The Three Essential Bicycle Lights for The Munga (and Why Spare Batteries Are a Must)

Riding The Munga, a 1100 km non-stop endurance race, is a true test of endurance and skill, especially when cycling through the night. Your lighting setup plays a crucial role in ensuring your safety and performance. To tackle the darkness and maintain visibility throughout the race, you’ll need a combination of a handlebar light, a helmet light, and a headlamp. Let’s break down these essential lights and what to look for in each.

Primary Light - Handlebar

Purpose:

Your handlebar light is your primary source of illumination, lighting up the path directly ahead. It needs to be powerful enough to reveal obstacles, terrain changes, and trail markers in complete darkness.

What to Look For:

• Brightness: A minimum of 1500–2000 lumens is ideal for clear, wide-range visibility. This helps you spot obstacles early, especially in technical sections of the race.
• Adjustable Brightness: This allows you to conserve battery life by reducing brightness when full power isn’t needed.
• Long Battery Life & Spare Batteries: With a race that stretches over multiple days, battery life is critical. While choosing a light with long-lasting power is essential, always carry spare batteries to swap out as needed during the night. This ensures you won’t lose crucial visibility at any point.
• Durability: Make sure the light is waterproof and shock-resistant to handle rough and unpredictable conditions.
• Products to Consider:  Extreme Lights' Endurance or Baviaans Bicycle Lights are tried and trusted products for night time endurance events.

Spare Light - Headlamp

Purpose:

Mounting a headlamp on your helmet may seem like a good idea, but the additional weight can quickly become overbearing on your neck. You may even find yourself needing to duct tape your helmet or head to your backpack to relieve the strain. Instead, a better strategy is to keep a lightweight spare headlamp in your rear pocket for easy access. When needed, you can quickly mount it directly on your forehead, providing comfortable, hands-free illumination.

Uses:

• Backup Light: A headlamp serves as a backup if your primary handlebar or helmet light fails during the race.
• Nighttime Navigation: Having a headlamp on your head allows you to easily read your map while riding, giving you quick access to navigation without stopping.
• Hands-Free Operation: A headlamp is invaluable when you need both hands free—whether you’re dealing with a mechanical issue or reaching into your backpack for supplies during a break.

What to Look For:

• Battery Life Over Brightness: In an endurance race, battery life is more important than brightness. Choose a headlamp with long-lasting power, preferably one that can use disposable batteries. This way, you can easily swap out batteries during the race, ensuring your light is always ready when you need it most.
• Products to consider: The Jonkers Rechargeable Headlamp can be powered by its internal rechargeable battery, or 3 x AAA replaceable batteries.  This is ideal as it is easy to replace en route. 

Why Spare Batteries Are Crucial

Even with the best lights, battery life can become a concern during a long race like The Munga. Always carry spare batteries for all your lights—handlebar, helmet, and headlamp. This will ensure you don’t lose visibility at critical moments, keeping you safe and on track.  Have a look at the spare battery options.

Red Tail Light

Purpose:

A red tail light is essential for ensuring others—whether other riders or support vehicles—can see you from behind, particularly in low-visibility or dusty conditions. It’s an important safety feature, especially in group riding scenarios.

What to look for:

• High Visibility: Choose a tail light with multiple flash modes to increase your visibility. Flashing settings tend to catch the attention of those behind you better than a steady light.
• Long Battery Life & Spare Batteries: Since your tail light will be on for extended periods, you’ll need a long-lasting battery, but having a spare battery is key to ensuring the light stays functional for the entire duration of the race.
• Weather Resistance: Make sure the tail light is waterproof and dustproof to perform in any weather or trail conditions.
• Ease of Use: Look for a light that is easy to mount and has simple controls for adjusting modes even while riding.
• Products to consider:  The Sensor and Flare both meet the above requirements.

At Extreme Lights, we design our products specifically for endurance riders who need reliable performance in the toughest conditions. Visit www.extremelights.co.za to explore our full range of bicycle lights and ensure you’re fully prepared for The Munga and your next adventure.