My Lumicycle lights are a bit like Triggers Broom (for those of you who don’t know, see this YouTube clip from Only Fools and Horses). It’s completely original. Three different types of lamps and two different types of batteries. Well actually I think one lead is original!

It started out as a Halogen/NiMH system and has been through many iterations to the present LED System 3/LiPo configuration. So with the recent Moles Mega Lighting Test in the off-ing came a generous and quickly accepted offer from Lumicycle to test their latest LEDSys4 head unit at the lighting shoot-out.

Lumicycle weren’t the first company to enter the LED light boom but when they got there they produced a highly competitive product as always. The LED System 3 was only released last year, but it came with the usual Lumicycle values of high build quality, a user-chooser system of cabling/battery options, customer service and the promise of upgrade potential as brighter/more efficient LEDs become available.

Plus for us Moles – it’s a UK company to support. Talk to Matt and the only thing missing is having the lamp combined with the battery as per the MaxxD. Matt doesn’t do cables!

The LED System 3 is only a year old but already Lumicycle have moved their game on with the LED System 4 using 4 Cree XRE-R2 LEDs.

Out on the trail the the LEDSys4 is straight-forward to operate. Select your battery type (NiMh or Li-ion) and it flashes to tell you which one you have. Then tap the switch up to select Low > High > Boost. The Boost option gives a 3 minute burst which can be set to permanent with a longer press of the switch or extended at any point within the 3 minutes for a further 3 minutes. Tap the switch down for lower outputs and a flashing option.

That boost option seems a smart idea, helping conserve power to get the most out of your battery. You rarely need full power for steady riding anyway and the 800 lumen High mode is plenty fine for most circumstances. When it ends the unit fades gently back to the High setting.

The LEDSys4 builds on the LEDSys3’s 850 lumens, with up to 1120 lumens on full power from those powerful Crees. However, as the soon-to-be-published lighting test shows, there are lumens and there are lumens. Product spec sheets don’t always seem to be accurate out in the woods.

The LEDSys4 promised the most lumens of any light and it didn’t disappoint. When we first switched on the LED4 boost there were audible gasps from the Moles.

The beam pattern was good with a tight but even spread. However it was the amount and depth of light that impressed. Features up the trail, like trees and roots were visible way beyond the limits of any other light. This is all the light you could ever need for the sort of riding we do.

The latest Lumicycles LEDs can be used with all the previous batteries and cables, hence you can upgrade from Halogen or HID to LED with just the purchase of the LED lamp. The bane of the early Halogen lights of loose cables (always an exciting moment when they dropped out as it was usually just when you needed them most at a serious drop off etc…) has also now been sorted, the cables are tight.

So in summary the LEDSys4 is a great light. If you already have a battery then the purchase of a lamp at £239 is excellent value per lumen; you can expect run times on boost of 2.2hrs on a 2.6Ah LiPo and 4.4hrs on a 5.2Ah battery. Or alternatively you can buy a complete system from Lumicycle.

My ‘Trigger’s Broom’ original lights look set to live on for many more years!

See beam shots of the Lumicycle LED System 4 (LEDSys4) in our MTB LED Night Light Test and Beam Shots article.

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