NiteRider Pro 1800 Race Light Review

Late night trail rides and endurance races call for a light that’s brighter than the one sitting on the handlebars of your commuter bike. A light with 500 lumens might work well at dusk, but it doesn’t provide sufficient lighting when you’re speeding down a single track that’s enshrouded in darkness. The NiteRider Pro 1800 LED Race Light steps in when lower lumen lights aren’t enough. Producing more light than the average car headlight, the Pro 1800 will illuminate the darkest trails with what looks like the mid day sun. The light output of the Pro 1800 isn’t the only thing that makes it the go-to light for endurance riding. The combination of a lightweight construction and an 1800 lumen output make it an ideal choice when you’re going for speed and don’t want the added weight of multiple lights on your bike. Designed to cast a wide beam of light across the trail, the Pro 1800 uses CREE LED bulbs to create a bright beam that sustains battery life and reduces the amount of heat that the bulbs produce. The light has four solid settings — high, medium, low, and walk, plus a flash mode. Depending on your setting, the light will last for 1.5 hours at 1800 lumens, three hours at 700 lumens, six hours at 400 lumens, and 25 hours at 80 lumens. If you have the light on your bars or helmet, adjusting the light setting during a climb is simple with the easily-accessible output button on top of the light. The eight-step fuel gauge on the light gives you an accurate reading of how much battery is left — so you know when you need to hustle over to the service course for a battery swap. Since LED lights produce an incredible amount of heat, the Pro 1800 uses a Borofloat lens on the front of the light — this isn’t your average flashlight glass. Compared to the boilerplate tempered glass, NiteRider uses Borofloat, a form of borosilicate glass, that won’t shatter when your hot light falls into a cold stream after a jump-gone-wrong.