This Bike Light Is INSANE… and 4 More Game Changers

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My selection of some essential products for winter cycling.

Content
00:00 intro
00:36 EXPOSURE LIGHTS TORO 16
6:27 Knog Blinder Link rear light
9:22 Ass saver mudguard
10:35 Castelli perfetto ros 3 jacket
15:30 Neon orange HJC Furion 3 helmet

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Winter cycling doesn’t have to mean misery, freezing fingers, and pitch black rides. Because this year, I found a few gamechanging products that for me have completely transformed how I ride through the cold, dark months. From light so bright they turn night into day, a bright neon orange helmet, and a jacket that might be the perfect for all the changeable conditions we have to face in the UK. These are four essentials that have saved winter cycling for me. So, let’s start with the one that blew me away the most. I’ve long been a fan of exposure lights because they just work extremely well and are super reliable. They have great customer service. I still have some that are 10 or 15 years old and they still work just fine. They also update them every year, but the latest update is the best yet because we now have finally a USBC charging port. So much easier to charge with a plug you probably have your phone or have a device. They come with a 40 watt charging plug. So you’re looking at a threeh hour charging time from empty. So super quick. I also love the fact we have the runtime displayed on the back on a small screen that gives you an actual number. So no little tiny LED to try and work out the runtime on a light. And you have this button to go through the different modes and see the run time for high, medium, and low. just makes life much easier to know how much run time you have left on a light than other lights on the market. So those are two features I really like about the exposure. The same across the entire range from their cheapest, lowest output to the most powerful, most expensive light. This is a Toro 16 and sits somewhere in the middle of the range and probably offers enough brightness, enough lumens for most people, barring the most extreme mountain biking you might be doing with a off-road light. It’s a great option for a mountain bike where trails aren’t too technical and gravel and bike packing. And I use it on the road as well. And it has, despite it small size, a maximum output of a quite staggering 3,850 lumens, which is just mindblowing. You don’t get that all the time, though. There’s something clever in the light called reflex. Essentially, accelerometers and other clever gubbins detect your speed and will boost from the the regular 2,600 in the high mode to that 3,850 when you speed up. So, when you drop into a technical trail, a downhill, the light will automatically and seamlessly brighten up to make sure you see where you’re going. But like I say, the regular mode is 2,600 lumens, and that’s still plenty bright enough. There are loads of modes to choose from, which you can customize through the button here to e the run time as you need from between 2 hours in the brightest setting up to 36 hours in the low power mode. I have three modes set up through here. So, high, medium, and low. I mostly use the the medium mode for riding on the road and off-road, and use the the high setting for more technical trails or a downhill. And even the low setting, the lowest power mode, is still plenty bright enough to see on a country lane when riding in the dark. The beam pattern, as you can see from the footage now, is really good. It’s a light design for off-road riding, but I’ll be using on the road just fine and gravel and doing everything in between. And it’s a nice round spot with smooth fall off at the edges with plenty of reach so you can maintain good speed and confidence when riding downhill and along your favorite roads and trails. So a good versatile light for like I say riding on the road and off-road if you like to ride a gravel bike or a mountain bike during the weekday. They do have a more road focused light in their range if you want that that optimized beam pattern for riding on the road. But this like I say on the road is just fine. The only note of caution when using this on the road is to use either a low setting. Don’t use that max brightness because you will dazzle other road users or make sure the light is pointed down quite a bit. It’s a really nicely made unit as well. CNC machine aluminum with the cooling fins around here like a heat sink and three LEDs inside. USBC charge port with that rubber cover to stop water getting in there. And the the quick release clamp works very well. It’s a bit fiddly, I find, to install it on a handlebar, but once it’s on in place, it’s very secure and the light doesn’t move around at all. There are also adapters to mount it on the GoPro uh clamps or on the front of the stem or on the on the stereo tube as well because on the handlebar, it’s slightly off center, but if you loosen this bolt here, you can rotate it around a bit to get the the beam in the center of your path. So, yeah, very nice clamp. Definitely one of the more robust, durable clamps out there on the market and a button to quick release and release this light from the bracket for easy charging at home as well. It’s too heavy to go on the helmet, but it’s so bright on the handlebar, you don’t need a helmet light at all. This gives you all the brightness you need for riding off road in the darkness. But the big downside is the price because £355 is a lot of money, but it is a very good investment if you are