Light & Motion Seca
The new Seca series of bike lights from Light & Motion were recently released. These are some of the first American-made lights to use controlled beam, European-style optics:
Shining a light on a wall can give a false representation of what the light will look like on the trail. While easy and convenient, there is a drastic difference between pointing your light toward a flat object like a wall and laying that same light down over the ground in front of you. With many “off-the-shelf” optics, what looked like a smooth, even beam pattern on the wall quickly is found to have too much light in the foreground causing high speed vision to be compromised. Some companies combat this by simply throwing more lumens at the problem, but sending more lumens through the same non-optimized reflector and optic doesn’t fix the primary issue. While riding during the day, is the ground uniformly bright, or is it brighter closer to you front tire? We strive to achieve a uniform level of lighting on the trail in front of you. An optic designed for a flashlight or kitchen simply doesn’t do this.
There are three models in the Seca line: the 700 Ultra, 700 Race, and 400. The Ultra and Race use the same light head but different batteries, each producing 700 lumens. The smaller Seca 400 has a controlled beam like the larger models and produces 400 lumens.
I’m hoping to have a Seca for review this winter.
7 Responses to “Light & Motion Seca”
That’s great news…we don’t need brighter lights for bicycles we need better optics and long battery life. I hope other North American companies follow suit – like Dinotte and NiteHawk.
cheers,
Vik
Just curious if you have had an opportunity to play with the Light and Motion ‘Stella’. The Seca is a little out of my price range but I really need to augment my blinky with something I can use to see the road. I commute early in the morning and love being on the road without traffic, but I had a nasty run in with a fallen branch the other morning. Simply didn’t see it until it was too late.
Too bad they don’t make such headlights compatible with dynamo hubs. Never have to worry about running out of juice !
Tihamer – there are several dynohub headlights that use LEDs and good optics, for example:
- B&M Fly IQ
- Schmidt Edelux
cheers,
Vik
I love the Schmidt Edulux. Great light.
The IQ Fly is great for use witha dyno light. It looks like a car headlight to me.
If you want to augment your blinky light with a brighter light I really like the Light and Motion Vega. Self contained, rechargeable and super bright.
-Joe
Vick, you’re absolutely right about the FLY IQ and the EDELUX. I have a FLY IQ on my Stratus XP and I’m very happy with it. But a light like the SECA would be perfect to mount on the handlebar of my CF bike ….
Tihamér