The Lupine Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light is an ultra-bright, super lightweight helmet light that is perfect for commuter cyclists – and even bright enough to use on trails. Here’s our full review.
I was lucky enough to be able to test the Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light for several days, thanks to my colleague Alex Trapp, who generously lent it to me. Unfortunately, now I want one of my own! Here, Alex shows us how the light looks from the front and side.
The first thing I liked about the Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light was how lightweight it is. It’s basically the size of a matchbox, and only weighs 55 grams. It also has that feeling of top quality German engineering. Nothing plastic about this light!
However, the Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light is so compact and lightweight that I did not seriously believe it would put out much light. Or if it did, I thought it would be very pinpointed, without the breadth of beam one needs for safe commuter cycling.
Well, I was wrong, as I found out after I transferred it to my helmet and took it out for some rigorous road testing.
How the Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light works for bike commuting
I was excited to find out that the Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light offers great peripheral vision, as well as lighting up the road up to 200 meters ahead of you. It’s simply superb for navigating dim to pitch dark roads and even trails at night. My route home includes an off-road trail through a dark forest, and this helmet light made it safe and easy. I could even see the pot holes.
Here you can see a cyclist and a dog having great fun with their Piko 4 lights!
As you can see in the photo below (on the right), this bike headlight turns night into day, with the beam dispersing evenly all around. It is actually meant to create a day-time impression, as the 1500 lumens of LED lights are designed to have a color temperature that mimics the sun. The light on the left is caused by the big light on my Haibike, which is powered by the same powerful battery that powers the bike. It’s a great light which I thought was adequate for night time cycling. But look at how much less bright it is than the Piko 4 light on the right! Also note how well the Piko 4 disperses light around the room.
Modes and levels on the Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light
The Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light by default has three levels of brightness that I used (super bright, bright, and not so bright). This photo shows the lowest level and the brightest level.
In reality, the lowest two levels of brightness are the ones you are likely to use. The brightest setting would be for when you are on a lonely dark road or a trail, and the dimmest level would be when you are around other people. Because the only thing you have to worry about with the Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light is blinding people.
Of course the Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light also offers other modes, including flashing modes, which are accessed and programmed by pressing the buttons on the remote unit and the light unit. However, I recently wrote a post about when to use flashing bike lights, and received so much feedback from readers about how flashing front lights make them disoriented, or give them headaches, that I have decided not to use flashing mode any more.
Mounting Options for the Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light
The helmet mount is great, and easy enough to use that you can keep switching it onto different helmets, if you need to. The mount is hinged, so that you can use it at different angles, as shown in this photo. Of course, if you have oncoming cyclists, you are going to want to angle the ultra bright light towards the ground, not towards their eyes.
The Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light comes with a range of mounts to give you options. You can mount it on a quick release mount on your handlebars. The 3M Dual Mount lets you mount it to almost any helmet. And you can even mount it on a GoPro mount.
When using the light on your head, you can carry the battery in a pocket. When using it on your handlebars, you can mount the battery on your bike using the provided Velcro strap.
The Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light remote control
The Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light also comes with a remote control so that you can control it from the handlebars. Previously I have controlled light levels on my Lumintrail helmet light (reviewed here) by reaching up and pressing the buttons. However, I found this difficult to do with this light while wearing thick winter gloves, as the light is very tiny, meaning the buttons are also tiny. So, the remote control is necessary when you are wearing thick winter gloves.
Electronic Extras on the the Lupine Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light
Bike lights have come so far in recent years it’s quite mind boggling, and the Piko 4 is right out in the front of the race. For example, it is designed to be cooled by air flow. if for some reason this does not happen, its power automatically reduces incrementally to prevent the LEDs and electronic elements from overheating.
The Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light also has two little lights that give you constant updates on how bright your light is and how high or low your battery level is. There is one small light on the light unit and another on the remote control.
The battery pack also communicates with you about its level, and it communicates both audibly and visually.
The Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light even has an SOS function, which should of course only be used in an emergency. Note that in many jurisdictions it is illegal to use an SOS if you are not in some kind of danger.
Finally, battery life on the Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light is insanely good, with up to 80 hours on dim mode. It comes with a charger so that you can quickly charge the 3.3 Ah Rechargeable Battery directly from the wall.
When you’re cycling at night, you do need a bright bike light. After all, you are competing with so many other lights. In the photo below, notice how it’s hard to even notice the cyclist, who is competing for attention against every kind of bright light all around him.
For that reason, I believe in having as bright a bike light as possible, while of course being considerate about not blinding other road users. At 1500 lumens, this light is perfect for people who cycle at night.
The Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light is so ultra bright, that some might think it is too bright. After all, the average single car headlight on dim is only 700 lumens. However, you have the medium and dim settings to reduce the brightness when needed, plus the extreme versatility of the mount to change the angle. And if it’s on your head, you can just turn your head away if you are in danger of blinding someone. But the crucial point is that with this light, you WILL have the necessary light when you need it, to be able to see where you are going and keep yourself safe.
Bottom Line on the Piko 4 Bike Helmet Light
This is a superb bike light in every respect: brightness, beam width and light dispersion, distance ahead you can see, weight, battery life, engineering quality, electronic controls, and reliability. If you cycle at night and you can afford it, this bike light is well worth the expense.
Below are links to all of our best posts on bike lights!
How to use this slideshow: Clicking on a picture will take you to that post. Hovering your mouse over a pic will pause the slideshow. On the right and left, there are arrows to move ahead or back.
7 of the Best Bike Lights
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