Moon Mizar front light

The rather tiny Moon Mizar punches well above its minimal weight and, odd as it sounds, is the ideal light for carving through the traffic in daylight.

With two steady modes chucking out 20 and 40 lumen, the Mizar isn't really a light designed for seeing where you are going so it's the three flashing ones that are of most interest.

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FL 1 is a simple on/off flash at 20 lumen, with FL2 following the same but with 50 lumen on offer. The latter is perfect for town use in the dark, being bright enough to be seen without being obnoxious in drivers' rear view mirrors. You'll get 70 hours of battery life too.

Changing the modes is easy: you simply press the single button on top of the Mizar to scroll through them. The only issue is that the light turns on with just a simple press too, and could easily turn on accidently in your bag or pocket.

With all new vehicles having compulsory daytime running lights and a lot of them now using LEDs, it's easy to get missed in heavy traffic when filtering or travelling around large roundabouts and junctions. The third flashing mode, DAY FL, helps to combat this with its 100-lumen double flash every few seconds to really make you stand out.

Travelling on the local roads here at rush hour sees a lot of congestion, and when it came to filtering down the centre of the single carriageway the traffic parted in a way not seen since Moses had a word with the Red Sea.

I'd ridden the same roads and traffic conditions using another test blinky light with just 40 lumens, and it had nowhere near the same effect.

The DAY FL mode gives you 30 hours' burn time too, so for most that is weeks of riding on a single charge.

Thanks to its diminutive size the Mizar is also an ideal emergency light, if there is the chance you may get caught out when the sun starts dropping or in foggy conditions. You could easily carry it in a jersey pocket but to be honest it takes up so little room on the handlebar you might as well leave it on.

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Another neat idea is the magnetic clamp. It fits to the handlebar by way of a rubber o-ring, with the light magnetically attaching to it, and the bond is very strong indeed. Early fears of the light vibrating itself off were unfounded.

The whole unit feels robust and pretty well made, and even after plenty of rain and a blast from the bathroom shower there was no water ingress anywhere.

Charging is taken care of by removing the rear rubber cap and plugging the unit directly into a USB port, and it'll take two hours to fill up a flat battery. That matches Moon's claims, just as the burn times did with a bit of give or take.

Value-wise I think the Mizar is well worth the asking price, especially when considering the likes of the 30-lumen Fabric costing double at £29.99.

With plenty of brightness and great battery life, the Moon is something I can see staying on the bike full time. At £15.99 (or less online) it's well worth the money.

Verdict

Nifty little light to get you seen in daytime traffic