Review: Full On Lighting’s MB6 brings ultra-wide 6,100-lumen beam so you can ride FAST

Vancouver, BC-based Full On Lighting has lit its way into the cycling light market with a new high-performance bike light, the MB6. Engineered for mountain biking and moto sports, the Full On Lighting MB6 is a multi-sport outdoor light. The four-person Full On team has a thorough background in industrial lighting, and their knowledge and passion for both lighting and cycling have led them to create a compact, portable light that fills gaps other lights on the market have missed. Tested and used by world champ riders on the rainy North Shore and in Squamish, the MB6 wants to light your next trail ride. 

Full On Lighting MB6 features

The MB6 is a weatherproof 6000-lumen ultra-wide beam light that can be mounted on your helmet or handlebar. Full On says the light has been third-party photometry tested, and they believe that 6,000 lumens is the ideal peak output for both high-speed flow trails and technical descents. 

Trails come in different shades of colors, so the MB6 was designed to provide a color temperature and color rendering index that balances visibility and natural contrast while night riding. 

While brightness and color tones are important, peripheral illumination is another important factor while mountain biking. You not only need to see what’s in front of you, but also what is above, below, right, and left of your central vision. The MB6 LEDs illuminate almost everything your eyes are seeing. With increased peripheral lighting, our brains can process motion and depth faster. This gives riders more confidence while riding, especially in technical terrain at faster speeds.  

Four brightness modes

Hangout Mode: This low-intensity mode activates the singular lower peripheral LED beam. This mode is perfect for gearing up before the ride or when you don’t want to blind your friends during a rest stop. This mode peaks at 275 lumens. 

Manual Low Mode: This mode activates the three upper LEDs. Now you have four LEDs activated, which covers everything in front of you at a low brightness and is sufficiently bright to light your way along the trail. This mode is great for climbing or riding through non-technical trail sections while conserving battery. This mode peaks at 1,500 lumens. 

Manual High Mode: Manual High ups the brightness of the four LEDs to the next level. Here, you get a consistent, bright illumination intended for moderate speeds. This mode peaks at 3,800 lumens. I found this provides sufficient brightness to get down most descents. 

Active Light Control Mode: This is a highlight feature that allows the light to automatically adjust brightness based on speed. This mode starts off at a peak of 6,100 lumens and will adjust brightness every second based on rider speed. 

Active Light Control is most interesting to me because I’ve never had a light that self-adjusts based on my riding speed. Sean, the founder of Full On Lighting, was happy to share what he could with the public about the tech inside the MB6. While he did start off by saying that there is some secret sauce inside the MB6 and he couldn’t get into specifics, he did mention that temperature monitoring and regulation is important. The idea is that the faster you ride, the brighter the light will shine.

When the descent is over and the rider’s speed drops, the light automatically drops to 1,500 lumens. This is controlled by an on-board intelligent energy management system that uses temperature fluctuations as a proxy for speed and determines which mode/brightness to use. While riding, it was difficult to notice the brightness fluctuations at first, especially while in motion. But once you pay close attention, you are able to notice it working.

Manual Low, Manual High, and Active Light Control Modes provide a near 180-degree field of illumination with their custom-designed wide-beam optic lens. Long ago, I owned a cheap Amazon bike light with a direct-beam lens. While it did an okay job of lighting up the darkness, I would start to get tunnel vision after a while, unable to see my surroundings as I rode down singletrack. Using the MB6 almost felt like having a car headlight on my head. It not only illuminates what is in front of me, but it also improves depth perception. 

The system runs on a 74Wh battery with a built-in screen that shows how much battery life remains. Full On Lighting claims the following runtimes for the MB6.

• Active Light Control: 2.5 hours typically. This assumes an analog bike, with a mix of slow climbs, rolling terrain, and fast descents.  E-Bike runtimes tend to be lower due to higher overall speeds and higher average lumen outputs.
• Manual High (3800 lumens): 2 hours
• Manual Low (1500 lumens): 6 hours
• Manual Hangout Mode (275 lumens): 22 hours

These claims match up well with my own experience. The best way to get the most out of the battery and light during a ride is to use the Active Light Control. And if you plan on riding longer than two hours, you can purchase a spare battery. The battery is charged using a dual-port, 48W USB-C power brick, which can charge the battery in close to two hours. While you can use more powerful power bricks to charge, it is refreshing to see Full On include a quality power brick with the battery. 

