Ravemen TR50 USB Rechargeable Rear Light (50 Lumens)

The Ravemen TR50 is a decent lower-lumen rear light with a good spread of modes and some nice ideas, although in reality they're not quite as useful as they sound.

• Pros: Variety of mounting options, USB charging, surprisingly bright
• Cons: Minimal side vision, soft-touch mode button not easy to use with gloves, mounting mechanism a little fiddly

Whether it be summer or the dark days of winter, rear lights are a crucial part of your setup. However, it can be hard to find one that works for your bike, with some mounts not having the flexibility to meet the needs of your seatpost or apparel. Ravemen has got around this issue with its universal mount, which can be secured to standard and aero seatposts using thick rubber bands. The light can also be mounted on your helmet or seatstay, a rucksack or saddlebag.

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It's not quite as simple as it sounds, in that you need to use additional shaped shims to fit the bracket to different shaped seatposts, which means it's not quite as transferrable as it could be. Moving the light from one bike to another isn't as straightforward as I'd like.

Although this rubber-band system is now fairly universal in rear lights, a nice addition is the hinge on the 'base mount', which allows you to set the light at the correct angle. This solves the problem of having a light on your seatpost that is pointing directly onto your rear wheel, or into your fellow riders' eyes.

The fact that the light has a clip which you use to stow into the totally separate base mount also means it can be clipped onto a saddlebag or rucksack, making it very versatile.

Modes and run-times

The light has a simple selection of modes: two steady, high (30 lumens) and low (10), and three flashing – a super-bright 50 lumens and two 10-lumen options, rapid flashing and pulse. The brightest flash emits a piercing pulse that is great for cutting through misty mornings or attracting attention in the middle of the day.

Given the size and luminosity of the light, it's a surprisingly dazzling flash, suitable for riding in urban areas with low streetlighting in the dead of night. For riding on pitch-black lanes, I'd feel more confident with something a little brighter.

The light is mostly focused on rearwards emission, providing little side visibility. Ravemen says it's designed to provide side as well as rear visibility, but this is something that could be improved.

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The lower-lumen modes offer a good range of outputs that allow you to balance brightness with run-times, the greatest of which is supposedly 25 hours. I cannot say I've tested it over that duration, but I did leave the light on overnight as a test and it was still going strong in the morning, around nine hours later.

I did try the light on a five-hour ride to test out the claimed four-hour run-time of the super-bright flashing mode, and pleasingly enough it lasted about half an hour beyond that. One thing to note is that although there is a small low-battery warning light, and the light will automatically step down to flashing mode, from then you only get about 10 minutes before the light dies altogether, so be vigilant!

Recharging the light is simple, via the now par-for-the course USB cable. Charging the light from dead to full took around 90 minutes, with the battery indicator light referenced above moving from flashing to solid when the light is fully ready.

Touch pad control

To switch modes there is a very subtle touch pad at the top of the unit, but it can be a bit tricky to locate when you're on the move as there's no obvious 'button'. In summer – i.e. with no gloves on – once you've found the right spot, it's super-easy to use, with a sensitivity akin to a mobile touchscreen. However, I tried the light in thicker full-finger gloves and operation is not so easy, in which case it's best to select your mode before setting off.

Someone else commented that, when trying to locate the 'button' it's not immediately obvious whether you have or haven't touched it, and changed (or not) the mode... It's possibly a feature of the light that's not really necessary.

The light has a Mode Memory, so will turn back on in the last-used mode.

Weatherproofing

The light has an IPX4-rated anti-spray coating which provides a good degree of water resistance. I've ridden through puddles with the light and had it well coated in road-muck, and the light is continuing to function as it should. I also gave it a good testing under the shower head, spraying it as though under a heavy deluge, and it has remained functional.

Value

At £34.99 the TR50 is on par with similar rear lights, such as the Infini Sword, and although you could save a tenner if you went for the similar-output Kryptonite Avenue R-50, battery life isn't as good.

To conclude, the Ravemen TR50 is a surprisingly powerful little unit, with a pleasingly bright flash and decent run-times. The mount can be used on various locations, though it isn't all that transferrable. Side visibility is a bit limited, and the soft-touch mode-operation button may be cleverer than it needs to be, but on the whole it's a good little light.

Verdict

The TR50 has some great ideas behind it but doesn't quite pull them off, though it does the basics well