planning to ride through the winter, through a night a lot on the road and off-road. And like I say, I still have lights that are 15 years old. So this will easily last you 10, 15 years if not more. And the company does offer good after sale service and warranty if you have any issues as well. So for me, yes, it’s expensive, but the mantra of buy cheap, buy twice definitely ring true because I don’t have any lights that are 15 years old other than exposure lights. These have outlasted all other lights that on paper offer better value money, but the fact these last so well and they do a blooming brilliant job of lighting up the nighttime for me makes the price worth it. So yeah, pricey but cheaper than a smart trainer and I rather ride outside than on a smart trainer most of the time unless it’s really crappy wet weather. So that is the brand new Exposure Toro 16 review. Let me know what you think by dropping a comment down below and a link to come website down below. You’re going to find out more as well, but of course not sponsored by Exposure as all the reviews are independent and unbiased. If you are serious about riding at nighttime and you have bought a good front light, you also need a rear light as well. And if you have no interest in radar rear lights, which are quite popular right now, I’ve been very impressed with this one here from Nog, the blinder link rear light. It’s super bright at 100 lumens and they claim it can be seen from one kilometer away which is damn impressive and very handy on the road and should ensure other road users car drivers can see you very well indeed. There are eight modes to choose from and they’re pretty crazy uh modes as well. Very funky indeed. And a max run time of 50 hours. I quite like the low flash mode which gives 50 lumens and lasts 19 hours. So that’s probably two weeks or three weeks of riding at least if you’re commuting every day. So yeah, very bright. Make sure not to blind yourself if you’re looking at that. And what makes this light really interesting is the two mounting options. You know, I mount it to a rack if you have a pan rack on your bike for commuting or under the saddle rails. And under the saddle, as I’ve been using it, it’s much more secure than a seat post mounted light and doesn’t move about at all. The obvious issue here is if you have a saddle bag, it won’t fit. But I’ve been using on a gravel bike with tools and a down tube. So, the saddle is free and convenient to mount this light. And it’s higher up for a start as well, which helps. So, a bit further away from that rear spray coming from the rear wheel from water and muck and mud. So, a bit better protected and less likely covered in crap. And hopefully a bit higher for a road users that see it as well. The light can be easily unclipped from the bracket for charging as well as I’ve done here. And there’s a USBC charging port, but no cable provided in the box, but most people, I guess, will have a spare cable, at least in the in the house. If you don’t, then well, they’re pretty cheap to buy. It’s also IP67 waterproof, and I’ve put it through loads of punishment recently, riding the rain, off-road in the mud. They’ve been jet washed as well, and it’s still working just fine. There is also a hidden mounting option as well because off the bracket, you can also clip it to a belt loop or a loop on a backpack like that there. So, if you’re commuting, you have that option as well. So, that’s kind of handy if you need it, but mainly primarily designed to go on that bracket underneath the saddle rails or on a pan rack. So, a very welldesigned light, very durable in my testing experience so far. super brightness as well, but running in low mode, it does extend the battery life very usefully and some quite funky modes that I think helps it stand out better than smaller lights and yeah, a nice quality rear light. Again, not super cheap, but well made should last a long while. Another winter essential for me is a rear mug guard. If you are riding in the rain and along muddy trails like I do on a gravel bike, then do yourself a favor and buy one of the mug guards, the Ark Saver Win Wing. It’s pretty inexpensive and it’s lightweight and clips onto frame, any frame in seconds with two straps here. You adjust the angle with three holes there and does a really good job of keeping the worst of the mud and water and crap from the road and rear tire from going on your bum and your upper legs and just prevents that soggy bottom which nobody wants at all. Not a new product at all. Been out for a few years and I’ve reviewed it in the past. But bit of reminder of how useful and versatile a mug guard like this is. And like yeah, do yourself a favor. Get yourself a mug guard because if you are riding through the winter, you don’t want to do a smart training thing, then a mud guard will make life a little bit more pleasant. So, come loads of different colors as well. I quite like a jazzy one to brighten up my my bike ride. So, there we go. Definitely a winter essential and helps me ride through winter and I recommend one for you as well. Link to that down below. Another winter essential for me is Castelli’s brand new Peretto R3 jacket. And my goodness me, it’s a big step forward and quite a departure from the previous one. It’s now made from a brand new Po Techch Airore fabric. And the basic idea is about maximizing air flow to prevent you sweating inside the jacket, but giving enough rain protection for rain you’re actually riding or get caught in. So light showers. It’s not a hardcore rain jacket. They have jackets in their range for that. It’s