too. The result is more truth in advertised output and run times, so we all win for their efforts.

The original bicycle lights from Fortified offered a six-shooter style and theft proof design and quickly met their crowd funding goal. That approach worked so well, the guys there used it again to raise $200,000 for the Aviator and Afterburner lights shown here.

This pair’s design is a bit different, using a removable battery with built in USB port for quick charging. The process for opening the light’s body to get to the battery is a bit tricky, which is intentional – it’s a safety feature to prevent people from stealing the battery. Of course, it’s a custom battery just for these lights, so it won’t do a thief much good since the light itself is pretty well secured to your bike.

The front has two options – 150 lumens ($69) and 300 lumen boost edition ($99). The rear follows suit with 30/60 lumen options ($49/$69). Run times range from 2 hours for full power up to 10 hours on blinking mode. The battery is micro USB rechargeable and ships with a cable. Check ’em out here.

Gloworm Lights has a new GoPro style helmet mount, allowing you to quickly and easily snap their lights into any helmet, bar or other mount with GoPro’s fitting. It’ll also snap into a compatible base plate for standard helmet mounting, too. It’s not available yet, but we’re pretty excited about the clean integration it offers.