Overall rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Head torches are severely under-rated, and are critical bits of kit. They come in extremely useful when cycle commuting, cycle touring and when camping.
On night-time rides, riders who use battery lights are usually able to remove their lights to illuminate parts of their bike, for example when mending a puncture. Us lot who ride with dynamo lights have the benefit of never having to worry if our lights are charged up. However, we also can’t (easily) remove them from our bikes, so a second light becomes important.
The Nebo Mycro
Head torches come in all sorts of flavours, sizes, and importantly, all sorts of weights. Regardless of the creative spelling, there’s a big clue in the Mycro’s name: it’s tiny.
Tiny
Being so small is a benefit, but also a disadvantage. It’s of benefit as it reduces neck strain (many cyclists who cycle through the night will keep their head torch on their helmet the entire time) and means there slightly less weight to carry. Being tiny also means it takes up hardly any space at all.
The reduced weight also means the head strap is circular, and doesn’t have the quite common extra strap that goes over your head. Oh, speaking of the head-strap, it’s reflective, too. The Mycro also has a hat-visor clip as standard, and obviously you can easily adjust the angle of the torch.
The downside to that relates primarily to battery life: smaller batteries hold less charge. When I first bought the Nebo Mycra, I was warned that on the brightest setting it will run the battery flat in next to no time.
Battery life
The Mycro is USB-rechargeable, using a standard (but now slightly dated) micro-USB cable. This means you can easily charge it up from any power bank, or from dynamo lights, such as the one I use, that have a USB power output.
I ran it for an hour at the highest level of brightness (a claimed 400 lumen) and it was still going strong, though I could see the light wasn’t quite as bright as before. Still, it gave me more than enough light.
The main light on the Mycro has two lower settings, each giving off less light than the settings before it, while still being perfectly useable. Obviously, the battery life would be hugely extended if you used the less bright settings.
But that’s not all…
The Mycro has two further modes. Either side of the main LED light there are two tiny LEDs. These could be either green, or red. When set to green, it offers an even lower-light setting. Finally, the red LED option means even less light.
You may be puzzled by those last two options. When camping somewhere completely dark, it’s often preferable not to be shining bright lights around. Especially when stealth camping, you want to reduce light at night.
Both green and red options allow you to still see what you’re doing (to a degree – remember, we’re talking reduced light here!) The red LED option had the added benefit that it doesn’t affect your night vision. If you shared a tent with someone, and woke up in the night, using the red LEDs will allow you to still see surprisingly well (provided your eyes adjusted to the dark beforehand!) without disturbing anyone.
Nebo (correctly) assigned such value to the red LEDs that a long-press on the power button, when the torch is switched off, will instantly switch it on in red LED mode.
The verdict
I have a very simple test I apply when reviewing a product – I ask myself a single question: If I knew in advance what I know now I have used and tested the product for some time, would I still have bought it?
In this case, the answer is a simple yes. I paid £14.99 for mine, and it’s worth every penny.
You can get it by clicking this link.