a the go-to jacket for a range of conditions. It’s just an easy jacket to choose and wear for a wide range of conditions that I very commonly face here in the UK, as I’m sure many of you do. With a temperature range of between 4 and 14°, pretty much the whole UK winter in a nutshell, and commonly riding in dry but windy conditions and a risk of showers. I don’t intentionally go out in heavy downpours. I mean, he does see days when smart trains are as bloody good as they are. And that is kind of where the approach for this new jacket has come from. That realization that people ride indoors a lot more when the weather is super crappy than they used to. Yeah, some people still hardcore and are heroes and ride in heavy rain, but I mean, really, who wants to ride in heavy rain unless you’re a professional doing it for a living? So, it has enough rain protection for the showers you might encounter. If there’s a bigger risk of rain, then you’ll have a hard shell rain jacket in the pocket. But for those frequent showers you might get, this has enough rain protection on the fabric. But the breathability, the air permeability of the jacket is what really sets it apart from the previous version and other jackets on the market. So very breathable. It just stops you getting clammy. I’ve used on the club ride on a weekend and when you come to a stop at a junction, you’ve been hammering up the climb before it. I’ve noticed that I’m not sweaty. I don’t have that sweaty syndrome. The jacket isn’t covered in sweat marks and other people around me when inferior jackets essentially have the telltale sign of excessive sweat kind of stained temporarily stained on the jacket from working really hard. But this one is still dry. So that ability of the fabric to let air through, stops you overheating, and just keeps you drier and sweat free uh much more than the old version. What all that means is in my testing, my use of the jacket for the last 8 months back in February and then a bit of a gap for summer and now more recently in the autumn and heading into winter. It’s been a perfect jacket to reach for when the weather looks fairly changeable. or a bit of a mixed bag of rain, showers, and wind and cold. Just put this on with a nice base layer underneath. Tune that base layer to the temperature range likely to be encountered on a ride. And it just works extremely well. And what I love about it is a fit. That stretchiness means it’s really really comfortable to wear. It’s like a a jersey, like a long slee jersey rather than a jacket. No restriction at all on your freedom of movement. really a figure hugging jacket just fits you really well. What I will say though is because it’s more breathable than before compared to the old jacket, it might be colder with the same base layer in the same range of temperatures. So you might go to a bigger sort of thicker base layer, but it’s an easy change to make. I wear short sleeve marino base layer or a long sleeve sort of poly base layer underneath to match the conditions. It’s definitely a jacket that perform better for sort of higher pace riding. you’re riding a tempo to generate some heat which helps you stay warm. Not a jacket for my experience slow pace ride where where you definitely need to generate some heat. I like to go for a thicker base layer. So the new Peretto 3 really is the ideal jacket for most conditions, especially if you like to ride fast and hard all the time. The temperature range feels pretty good for me. Definitely runs a bit colder than before, but you can tune that with a bigger base layer or just ride faster. Uh but those days when you want a know a easy jacket to reach for for a range conditions barring heavy rain and you are riding at tempo it’s a really good choice. Also no nasty PAS chemicals either which is a bonus and one of the key development stories behind this jacket as well. Definitely worth checking out the Castelli website for more details on the background and development of the jacket. too much for me to talk about in this video, but I want to give you my sort of takeaway of actually using the jacket and living with it for the last well since February when I first started using it on the launch in Dona. And yes, I know it’s black and not everybody’s a fan of black, but other colors, brighter colors are available. I’ll put some up on screen right now. Personally, I choose a brighter color than the black here, but sort of a signature look and not everybody likes color. So, there we go. And finally, channel sponsor HJC has a brand new helmet. Well, a new color anyway. This is a Fiora 3, their arrow helmet, and now available in a bright neon orange, which definitely stands out. Perfect for winter riding in low visibility. It’s cloudy and overcast. And this should hopefully ensure that a road users, car users should see you more easily. So, yeah, definitely stands out. I’ve been wearing for the last few weeks and definitely feel safer when riding around my country roads. There are also reflective details at the back as well for nighttime visibility, too. So, an easy way to increase your safety and just feel a bit safer when riding on the road in low light conditions and helping other people see you more easily. Other colors are available, of course, white, gray, and black, but I think orange, yeah, it’s a it’s a bold choice, but a bold way to stand out this winter. You find out more about this helmet and other helmets from HJC by following the link down below the description of today’s video. And if you want to see some other winter essential products, then watch this video right up here.