Lezyne Multi-Drive 1000 Mountain Bike Light Fends off Night Demons [Review]

Daytime has again become shorter in duration and some of us aren’t ready to put our mountain bikes up just yet.

And why should we? Thanksgiving and the holidays are coming up, and spinning the wheels means more calories burnt and less acquired guilt over the next few months.

Lezyne debuted the Multi-Drive 1000 LED light in September at Interbike. We picked up a sample to see how it would perform.

Specs

Separate head unit and battery pack w/ 35″ cable
Heat-dissipating, machined-aluminum body
High-speed, 2-amp USB charging capability
150 – 1,000 lumen range
Flash and steady modes
3-18 hour runtime depending on mode
4-8.5 hour charge time depending on high-efficiency charging availability
288g total weight, 73g for head unit
$170 USD, available at Amazon and other retailers

Set up

Since the Multi-Drive light comes with a cable-routed battery pack, it takes a little decision making on the rider’s part to set up. Riders can put the head and battery pack both on a helmet, or the head unit on the helmet and the battery pack routed to a hydration pack or fanny pack. Personally, I liked it most as a bar-mounted light with the battery pack nearby on the top tube. There really are a lot of options.

The struggle that I’ve found lately with helmet-mounted lights is interference with the MIPS system. Most of the lights I’ve used are mounted with a velcro strap, and it’s not easy to feed the strap under the yellow layer of MIPS and get the spacing right for the length of the strap. It’s easiest to go straight over the yellow plastic MIPS layer, but this certainly has to interfere with how MIPS is supposed to work.

I suppose it’d work with an adhesive GoPro mount on a helmet, since the Multi-Drive includes a GoPro interface. It also includes a Direct-X Lock stem mount for compatible stems.

The battery pack velcro strap stayed tight and secure.

Since I run a MIPS helmet, I found this light — and any other light for that matter — better suited for my handlebar.

Operation is simple. Push the button on the battery pack, and then hold the button down on the head unit and the light will come in. A quick push again on the head unit will take you to a different brightness mode, six times over. There’s a brighter flash for daytime, a more subtle flash for nighttime, three modes that hit 150, 250, and 500 lumens, and an overdrive mode which blasts 1,000 lumens down the trail. Other trail users will surely mistake you for a search and rescue vehicle in this mode.

On the trail

It’s hard to think of anything more frustrating than a light that doesn’t operate as intended on a night ride. Things can get spooky real quick when a battery runs out of juice. In my neck of the woods, paranoia about mountain lions creeps into my head. I’m sure the odds are just as rare as a shark attack, but hey they’re out there and so am I.

The Multi-Drive has mitigated this fear more than any other light I’ve used. The run time is excellent, it’s bright, and most importantly, it’s dependable.

It provides a white light, good coverage, and a solid and steady beam. The field of view is long enough to not worry about carrying speed, although most of us take that back a notch anyway at night.

The light does get warm, especially in overdrive mode, but the finned design on the head unit seems to mitigate the heat pretty well since it allows more airflow over the unit.

There are a few things that would’ve made me like this light even more, like a pivoting head that allows the light to be turned from side side. With as wide as the beam of light is, it’s not a big deal, but to be really picky about which way the light is pointed, I’d take one.

Again, the helmet mounting issue with a MIPS helmet is something that light makers can improve as a whole, as this isn’t a Lezyne-specific issue. It’s just an area in mountain biking that has changed, and products that coincide with that area may have to change too.

Conclusion

The Lezyne Multi-Drive is a serious light for serious night riders. It packs a bright punch with dependability and a long battery life. That makes it a great mountain bike light to fend off the demons (or rocks and roots) of the night.