Best list of helmet lamps with battery 2023

Leaderboard for helmet lamps: Velomotion tests modern helmet lamps for trail use. Here you will find all information about our individual tests. You will also find general tips on the subject of night riding and driving with a helmet lamp.

Helmet lamps: What is important?

The fun factor of a night ride largely depends on the helmet lamp. To ensure that this is as high as possible, there are a few things to consider: The light field is the illumination characteristics of a helmet lamp. This shows how well the route is illuminated. The even, slightly centered illumination is more important than the headlight range. The cone of light should illuminate both the close-up range and the far-range as evenly as possible. A cone of light that is too narrow increases tunnel vision – it is harder to see any dangers along the way or directly in front of the front wheel.
Of course, the intuitive handling of a helmet lamp is also important. After all, we want to cycle and deal with the technology as little as possible. The simpler and more intuitive a system works, the more fun it is on the trail.
Last but not least, factors such as the burn time and the weight of a helmet lamp also play a role. If a system consumes the available energy too quickly on long descents, you are suddenly in the dark. However, the burn time goes hand in hand with the battery size: If the systems become too heavy, this in turn reduces the fun on the trail. Our list of the best helmet lamps brings light into the darkness.

Helmet lamp test Silva illumination — The light field of a helmet lamp is individual and shows the illumination quality of a trail.

Before the purchase

A decisive factor when purchasing a helmet lamp is the helmet - after all, the lamp should also be easy to mount here. With the many models and shapes that the market has to offer these days, this is not a matter of course. A typical problem area is the visor of a helmet, for example. If this is very long and attached high on the helmet, the helmet lamp cannot be attached so far in front of the helmet. As a result, the lamp illuminates parts of the visor - this casts a corresponding shadow on the ground. This allows the area immediately in front of the front wheel to be shaded. In addition, not every helmet mount can be attached to every helmet. This depends on the shape of the helmet mount as well as the shape and arrangement of the ventilation slots in the helmet.
If in doubt, we therefore recommend that you take the helmet with you when you buy it in a retail store and try it out. Some helmet lamp manufacturers also supply adhesive pads. With these you are more flexible, but you also have to find a suitable place on the helmet for them. It also doesn't hurt to ask the helmet lamp manufacturer, because they often have experience with different helmets.

Leaderboard helmet lamps - mounting position — If the helmet lamp is too far back and the visor is too big, an annoying shadow can appear. Obstacles directly in front of the front wheel are therefore in the dark.

Battery mounting on the helmet — Exemplary assembly problem: The battery of the Lupine Pico can only be attached to the top of our test helmet, but attachment to the back of the helmet is intended.

Driving with a helmet lamp

With reason in nature

Helmet lamps open up a nature experience at times when the inhabitants of nature do not expect visitors. Most of the animal world is twilight and nocturnal. Accordingly, as a biker, you can become a disruptive factor: the game is startled and flees in panic. Especially in winter - the main time helmet lamps are used - animals sometimes find little food. Fleeing from the biker sometimes consumes a lot of energy - it can be difficult to regain it.
This problem is probably smaller than the hunters often let us know, because bikers often announce themselves with lights and loud noises from a great distance. Nevertheless, there can be moments of shock for the animal world, for example if you approach behind the edges of the terrain and the game therefore does not notice anything. For this reason, areas should be visited for night rides and nocturnal trips that also have a high frequency of use during the day. More remote and little-visited regions should be avoided accordingly. Local forest offices can provide information about this.

With reason on the trail

Unfortunately, driving with a helmet lamp also has disadvantages: the light creates an even stronger tunnel vision than is the case during the day, especially at high speeds on the descent. For this reason, dangers next to the trail, such as protruding branches or nature visitors without light, are much less noticeable. In addition, the mounting point of a helmet lamp is the most unfavorable place from the point of view of lighting quality: The frontal light coming from above almost completely makes structures – which are shaped by shading – disappear. As a result, bumps, roots and similar obstacles are perceived less or appear smaller than they really are. These factors increase the risk of accidents accordingly - with the disadvantage that any recovery at night can be much more complicated. Conclusion: Don't necessarily ride at the upper limit on a night ride. First get a feeling for riding with a helmet lamp - also at the beginning of each new season.

Leaderboard helmet lamps: The tests

When using helmet lamps, the light field is interesting: Here you can see not only the light range but also the general illumination characteristics of our tested lamps. Because the headlight range alone says little about the quality of use on the trail. Helmet lamps with a large light range often have a very focused beam of light. This can lead to the area directly in front of the front wheel not getting enough light. In addition, the light corridor can be too narrow. All of this can be seen in the structure of the light field. You can find this in the individual tests of our list of the best helmet lamps.

Bicycle lighting test experimental setup working method — Our test setup for the light field: The camera is at the biker's eye level, the helmet lamp at a corresponding distance above it. Colored cones alternate at a distance of 5 m. The data are evaluated by computer.

Bicycle lighting helmet lamps test setup — In our test setup, the camera is at the driver's eye level, and the helmet lamp is mounted at a realistic distance above it.

How well a helmet lamp really works is best shown in a practical test: We repeatedly rode fast and technical trails. In addition to the illumination of the route, we are also interested in the operation and handling of the individual lamps. Of course, this data is also included in the test result. The overall criteria for each test are therefore: