Here’s a first look at two lights from Gloworm that I’ve been sent to use for my regular night riding, bivvy adventures and for the race I’m doing in Finland in February.

The helmet mounted light is the newly launched X1, a really light and dinky unit. It kicks out a bright beam and is so light that I don’t notice it on my head. Gloworm specialise in adventure lights for different activities, including mountain biking and there are several programmes to get the right balance of brightness and battery life. I’ve been using fully bright for descending and a dimmer setting for climbs. There are spare lenses that can be fitted depending on whether you want a spot or more diffused light beam. All mounting options are included in the box for helmet or bars. Gloworm list the X1 as 850 lumens with a battery life of 2 hours 15 minutes on full. I did a 3 hour ride last night using a mix of settings and the battery indicated that it was at 40% charge when I got home.

For the 150km ultra race in Finland that I’m doing, Gloworm are making me a special X1 unit. This will have an extra powerful battery and programme of lower light settings both for riding, pushing and use as a head torch designed for the snow influenced light conditions, as well as the very low temperatures (down to a possible -30C). How cool is that?

For my UK night riding I like to have a lot of light, on my helmet as well as on the bars, so that I can go and ride anything that I’d ride in the day. The X2 is a 1200 lumen light which is claimed to be able to run for 2.5 hours on full. This light I will run bar mounted. It arrived in the post today so I haven’t tried it yet. It looks to have the same quality build and detail as the X1 unit, so I’m looking forward to some fun nocturnal adventures.

RRP for the X1 is £110. the X2 is £150

More details on spec and that over on the UK distributors site, where you can also order the lights.