The MB6 has a claimed waterproof rating of >IP66. The battery’s USB-C port ships with a dab of dielectric gel to protect connections against moisture, dust, and corrosion. So if you see that gel goop on your battery or cable, don’t wipe it off!

On the trail

While the MB6 can be mounted on your handlebars or on top of your helmet, Full On Lighting suggests using it as a helmet-mounted light… and as your only light. The brand says that multiple light sources create competing shadows and can make depth perception worse.

“A well-designed light mounted on your helmet follows your line of sight, preventing harsh foreground shadows while still allowing enough contrast for depth cues,” they write. “Helmet-mounted lights also benefit from the stability of the rider’s head, compared to the bouncing and rapid direction changes of a handlebar-mounted light.” 

In a FAQ section posted online, Full On goes on to say “Many riders assume they need two lights because that’s what they’ve always used, but once they try a well-designed single light like the MB6, they realize they aren’t ‘missing’ anything—except the hassle of managing two separate lights.”

With this in mind, I tested the MB6 as intended, as a helmet light only.

While the kit does include an adhesive GoPro-style mount, I decided to use an accessory helmet strap I had lying around. My 7idp Project 21 half-shell helmet has vent ports large enough for the velcro strap at the rear vents. This ended up being a comfortable place for the light. My Fox half-shell helmet, on the other hand, allows me to strap the light on the center vent ports, which worked as well.

From the light, I ran the included 1.3m-long USB-C cable through my action camera chest strap at the rear to keep the cable from bouncing around. The cable had just the right amount of length to reach the battery that I strapped to the bottom of my hip pack.

While riding a mixture of terrain, the battery and light never felt bulky. The MB6 inspires confidence, and I was very content with the high-output light at faster speeds. I noticed myself thinking more of my riding and enjoying the ride than about what might be lurking in the darkness. 

With other bike lights, I usually point the beam slightly below the horizon. But with the MB6, I ended up pointing the beam slightly above the horizon. The peripheral coverage is that good.

The beam is flood-like, with a good forward beam that reaches around fifteen meters or so while the wide beam covers the edges and peripheral vision well. Approaching tight bends with my head pointed straight ahead, the wide beam illuminates what’s to come around the corner. The upshot is a night ride that feels more like a daytime ride. 

Each light comes preinstalled with settings profiles. If you’d like to create a custom profile, you can work directly with Full On Lighting to dial in exactly what you need, either before you buy the light or later with their assistance at home. This option isn’t really advertised on their website, but if you have read this far, well, now you know!

An electric mountain biker using an Avinox system that outputs 65W of power through its external USB-C control screen can run this light using the built-in bike battery. That means no MB6 battery to carry. But I’ve found that it’s best to always carry some sort of backup. 

Sometimes, you just want peak brightness

While in Active Light Control Mode, the rider must trust the light to automatically adjust brightness. During my testing, I found that on some slower technical trail sections, such as rock gardens or root gardens, I wanted the full peak 6100-lumen output, but it felt like I was getting a bit less than that.

The MB6 has a really well-designed integrated aluminum heat sink body that allows airflow to pass from the front to the back. It’s a smart design with a molded polycarbonate shell on top that holds the large on/off button. The underside of the aluminum body is exposed, however, and it does get very hot, as I learned the hard way.

I would like to see a bit more data on the battery screen, such as temperatures, power output, and brightness, to help me get to know the system better over time. 

Premium quality at a premium price

The team at Full On Lighting has an extensive background in industrial lighting, and it shows in the MB6. It’s clear they created a quality light that they and others would love to use on the trail.

The $365 price tag ($495 for the Pro kit) may steer some riders away, and that’s ok. After using the light system and learning as much as I could about the team at Full On Lighting, I can say that the MB6 is a well-engineered light made by smart people who love the sport. For the price, buyers get a well-designed, high-quality night light specifically made for mountain biking that can expand and enhance their night-riding experience into more aggressive styles of riding.