MOON RIGEL LIGHTS RANGE REVIEW

Review by Adam McGuire

Things continue to develop in the world of bike lights as battery and LED tech improves, as well as the understanding of what makes for an effective light. Well aware of this, Moon Sport developed a new range of lights named Rigel (the brightest star in Orion), which features an updated aesthetic and some neat new features. We put the 4 smallest lights in the range to the test to shine some light on their performance.

THE LAB
Moon’s Rigel range contains 6 models with maximum outputs from 500 to 3600 lumens, and accompanying price tags from $40/£45 to $230/£260. We tested the 4 lower powered lights in the range: the Rigel Lite; Rigel; Rigel Pro and Rigel Max. These share the same looks and basic principles, with the number and type of LED’s, body and battery sizes making the difference in performance and accompanying price between them. The low weights for these models in the Rigel range mean they are all able to be mounted onto a helmet if desired, though we’ll get onto that later. All the Moon Rigel lights come with a one-year warranty on the light and 120 day warranty on the battery.

All the Rigel lights are made from a variation of the same CNC aluminum heat sink body, in which two high brightness LEDs are fitted along with a built-in LiPo battery and all the circuitry to control them. There’s a high precision optical lens to direct the light for a 17-degree spot and 84 degree flood, which also allows for a small amount of leakage out the sides to increase side visibility, keeping you safer on the road. Each model comes with a removable and rotatable anti-dazzling lens cap which prevents drivers and fellow riders from being blinded when riding on the roads. This can be removed for mountain bike usage or rotated depending on the orientation in which the light is mounted. The Rigel lights mount using a standard Garmin style connection, meaning you can make use of existing mounts on your bike or gear, switch between lights in a pinch and easily remove them for charging through their USB-C port. This port has a rubberized cap that keeps water and dust out, allowing the Rigel range to achieve IPX7 rating for weatherproofing (will withstand being submerged in 1m of water for 30 minutes). The charging will cut off automatically at full charge to prevent damage to the battery.

Each of the Rigel models offers the same 6 modes for the light: Two Independently customizable steady modes, two customizable flash modes, day flash and SOS. The customization of these modes comes in the form of their Variable Lumen System (VLS), which allows for the Lumen output to be adjusted manually between anywhere in the range that each light is capable of. The mode memory function will retain the VLS settings until they are next changed, avoiding the need to constantly reset each mode to your liking. When running, LED’s on the top of the lights will show if there is low battery, and they will show when they are charging or fully charged, but there’s no detailed battery capacity indication available.

Bar the Rigel Lite, the Rigel lights benefit from an “Intelligent mode”, which monitors the amount of light in the environment to detect whether the light is required and will turn onto the mode selected when it is dark and feature a motion detection mode that’ll turn the light off if there’s no movement. All the lights come standard with a RB42 GoPro mount and RB43 rubber bar mount, while the Max gains the RB41 helmet strap as standard. All the Rigel range can be used with the aftermarket USB-C RM remote for control of the functions without shifting your hands from the grips.

Moon publishes the Luminosity and Run Time for all of their lights in the various modes according to ANSI FL1 testing standards, offering a useful comparison between each light.

THE DIRT
The new Rigel range by Moon instantly gave impressions of good quality construction when pulling them out the box, with the black body and subtle graphics ticking the aesthetics box.

Getting the Moon Rigel lights mounted up and onto the trail was easy thanks to the rubber bar mount and velcro helmet strap. Interestingly, the Rigel Max that comes with the velcro helmet strap in the pack turned out to be the one light I didn’t run on my helmet, instead fitting it to the bar and running one of the lighter units on the helmet with the velcro strap to limit the extra weight on the head. Getting the angle of the helmet lights into the sweet spot is easy thanks to the adjustable tilt, meaning you can find the best angle to suit the helmet. The rubber bar mount allowed the Rigel Max to slip around the bar at first, but moving to one or two positions tighter solved this – it feels like you may break the rubber strap at this tension, but it held up just fine.

For the size of the lights they pack an impressive punch, providing enough light to ride comfortably, especially when used as a pairing of bar and helmet mounted lights. The riding experience is a little different to the likes of Moon’s Canopus though, as the light output is more concentrated, meaning the trail is illuminated sufficiently but less of the surroundings are lit. It gives a bit of tunnel vision, which can contribute to the night riding experience but doesn’t necessarily give the confidence to ride flat out, especially if the trails are unfamiliar. Hitting jumps this tunnel vision effect becomes most apparent, with the tighter spread meaning that the ground can occasionally disappear from the bar mount’s field of view when the bike is pitched upwards.

Between the Rigel Lite and Rigel the perceivable difference in brightness was minimal when combined with a brighter bar mounted light, with both lights performing adequately well to give a bit of depth to the trail ahead. The brighter Rigel Pro was still light enough to go on the helmet without feeling too heavy, but added some useful extra light to the trail ahead, being the ultimate helmet light in the Rigel range in my opinion. The Rigel Max on the bar sits on the verge of being bright enough to ride with exclusively, though a helmet light is nearly essential in my eyes to add depth to ledges and edges on the trail, as well as looking around turns.

On the fireroads, I’d often opt to run only the helmet light on a dimmed setting for Mode 2, giving just enough illumination without burning through the battery life. With only 1hr30 to play with at maximum power, you’re left a little concerned for battery life on longer night rides, meaning it’s crucial to manage battery life carefully by opting to use the dimmer settings when maximum brightness isn’t required. I started to consider carrying a portable power pack on my person to offer some backup to get back to the car in case of a dead light battery, but managed to go through the test period without fully draining the batteries and didn’t feel like I was managing the battery to the most careful extent. It would be great to have a more specific representation of the battery life left, to ensure you’re managing the battery life at an acceptable amount during a ride, but I understand the extra weight and complexity this would add. The Rigel lights all take around the 2hr30-3hr mark to fully recharge, which feels quite quick compared with some more powerful lights I’ve used.

The Intelligent mode sounds like a great feature for riders on the road or when commuting, but for mountain biking it doesn’t feel like the most useful. That said, for some very specific riding situations in incredibly dense trees or when navigating large tunnels mid-ride, it could be quite handy. There haven’t been any issues after using the lights through a few spills, but the limited warranty doesn’t inspire a huge amount of confidence. That said, these are relatively cheap lights that pack a decent punch for their limited weight, so something has to give.

The Wolf’s Last Word

Moon’s Rigel light range represents reasonable value, efficient output with minimal weight and a high-quality finish. The Rigel Max is bright enough to light the trail ahead alone when mounted to the bars, but adding one out of the Rigel Lite, Rigel or Rigel Pro to the helmet improves the night riding experience considerably and offers enough light to illuminate the way ahead.

Price:
Rigel Lite – £45 /$40
Rigel – £55 /$50
Rigel Pro – £65 /$60
Rigel Max – £90 /$85

Website: Moon-sport.com