NiteRider Lumina Micro 450/Sabre 50 light set review

As mid-range light sets go, the NiteRider Lumina Micro 450/Sabre 50 combo is pretty good, combining a pretty powerful front light with a visible rear light with plenty of modes to choose from.

Most of your £60 is going towards the front light, so let’s start there.

The NiteRider Lumina Micro 450, as you might be able to guess from the name, pumps out 450 lumens in its highest mode, all from a relatively small light measuring just 9.5cm long and 3.8cm wide. This diminutive size is very useful if your light is battling for handlebar real estate with other things like your Garmin and action camera.

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On its highest mode NiteRider Lumina Micro 450 is just about bright enough to tackle unlit lanes, although I’ve decided to play it safe on test rides, sticking to roads that I know and not tackling too many high speed descents with dodgy road surfaces.

The beam pattern casts the light a little further ahead than with most other front lights, which is fine if you’re on a road that you cycle along regularly, however it means that potholes and dodgy road surfaces aren’t lit up quite as well as they could be, giving the occasional unexpected bump.

One thing I would have liked to see was a bit more side visibility, with the NiteRider Lumina Micro 450 being all but invisible when viewed from the side. However, at least there is a little hood over the light that stops drivers from being blinded.

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Other than the 450 lumen high mode, the NiteRider Lumina Micro 450 can be put into two other constant modes at 90 lumens and 200 lumens, which are useful when riding under street lights. There is also a flashing mode and a low power 20 lumen mode which is there if you want to use it as a torch.

Obviously battery life depends on which mode you’re using, but in general it is good. On high mode the battery will last for 1:30 while on low it will last for four hours. This should be more than enough given that the light is USB rechargeable in 1:45/3:30 (depending on the power source that you’re using).

Finally, the mount, which is tool-free and similar to a watch strap in its design. This means that it will fit a wide variety of bar sizes (including aero bars) which is a nice touch, and the light is held securely in place, being easy to remove at the end of a ride.

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Moving on to the rear light, the NiteRider Sabre 50, which despite sitting three from the bottom of the American company’s extensive rear light range, performs very well.

Here there are no fewer than six different modes to choose from: three constant modes of different brightnesses (with the maximum brightness of 50 lumens being more than enough for a rear light), two flashing modes of different speeds, and a pulsing mode (which I found myself using most of the time). Thankfully there is also a side light so sideways visibility isn’t a problem in the same way that it is with the front light.

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Battery life is also pretty good, ranging from 1:30 to 7:30 depending on the mode you choose, with recharging done using a micro USB cable and the power button on the front changing colour from blue to red when you’re running low on juice.

Unfortunately not quite as good is the mount. Like with the front light, the mount is designed like a watch strap. However the strap is nowhere near as long, meaning that it won’t fit aero seatposts, which is a real disappointment seeing as the slightly more expensive NiteRider Sentinel 150 is equipped with a much longer strap.

For more details visit the NiteRider website.