Best bike lights 2025: ensure you are seen year-round with daylight running

The best bike lights tested & rated, including how much to pay, the features you need, and our pick of the best for every eventuality

Cyclist riding on a bright sunny day utilizing daylight running modes to still be seen
(Image credit: Future)

The best bike lights are most commonly used during autumn and winter's dark and cold nights. However, they are also essential safety features during daylight hours, and many now feature daytime running modes, helping you to be seen even on the brightest summer days.

Every year, Cycling Weekly seeks out the best bike lights and puts them to the test. This year, our team tested more than twenty-five of the latest lights, evaluating more than just their brightness. Our main considerations include build quality, battery life, and, by far, the most important factor: how the light beam is projected on the road or trail.

Joe Baker
Joe Baker

Joe is an ex-racer and prolific bike rider. You might wonder how that makes him knowledgeable about lights. Joe is more than happy to regal stories of the days grinding away in all weathers and at all hours to squeeze his training in and around life and work. Up at 4 am or not back till 11 pm, come rain or shine, Winter and summer. Meaning that Joe relied heavily on the best bike lights to see him safe and through those dark hours on the bike.

Hannah Bussey

Hannah is Cycling Weekly’s longest-serving tech writer, having started with the magazine back in 2011. She has covered all things technical for both print and digital over multiple seasons representing CW at spring Classics, and Grand Tours and all races in between.

Hannah was a successful road and track racer herself, competing in UCI races all over Europe as well as in China, Pakistan and New Zealand.

For fun, she's ridden LEJOG unaided, a lap of Majorca in a day, won a 24-hour mountain bike race and tackled famous mountain passes in the French Alps, Pyrenees, Dolomites and Himalayas. 

She lives just outside the Peak District National Park near Manchester UK with her partner, daughter and a small but beautifully formed bike collection. 

With contributions from