Review NiteRider Lumina 950 OLED Boost and Solas 100: Dust-tight and Water-resistant
Accessories Reviews
The Lumina OLED 950 Boost is NiteRider’s flagship road and commuter headlight, offering five steady light levels and four daylight flash modes all packed within a sleek, lightweight IP64 rated shell. Meaning, it’s dust-tight and water-resistant.
Versatility is the theme of this headlight. Being seen on your morning commute using the daylight flash mode, check. Late night trail ride with the steady beam of 800 lumens, check. Evening hike in the woods with the significant other using the 40 lumen walk mode, check. Getting lost during that evening hike and needing to send out an SOS signal, it has that too! This light is more than capable of handling whatever you may dish out at it.
The most interesting feature of the Lumina OLED 950 Boost is its digital display. No more guessing if you have enough battery life to make it to and from a last minute trip to the six-pack shop or if you are able to commute the long way home from work. The easy to read digital screen displays the remaining battery time and even offers a (get ready to queue Europe) final countdown once you hit those final minutes of life. I found myself really appreciating this feature as I often neglect my light charging duties, constantly challenging how many rides I could get between charges, trying to outdo the previous. NiteRider did an excellent job displaying the battery percentage readout while charging and initial device power up and then displaying the actual time remaining while in use. I was even pleasantly surprised by the display’s brightness level, a perfect balance of being able to easily read at quick glance and not being a distraction. I typically don’t care for bright gizmos disrupting my owl-like night vision, so major kudos to the design team on this one.
The Lithium-ion battery offers Intellicharge, which is able to utilize the increased amperage when plugged into the wall at 1000 mA versus a lower output, such as your computer, at 500 mA. Ultimately, what this means is that if charged using the higher mA, you can reduce your standard six-hour charge time in half.
To the rear of the bike, NiteRider’s Solas 100 pairs up nicely, offering two modes of “Daylight Visible Flash” and two steady modes. Between the four modes available you can expect an average of roughly 13.5 hours of run time and a standard charge time of two hours. Like the Lumina OLED 950 Boost, it too is nicely packed into a compact IP64 shell.
An interesting feature of the Solas 100 is the steady “Group Ride Mode” setting which reduces the taillight to roughly 10 lumens and helps to not distract the riders behind you, all while remaining visible. As I found out, this setting is also equally suitable for your long rail trail adventure or B road getaways where you are in darker areas and less likely to run upon motorists. Times when you don’t necessarily need that in your face, hey look at me, notice me, strobe light.
Price: $180
