Moon Rigel Pro 1000lm

The Moon Rigel Pro 1000lm is bright, has a good battery life and it's packed full of smart features, though with only two buttons it can be quite complex to operate some of them. The Garmin-style mount allows you to run the light either under or over the bar.

For more options, check out our best front bike lights buyer's guide.

Mounting

First things first, mounting this light is one of its strongest points. This might seem like an odd place to start a review, but helps to show what a well-thought-out little light this is.

The Rigel comes with a standard Garmin-style mount with a thick rubber strap – and it's excellent. This isn't necessarily because the mount is better than that you'll find with other lights, but by using a ubiquitous design you have numerous other mounting options.

It also comes with a GoPro mount that attaches to the light's Garmin male side, which lets it work with even more commonly found mounts in many more places.

I tended to run it on the underside of my out-front computer mount, which helped to free up space on my bar, which is something I always appreciate. The light's small size and low weight meant that it didn't droop or get mixed up in the cabling. It is impressively compact for a light that's both bright and has a good battery life.

Operation

While the light is easy to fit, the combination of multiple functions controlled by just a couple of buttons can make it a little complicated to use.

The functions themselves are good but even after using this for a month I'm still going back to the manual to find the correct way of changing certain things. It's a little bit like trying to put a series of complicated cheat codes into a Playstation 1.

First off is the Intelligent Operation, which automatically detects ambient light levels and turns on the light when needed. This is ideal for people like me who often set off for work in the dark and arriving when it's light. This means the light adapts to deliver the best brightness for the conditions.

Another intelligent element is that the light detects movement, so it will reduce the output to 10 lumens after 45 seconds, turn off after 90 seconds, and turn itself off totally if left for an hour.

Again, this is a very good feature, but it adds complexity as it's not obvious whether you can choose to have this on at the same time as the automatic light detecting or whether you're forced to use both simultaneously.

There are further complexities when it comes to the modes.

In addition to the four flashing options, Flash, Day Flash, Steady Flash, and SOS, you have two solid options, which are effectively full beam and dipped. These are set to 1000 and 350 lumens by default, but you can change these outputs – though that just adds to the mind-boggling array of different button combinations you need to remember.

Beam and brightness

I now live in a village that has no street lighting whatsoever, so in terms of being seen the Moon's 1,000 lumens was more than enough, though I'd probably want a little more power on rougher roads or trails.

The light comes with an anti-dazzle lens that works well to direct the beam down towards the road and makes sure you're not blinding oncoming drivers, but the resulting light pattern is little narrower than that of a lot of other lights.

Battery and charging

The battery life depends on the mode you are using and ranges from a claimed 1.5hrs on the full 1000 lumens up to 69 hours on flash. If you leave it on standby it will last for 450 hours, which is around 18.75 days. These are decent numbers, especially for a unit of this size and brightness, and I found the claimed runtimes accurate too in real-world riding (though life's too short to test that standby mode...).

Charging takes a couple of hours through a supplied USB-C lead from a wall socket, with the port hidden beneath a dust cap at the rear of the light.

I never detected any mud or water ingress during testing, which is a good sign, and reflects the light's excellent IPX7 rating, which means it should survive being submerged in water.

Value

The Moon Rigel Pro's £59.99 price is good for a light with this many features, quality mounting options, very good battery life and an excellent resistance to the elements.

The Ravemen LR1000 comes in a the same price as the Moon but lacks some of the Moon's smart features.

The Magicshine Evo 1300 is 300 lumens brighter and has an app that lets you control the beams and modes much more easily than on the Moon, though it's not as clever as the Rigel Pro overall and is a little dearer.

Conclusion

There's no doubt that this is a light that does all the basics well. Battery life is good, the output is bright, it's light, compact and waterproof and it has a whole raft of smart features.

However, while these smart features add to your choices, I feel that the light could do with a couple of extra buttons or an app to make it more user-friendly. Even after a month using it I was still having to refer to the instructions, which gives you an idea of how complicated it is to use it.

Verdict

Light, compact, waterproof and bright with loads of smart functions and a great mount, but it can be tricky to use