Lezyne Femto USB C Drive Light Set

The Lezyne Femto USB C Drive Light Set is an excellent choice for urban commuting and functional riding. Both the front and rear will get you seen on the road, but the mounting system isn't the best choice for high-end bikes, unless you're willing to use some pilot tape.

Jamie reviewed this light set five years ago, and while the overall design hasn't changed much, there are a few key features that have had an upgrade.

As the name suggests, charging is now via USB C rather than Micro USB. The set doesn't come with a cable, so it's a matter of using one that you have kicking around. I trialled a couple of different cables and consistently experienced the lights charging from flat to full in just under three hours. Intuitively, a red light turns green when they are fully charged. Conveniently, the button glows (red/green) during use, too, indicating the amount of charge in the battery.

The port cover on both lights is a screw-on cap, contributing to the lights' waterproofing. It's a very tight fit, screwing up against an o-ring to form a water-tight seal. The caps are contoured for mounting, so must be fully screwed on to ensure the light is pointing in the right direction. In short, there's no avoiding fully tightening the cap.

The lights are intuitive and easy to operate, even with thick gloves on. One prolonged press of the the easy-to-locate button switches them on and off, and a short press cycles through the six different modes: Pulse, Flash, Day Flash, Femto, Economy and Blast. This is a good range of modes, perhaps on the verge of overkill for some.

The front light can throw out 50 lumens (for 90 minutes) when in Blast mode, while the rear will give out 15 lumens for the same duration in the same mode. This is a significant increase from the previous set that had maximums of 15 and 5 lumens respectively. The increased output does come at a slight cost – run-times are not what they were, with the front light Day Flash and Femto modes running for 15 hours rather than the previous 22 hours. The rear has a maximum run-time of 13 hours in Day Flash.

On the road, the lights are very effective. They stand out in urban conditions, as well as on unlit country roads, even when it's misty or foggy. The wide angle lenses (Lezyne's words) give 270 of visibility, not as good as some but certainly a positive. Keeping the lenses clean and clear is a bit more tedious than with some other lights – sharp ridges and grooves harbour dirt pretty well. I found an ear-bud is ideal to get dirt out of the grooves.

The lights are brilliantly compact, hence easy to stow in a rucksack pouch, frame bag or pocket.

The casing is just the same as with the previous iteration – a plastic shell with two hooks for the silicone band to attach the lights. Sadly, there's been no modification to the casing's contact surface; a rubberised face would, in my opinion, be preferable to hard plastic. If you are concerned about damaging contact points, some pilot tape would be a good idea.

The silicone band does at least hold the lights in place, so if you do mount without tape, there's no fear of the lights slipping or sliding. Note, they're not compatible with anything other than round posts and bars.

Value

Even with the price hike, these lights are not the most expensive out there of this type: Knog's Frog V3 Rechargeable Twinpack costs £46.99, though the lights do boast longer run-times. And Exposure's Trace and Tracer Mk3 Daybright set, designed for 'urban commuting or daytime visibility', has an RRP of £95 (we reviewed previous versions of the Trace and TraceR back in 2019).

There are cheaper options that will get you seen, but could be a compromise in some way. The KranX Shard 100 USB Rechargeable Lightset costs just £19.99 and offers 100 lumens both front and rear, but is only IPX4 rated for waterproofing. And Oxford's £27.99 Ultratorch Cube-X LED Set, with 75 and 25 lumens for the front and rear respectively, shares the same IPX4 rating.

For more options, check out our guides to the best front bike lights and the best rear bike lights.

Conclusion

Overall, the Lezyne Femto USB C Drive Light Set is an excellent, reliable choice, ideal if you ride in all weathers – I'd say the slightly higher cost compared with some is worth paying to get this. They're exceptionally intuitive to operate and throw out more than enough light to get you seen on the road.

Verdict

Excellent be-seen lights – easy to use, compact, with decent run-times and capable of handling very heavy rain