Adding lights to your helmet is a popular and very good idea – it places them above the line of car lights and makes you easier to identify as a cyclist.
Torch has taken that idea and built the lights into its T2 helmet so they look much sleeker and you can’t forget or lose them. The T2 features five LED lights front and rear, and recharges from a USB port in 1.5 hours.
The T2 features five LED lights front and rear
The run time is six to 36 hours depending on which of the four modes (high/low, constant/flash) that you use. It weighs a very reasonable 359g and comes in eight colours but only one size, said to fit 54-61cm using the two supplied sets of pads and the dial-adjusted retention system.
It’s a good shape, providing lots of coverage without looking huge, and the vents are effective. The fit is decent but compromised by the single shell size and the unpadded retention device.
The T2 is clearly visible at 50m or so, but it isn’t really bright enough to stand out. It seems fairly bright held in front of your face but if you think about the sort of rear lights that really shine out of the sea of cars, you can’t look straight at them from 20m, let alone right in front of your face.
We’d like the high-power mode to be much brighter. As it is, this is a good addition to your visibility measures but you definitely still need some powerful lights on your bike.