Knog Bilby Headlamp Tested for Mountain Biking

The Knog Bilby Headlamp isn’t like other mountain bike lights on the market. It’s a headlamp in the truest sense, designed to be strapped to a head or in the case of mountain biking, to a helmet.

Knog Bilby light specs

400Lm max brightness
Weight: 90g
Runtimes: 400Lm – 5 hours, 240Lm – 9 hours, 200Lm – 14 hours.
Mounts: Head only
$59.99 MSRP at Amazon

The Bilby pumps out up to 400Lm on high which is generally around medium brightness for most of the all-in-one lights we’ve tested. The surprising thing is that Knog claims five hours of battery life on high, far more than any of the others we tested. It’s also waterproof to 1m.

For such a small and seemingly simple light, the Knog packs a pretty wild feature set. A long button press tilts the beam up or down to get the light exactly where it needs to shine. If you’re on a trail run, you might want the light to point closer to your feet while on a fast moving bike, throwing the beam further down the trail makes sense.

The LED emitters and reflectors on the Bilby are smaller than those found on traditional bike lights, so the beam pattern is comparatively compact without a lot of light along the periphery.

The silicon headband is adjustable to fit a head, or a helmet.

There are literally more than a dozen light modes and settings (14 to be exact) to choose from, including a reading light that’s said to glow for 75 hours on a single charge. Buyers can further customize the way the light operates with a free app called Modemaker.

To recharge the light, remove the lamp from the stretchy, silicone headband and plug it right into a USB outlet. There’s no need for a cable to juice this truly all-in-one light.

One downside to having so many light modes and settings is the darn thing can be confusing to operate. Short, long, and double presses on each of the two buttons are used to cycle through modes, brightnesses, and beam angles.