Lezyne Strip Drive rear light review

Lezyne’s Strip Drive has plenty of modes and a bright claimed output with a fairly long run-time of 2 hours 35 minutes on maximum. However, it does have a drop in side-on illumination at certain angles and this undoes the good work of other more solid features.

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Lezyne Strip Drive details and specification

Touted to offer up to 270 degrees of visibility from five LEDs that have a maximum constant output of 45 lumens, there are a total of 11 modes that are cycled using a single button. The battery is USB rechargeable via a port on the bottom of the light.

The light’s got a battery life indicator that displays 100 to 75 per cent, 75 to 25 per cent and 25 to 0 per cent charges. It doubles up as a charge indicator too.

It has a 1m drop-resistance rating and its long and thin design is suited to mounting on tubes, such as frames or a seatpost. Supplied with the light is a stretchy rubber strap that’s 8.5cm long unstretched.

Lezyne Strip Drive performance

The Strip Drive’s body and mounting surface is quite large and the groove in the rubber contact area is fairly narrow, which makes it less suited to rounder, larger tubes found on mountain bikes.

The ladder-style strap means it’s easy to get a good purchase and tighten it up well. This means the light doesn’t shake around or move when you aren’t expecting it.

Because of the light’s size, it does sit quite proud from the tube it’s mounted to and if you’ve got a full-sus bike it can strike the back wheel at bottom-out of the suspension.

Its mounting angle is fixed and the supplied mounting strap should be long and stretchy enough to tackle most diameter tubes.

The USB charging port is located on the bottom of the light and if the cover is correctly fastened, it could be susceptible to water or mud ingress.

The light’s single operating button has a good amount of travel and is easy to operate when you’re not on the bike. The light’s modes are simple to operate too, but there are quite a few, so going from start to end requires a lot of clicks. With so many modes it’s likely you’ll find one that’s suitable for your requirements.

Its beam is very intense when you’re directly behind the light and does flood some red illumination over the floor, although the patch it lights up isn’t very defined.

Side-on illumination is pretty good up to 40 to 50 degrees, higher than that and there appears to be a lull in illumination — possibly because the LEDs’ light projection is affected by the lens.

At 90 degrees to the light there isn’t much projected light, but it’s bright enough to still retain some visibility.

Run time on max is 2 hours 35 minutes, which is 20 minutes more than claimed, and considering the light’s size this impressed me.

Lezyne Strip Drive bottom line

With plenty of features and easy operation, the Lezyne offers great power. It does have a strange dark spot in its side-on output and its bulky design and clamp could put some off.