Review: Small, light, powerful – The Lupine Piko 4 Bike Light

09.01.2014
by Aaron Steinke

Early sunsets and late sunrises – it’s the night ride time of the year! During the last three months we probably spent more time riding at night than during daytime and it has been awesome! One of our ever present companions on this rides was the Lupine Piko 4 – time to draw some conclusions!

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Hamering down through the darkness – the Lupine Piko makes it possible!

The Piko 4 impresses with lots of clever details and excellent workmanship: For example the battery integrated rear light and the different options to mount the Piko on the head, helmet or the bike. The distribution of the lighting modes is well chosen too.

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Using the adjustable LED head, the beam can easily be pointed in the right direction.

While the officially stated 1200 lumens of the Piko would have been top of the range a few years ago, now there are even brighter models with well over 2000 lumens. However, given the tiny dimensions and the low weight, there aren’t many other systems that can match the Lupine.

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Ingeniously simple – simple ingenious! Fast mounting with velcro tape.

While riding with the Piko, we especially liked the light distribution of the LED head. The evenly distributed beam illuminates a sufficiently large part of the trail ahead, without being to focused on a small area. Only on fast, unknown trails we would have liked some more power. An (expensive!) solution could be to use the Piko on the head in combination with one of her more powerful sisters (e.g. the Betty) on the handlebar.

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Riding in the night is a totally different experience.

The battery of the Piko lasts for 2 hours in the brightest mode – enough for the usual after work nightrides. Using the different power modes and activating the full power mode only on descents, makes even longer rides possible. The integrated battery charge indicator is really helpful.

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Never leave without it is the motto – Thanks to its tiny size the Piko fits in every backpack and provides good sight when a tour takes longer than expected.

Technical Facts:

LED Head:

  • Lumens: 1200
  • Lighting duration: 2h – 58h
  • Dimensions (LxWxH): 32 x 40 x 24mm
  • Lens: 22° Optics
  • Weight: 55.00 g

Battery:

  • Power: 7.2V 3.3Ah
  • Watt: 24Wh
  • Dimensions (LxWxH): 79 x 41 x 26mm
  • Weight: 125.0 g
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After three months the Piko 4 still works as well as on the first day

Conclusion:

Small, light, powerful – these three attributes describe the Lupine Piko 4 perfectly. There’s no other light that delivers the amount of power while maintaining such small dimensions. In combination with the excellent manufacturing and the clever functions the Piko 4 is definitely worth its price of 268 EUR.

More information: Website

Words: Aaron Steinke / Christoph Bayer | Photos: Christoph Bayer

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About the author

Aaron Steinke

Aaron was our first employee and actively helped make our company what it is today, significantly shaping the look and direction of our various magazines. Aaron has been pursuing his own projects since mid-2020 but he continues to advise and support us on issues of marketing and technology. For many years, you would usually have found Aaron at casual enduro races, but increasingly you'll find him riding his road bike – long live freedom on two wheels!

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