The best rear bike lights: Essential safety for cyclist

This small, lightweight, inexpensive rear light will clip onto your helmet and attach to your seat post, backpack or clothing to help you be seen on the road. Weighing just 12 grams and with three different light modes, it could be the perfect rear light for someone competing in a time trial race and a secondary rear light for a commuter in the city.

A handy little light from Lezyne, putting out only five lumens but has a visibility of 270 degrees, enabling you to be seen at junctions and roundabouts better. With five output modes, the Femto can run up to 15 hours, meaning your daily commute could be covered in one charge. The durable construction has an IPX7 water resistance rating with a threaded cover to keep the USB charging port clean and dry.

Another Lezyne light, but this one is a bit more substantial and offers up to 75 lumens of light from its LED bulbs with five different output/flash modes to give you maximum visibility. A neat little feature of this light is an integrated USB, meaning that it will charge cable-free, so you never have to search around at the bottom of your kit bag to charge your light.

When the first Blinder launched in 2012, it became an almost instant classic Knog product—beloved for its compact design, easy operation, adaptable attachment system and powerful output. Super bright at 100 lumens, an integrated USB means hassle-free cable-free charging; there is also a power indicator to show you how much battery life is left. Changeable graphic flash patterns mean that you can change how the light flashes, making it more distinctive.

Bontrager is a very well-respected brand with many front and rear bike lights offered. This, the Flare R City, is the most popular bike light that they sell. It’s easy to see why as it’s great for commuters, the intelligent automatic ambient light sensor adjusts the light's beam brightness to match the conditions.

A neat little feature is the battery safe mode, which kicks in when the battery is at 5%, hopefully putting the light in its lowest setting to get you seen all the way home.

Knog makes some quality bike lights, and the Blinder is no different. Putting out a blinding (sorry, not sorry) 70 lumens, it’s a bright light that cuts through the light noise on the city streets. With side lights, it also offers a wide field which you can see.

The subtle Zecto Drive 80 is anything but subtle once turned on, and you’re riding, pumping out an impressive 80 lumens and ensuring you’re seen on the city streets and the country lanes. The rubber strap will fit around aerodynamic and regular seat posts, which means no quick release. This can be annoying as you always have to remount the light when you ride after taking it off for security.

Exposure by name and exposure by design – a trick little light that will mount to your seat post or your helmet, giving a maximum of 75 lumens of light. Great for commuters, it's super bright flashing and versatile mounting means you can get more than one rear light on you, giving you a greater chance of being seen. An inbuilt fuel gauge will show you when you need to charge your light, which is very handy.

In the Chain Reaction Black Friday sale, the Exposure Blaze Mk3 is a great rear bike light with a neat little brake light feature. When it detects deceleration, under braking, it will flash at 150 lumens, letting those around you, drivers or other bike riders, know that you are braking. Even when this ReAKT system isn’t working, the light still punches out a powerful 80 lumens.

A bike light is well worth having if you have a Garmin or Wahoo bike computer. Called the rearview because the radar inside the light will pick up on vehicles up to 140 meters behind you, alerting you via your bike computer or smartphone app. It will also adapt to your riding. If you’re in a group, the lights ‘peloton mode’ gives a lower-intensity flash so as not to dazzle your fellow riders.

If you want that extra protection when cycling around the city or country lanes, this from TOOO is a rear light and a camera. In the unfortunate event of an incident, the DVR80 will record in full HD with an angle of 105, even at night, thanks to the SONY IMX 323 camera sensor. Recording at either 30 or 60 frames per second, image stability is high so that you can see what happens as clearly as possible.

Three hundred and forty-five pounds for a rear bike light? Yes, it’s a very high price; let’s try and break it down as to why you would be paying that much for it. Consider the Garmin Varia Rearview Radar RTL515 Bike Light above has an RRP of £124.99.

Add to that a camera which films in 1080p at 30 fps or sets the resolution at 720p to extend battery life for longer rides.

The mount on this securely locks it to your seat post, so there’s no chance of it coming off while riding, and it’s super easy to take it off and put it back on again. The camera can run continuously, be turned off or be turned on when the radar detects a vehicle approaching.

The RCT715 really impressed us when we tested the light - if you can afford it, we can't recommend it enough.

Read our full Garmin Varia Radar RCT715 Camera Rear Light Review