Glancing at a photograph from the Salsa Beargrease launch last month, I wondered: what bike light is that? Turns out it was just a long-exposure shot that made a normal light look like a wide light bar. But my realization came too late: I had already found a light bar on Amazon, the $27 Suruid LED, ordered it, and received it the same day in time for my Tuesday night ride.
Admittedly, I order a lot of crap off Amazon. They make it too damn easy. I didn’t have high hopes for the Suruid LED; at best, I figured my Tuesday night buddies would get a kick out of it. And while the light has its flaws, it actually works pretty well for night riding. Here’s what I learned.
Suruid LED Bike Light key specs
- 1800 lumens, claimed
- Weight: 202g for the light, not including mounts. 35mm mounts add another 50g.
- Runtime: 2+ hours (see below)
- Price: $26.99 (currently $24.98)
- Buy from Amazon
It uses two bar mounts that fit 35mm and 31.8mm handlebars
The Suruid LED comes with two bar clamps to support the nearly half-foot-long (six inches) light bar. The aluminum split clamps fit 35mm bars and include shims for 31.8mm bars. Thumb screws are used to tighten the clamps.
The light has a rail-like channel running underneath that slides onto the clamp supports, as you can see in the photo above, with thumb screws to secure the supports inside the channel. Getting the two clamps lined up just right is a little tricky, but once you have them aligned, it works just fine.
The mount has proven to be surprisingly stable and robust, even riding rough trails. The mounts keep the light dead-on center, and you can tilt it up or down by loosening the bar clamps.
Technically, I suppose you could mount the Suruid LED to a helmet. It doesn’t come with a helmet mount, so you’d need to rig up your own solution. At 202g for the light by itself, it’s on the heavy side, though there are slightly heavier helmet lights on the market.
Impressive beam spread
It’s no surprise that the Suruid LED casts a wide beam given its shape. There are six main LEDs along with a narrow band of smaller lights along the bottom. The closest thing I’ve tested to a light like this is the five-bulb Trail LED. Trail LED, no longer in business, also offered a light they called the Halo that arranged 10 (!) LEDs along a semi-circle for an eye-blinding 6,000 lumens of brightness.
The Suruid has five built-in light modes, which the product description characterizes as high- and low-beams, just like in a car. (I suspect they may be targeting Surron riders with this light, but that’s pure speculation.) The four-LED low beam casts a wide, rectangular beam that’s quite bright and lights up the trail’s periphery more than any other bike light I’ve tested.
The high beam casts a narrow beam that travels quite far down the trail. This is the main mode that I use for my night rides, in conjunction with a helmet light. It does a good job lighting the trail ahead without wasting watts illuminating the edges.
Full-on mode — with both the high and low beams engaged at the same time — is great for fast descents or for riding without a helmet light. The brightness is impressive, and the beam pattern is car-like, with virtually no part of the forest ahead hidden. After the first few uses, I noticed the light gives off a slightly yellow/warm color profile, which you can see in the photo above right. Most of the bike lights I’ve tested have a more uniform, cool daylight tint.
Share your Suruid LED Bike Light review
The Daytime run mode is a misnomer because it’s actually the dimmest of the five. This is helpful when making a trailside repair or riding on a gravel road at night. I don’t know about others, but for actual daytime visibility I like to use a flash mode, and the final Suruid mode offers just that, engaging all six lights in a strobe pattern.
Despite having multiple modes to choose from, there are no brightness settings. I’d love to be able to adjust how bright the high beam is, or dial in the mix between high and low beam intensities. Mostly, I think I could get away with a slightly dimmer high beam on some trail rides to eke a bit more battery life out of the Suruid.
Battery life is good, but charging is inconsistent
The Suruid LED has proven long-lasting enough for my regular Tuesday night rides, which are about 2-3 hours long. I generally switch between the high and full-on beams during that ride.
I did a bench test to see how long the light lasts on full, and in that case, the battery lasted for more than two and a half hours. However, by the end of the test, the light was significantly dimmer than when I started. This appears to be a safety feature to ensure you’re not unexpectedly left in complete darkness. I suspect the Suruid LED also gradually lowers the light output within just a few minutes of turning it on full, like most modern bike lights, to take advantage of the fact that our eyes adjust to the darkness. And also to prevent overheating.
Overall, the Suruid LED has about 300 Amazon ratings, which average 4.2 stars out of five. Most of the 1-star reviews mention problems with the battery, specifically that the battery doesn’t recharge after just one or two uses. I experienced something similar with my light after the timed test. My guess is the battery had a hard time recovering from being run down completely. When I first tried to charge the completely dead battery using the USB-C connector, the charging indicator lights didn’t turn on at all. I left the light plugged in overnight, and the next day I got just a few minutes of use before the light went dim.
So, I tried to charge it again. This time, the charging indicators lit up, and I was able to fully charge the light. The battery capacity is listed at 4,000maH. I’m glad the battery is charging again, though this does leave me a little concerned that it may not last very long.
Another important battery consideration is safety. Over the years, there have been reports of inexpensive bike lights from China catching fire while charging. The Suruid LED packaging confirms the light is made in China, and given the low price, it’s wise to use caution when charging.
Like a lot of lights, the aluminum light body gets hot, especially at full power. For my test, I had a desk fan pointed straight at the light to keep it as cool as possible, though it was still hot to the touch. Suruid says the light has an IPX4 waterproof rating.
Though the Suruid LED is new to me, I found social media posts about it — like this one from 2024 — and most riders seemed pleased with the light.
There are other versions of the Suruid LED, notably one with twice the brightness and battery capacity. It weighs twice as much too, and costs $42.99, which I decided is too pricey to risk.
Pros and cons of Suruid LED Bike Light
Pros
- Inexpensive
- Bright with very usable beam choices for mountain biking at night
- All-in-one form factor
Cons
- Inconsistent battery charging
- No way to adjust brightness within the light modes
Bottom line
The Suruid LED is a good bike light for the price and performs much better than I expected. Battery durability is a concern, though, and for many buyers it won’t be worth the risk.
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