Cyclingnews Verdict

Bright, tough, affordable, user-friendly visibility booster and backup light that’s just enough to help you see on back roads, but not for long

Pros

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Brighter than you'd expect
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Universal fit
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Compact
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Tough
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Direct fast recharge
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Colour options

Cons

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Only just bright enough for unlit roads
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Limited battery life
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Gappy battery feedback
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Heavier than same sized plastic lights

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The Lezyne Mini Drive 400XL is the super compact ‘fun size’ light in Lezyne’s metal bodied Drive family but still shares all the same universal mount and durability features of it’s bigger siblings. It’s best for riders staying within lit areas though as power and run time are very limited for pedalling in proper darkness.

Its already earned itself a spot in our guide to the best bike lights, but now we've put it through a thorough test against the best, is it worthy of its place?

The strap and hook system means it’ll fit on pretty much any bar size and shape, even twisting sideways for tri bar extensions which is great if you’re going aero on a bikepacking bike with bags obscuring your normal bars. The tiny size and weight means there’s none of the wobble issues you get with bigger lights using the same system either. If the bars of your helmet are narrow enough, it’ll sit on your head very happily too and it’ll stretch to some fork legs as well.

Even with a fresh light in mild conditions, we were only just reaching Lezyne’s claimed one-hour run time and with no change in battery indicator colour between 50- and 10-per cent life, the get-yourself-home margins are slim if you’re not clock watching separately. At 150 lumens, the ‘enduro’ setting is definitely be-seen mode, meaning you need to tip toe carefully rather than ride comfortably on unlit streets.