Light & Motion Stella 180-N Light

Now that we've slipped well beyond the summer solstice, our afternoon daylight hours are getting shorter and shorter. Rather than cut our evening rides short, we prefer to light up the night. Sure, we relish beautiful autumn rides on the weekends. After all we can't give up on our hard earned biker tans just yet. It's just that we have to have our ride fix a little more often. Soon enough we'll even be commuting home after sunset. Heck, we've even got a few adventure races to do before the season ends. What we'll need is a lightweight, simple, and durable lighting system. We've been testing the Light and Motion Stella 180-L -- an LED lamp with a compact Lithium Ion battery pack that certainly fits the bill.

Light and Motion has been in the bike light game since 1996. They started out designing and building some of the world's finest underwater lighting and video camera housings in 1989. Light and Motion were on the forefront of the HID revolution with the ARC light series. Now they are poised to lead the LED bike light market with the Stella series. The Light and Motion Stella 180-L is a tidy little unit. A clean design and careful attention to manufacturing have resulted in one of the sleekest lamp units that we've ever seen. It has a pewter anodized aluminum reflector housing that makes it look a bit like a ray gun or some sort of cannon with which Marvin the Martian might've aimed to vaporize the earth. The Stella lamp measures only 2” long and is 1 1/4" in diameter. It takes up very little space on the handlebars, and uses an offset mount so that it can be centered over the stem if desired. The Light and Motion Stella 180-L also comes with a helmet mount that straps securely through the vent holes on our helmet. The lamp with its 48 inch long cable only weighs just 62 grams. We found that the light weight nature of the lamp and the sturdy mount design never let it bounce out of position. Never. Not once. For those of us who've dealt with bouncing, downward creeping lights, this is a revelation.

The Light and Motion Stella 180-L has two modes: normal and race. Push the power button twice quickly for normal mode and you'll get to choose between high, medium, low, “read”, and flash. Push the power button and hold down for two seconds for race mode and you'll only choose between high and low. Out in the dark, we liked race mode for most of our adventures. We used the high setting when we were in tight single track trails, but the low setting worked great for open gravel roads where the bright white light of the LED could flood out in front of us. The normal mode has options we wouldn't normally use. Sounds weird, we know -- in reality, the normal mode would be the output mode we'd use for adventure racing with the Stella 180-L. Our reasoning is that we'd use high, medium, and low like normal, depending on trail conditions, and that we'd make use of the read setting when we checked the maps. We've found that the clear vinyl map pouches that adventure racers carry can be very reflective, especially with a bright white LED lamp. In order to keep from suffering a temporary blindness, the “read” mode would provide plenty of light to see the map but not enough to reflect harshly. We've found that this is especially important while checking the map at speed while on the bike. The flash mode would obviously be handy in an emergency. Some adventure race organizers require a flash for open water paddling sections. The Stella could fulfill that requirement in spades.

Light and Motion has a reputation for providing a very high quality beam with their HID and Halogen lamp units. The Stella 180-L is no exception. It has a focused beam of bright white LED light that is complimented by a wide flood. The focused center portion of the beam diffuses at its edges into the flood fill without creating odd halos or circles within the beam. This means that we are able to see trail features with distinction, and yet the fill illuminates the side of the trail corridor, so we have good peripheral vision as well. This wide fill pattern is especially helpful in tight turns by allowing us to see a little further around the bends in the trail. When we ride singletrack, we almost always use the high setting. On the high setting, we averaged just less than 5 hours for the battery charge. Of course the charge lasts longer in the lower settings, lasting 20 hours on low. When the battery starts to discharge, the lamp drops down to the next lower setting and blinks three times to let you know that there is approximately 15 minutes of run time left. The Light and Motion Stella 180-L also has a thermal failsafe built in. LED lamps can generate quite a bit of heat, hence the attractive finned aluminum reflector body. If the light gets too hot, it will drop to the next lower setting. When the light cools off or we get back to riding, the light returns to the high setting.

The Light and Motion Stella 180-L is the cream of the crop for the next generation of bike lights. We really like the compact size and sleek design, and the light output is very surprising for a single LED lamp unit. We used it on both trails and roads. The settings are distinctive and usable for a variety of conditions. The switch is easy to use, but we found that pushing the button with one finger knocked the lamp unit out of position easily. It worked best to use our thumb with our pointer finger under the back portion of the housing. A minor inconvenience, but it was something that we noticed that others might find bothersome. Given its size and intended use, the Stella 180-L works great for most of our night riding needs. However, if you want maximum light power, the Stella isn't up to the legendary ARC series standard. The ARC HID puts out crazy light. Perhaps you've been blinded by someone on the trail who had one on their helmet and looked up at you to say hello. Please forgive them.

Light and Motion has stepped into the LED ring and delivered a knockout. The Stella 180-L puts out a powerful, high quality beam of white LED light. It is powerful enough to keep you focused on fast single-track, yet small and light weight enough to wear on a helmet, without even noticing that it's there. The entire Stella package, including the light, cord, handlebar mount, and battery only weighs 227 grams - about a half pound. The Lithium Ion 11.1 volt Cub battery is small enough to slip into a jersey pocket with ease, or strap to the frame or stem. The cord is 48” long so there is no worry that the battery may fall into the bottom of your backpack and tug on the lamp.

As we edge closer to the winter solstice and the shortest days of the year, we revel in knowing that we'll also have the longest nights of the year. We wouldn't look forward to the winter without the comfort of having a high quality bike lighting system to show us the way. If you've never ridden at night on a mountain bike before, perhaps this season will mark a new beginning. The Light and Motion Stella 180-L is a great first step.