The Ravemen K1000 is a great light for anything from commuting about town to a full night’s riding. The beam shape is excellent, the run times prodigious, and you can mount it either way up.
Most front bike lights are torch-style these days, and the K1000 features a single LED in a metal body with a button and a light sensor on top. There’s a well-sealed (IPX7) USB-C port at the rear, and you get both a silicone strap and a mount that’ll attach to a GoPro-style one on the bottom of an out-front computer mount. The beam shape is symmetrical, so you can mount it either way up.
The beam’s not round, though: it’s quite aggressively flattened. It’s not a StVZO-style cutoff beam, but it’s still very friendly to oncoming traffic even in higher output modes, and there’s enough spill above the beam to read road signs and spot less-obvious hazards (such as pedestrians in dark clothing). Such things can be an issue for fully cut-off beam shapes.
I’ve been using Ravemen’s LR1600 – which has a very similar beam pattern – as my main light for a few years, and I can really recommend it. It’s excellent, and the fact you can mount it either way up is a big plus on crowded bars. If you’re spending significant parts of your night riding offroad, at speed, you might feel a touch underpowered with the 1,000 lumens here, but for most people it’s going to be bright enough for anything they do after dark.
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The K1000 has a 4,000mAh battery and charges via USB-C. In maximum brightness mode Ravemen says it will last two hours, so I gave it a full charge, turned it on and stuck it on my desk, and it lasted… two hours. To the minute.
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All the other modes were on point too, and that’s great news because this light has a 150-lumen mode with a claimed 15-hour run time. That’s all night, at any time of year. 150 lumens isn’t much, and you’re not going to be battering down twisty descents on that setting, but because of the flat beam profile it’s brighter where it counts. It’s plenty for night riding on unlit roads at a reasonable lick.
In between bottom and top there are 300-lumen (6hrs) and 500-lumen (3.5hrs) modes, which are well spread: there’s usually the right amount of light if you want it. You have to cycle through flashing to get back to full beam, which is a bit of a pain, but mercifully there’s only one flashing mode rather than a dozen.
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It’s worth noting that the instructions say it’ll drop through the power modes as the battery depletes (to eke out the run time), but that doesn’t appear to be the main way it alerts you. Instead it adds a periodic flash to the beam to let you know the battery life is getting short. If you’ve got the light mounted right-way-up you’ll also see the power button turn from green to red at about half capacity. in terms of traffic light systems it’s not the best: if you head out and the light is red, you could have 45% or 6% charge. The warning flashes only start at 5% remaining.
Similarly the green button could mean it’s absolutely full, or less than half full. Not great.
One thing about the K1000 that is great is that, should you run out of juice and you carry an external battery pack (I do on longer rides), you can run the light directly from the battery. With a good external battery and a canny mode choice you can massively extend the run time. I tend to carry a 10,000mAh battery, more than twice the internal capacity, which means in 150-lumen mode I should be good for two whole days of illumination. You wouldn’t want to rely on the USB-C connection for hours in the pouring rain, but for dry days and emergencies it’s fine.
Call me AI
The K1000 has two intelligent modes. The Intelligent Daytime mode is simple enough: there’s a light sensor on the body, and if it thinks it’s daytime it’ll use Pulse mode. If it’s dark it’ll switch to the 500-lumen mode, and if you leave your bike stationary for more than two minutes it’ll switch off. This is all pretty sensible stuff, although not something it’s hard to achieve by pressing the button a couple of times yourself. It might save you switching from flashing to full halfway through a spring commute though, or save your battery if you forget to turn your light off before you lock the shed.
The other intelligent mode is ‘AI’ mode, which Ravemen claims will learn your routine and vary the brightness of the light depending on the conditions and ride duration. The instructions say it needs five days of data (I’m assuming five rides) to get up to speed. To which I have a barrage of questions. What if your rides aren’t the same length? What if, like me, you like a specific setting? What if there are bits (fast descents, for example) that need more light? I asked Ravemen, and they told me the following:
“When the light is off, once the AI mode is turned on, the light will gradually and seamlessly adjust its brightness according to the surrounding ambient light. This helps save battery power and extend the overall runtime. Since the ambient light at night is generally quite stable and dim, the change in the K light brightness may not be very noticeable to the human eye. Please also note that this function is designed specifically for nighttime riding. If you test this indoors at daytime, you’ll feel the change in lighting is minimal as the ambient light is stable. If AI mode is turned on during the daytime outdoors, the light will gradually turn off, as the ambient light is too bright.“
Does that sound like ‘AI’ to me? Not really. It sounds like a simple algorithm that adjusts output using a simple sensor. I never had much joy anyway – it always seemed to be at maximum brightness, presumably because it was always dark.
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Some things benefit from AI and some things do not. I just can’t see any benefit here, other than for Ravemen to be able to put ‘AI’ on the box. I can’t imagine a scenario where I’d use it, and aside from trying to make it work, I haven’t.
You can cycle through the modes easily enough with the button, and if you pair Ravemen’s wireless remote (not included) you can access high beam at any time with a single press. Luckily ‘AI’ mode is kind of hidden away: you need to press the power button for five seconds to activate it.
So. There are a few bits and bobs I’d change, perhaps ditching the ‘AI’ mode as superfluous and giving the charge indicator a tweak. But the beam is excellent, and the run times from a £65 light are fantastic. If you’d told me back when I started night riding in the late 1990s, with my Lumicycle halogen system that was basically a bathroom ceiling bulb and a lead-acid battery, that I’d be able to ride all night with the light from a sub-200g torch, I’d probably have burned you at the stake.
Value
There are a growing number of well-priced lights with good output; since I reviewed the Proviz LED360 Rigel back in 2022, the Moon Rigel Pro and Gaciron KIWI-1200 have both put in solid performances, but even with the slightly whiffy ‘AI’ marketing I think this is probably the pick of the mid-priced units I’ve tried.
Overall
This really is an excellent unit. The beam shape is probably my favourite of the lot, and the pass-through operation from an external battery really widens the use cases for it. LED lights spent a lot of time mostly just getting brighter and brighter as the technology matured, but now it seems effort is being focused on making lights that are bright enough, easy to use, and affordable. This Ravemen K1000 ticks all those boxes, and does a great job of it.
What does the manufacturer say about this product?:
“Cyclists, meet your perfect ride partner. Embrace the hands-free convenience of its intelligent mode and revel in the superior illumination that Ravemen is renowned for. Its unique AI Night Riding Mode frees your hands, automatically adjusting brightness based on your cycling habits, maximizing battery life for worry-free riding. It can also function as a power bank, featuring an all-in-one USB Type-C interface for charging and discharging. And it is built to withstand any weather or riding challenge, compatible with any mount style you prefer. Let’s experience the ultimate in cycling illumination!”
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of this product:
LED: 1*high-efficiency white LED;
Battery: 4000mAh/3.6V Li-ion battery;
Dimensions/Weight(Headlight): 106.5mm*34mm*37mm/177g;
Rate the product overall for quality (1-10):
9/10
Any further comments on quality?:
Solidly built.
Rate the product for performance when used for its designed purpose (1-10):
9/10
Any further comments on performance?:
It’s a great light.
Rate the product for value (1-10):
6/10
How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested?:
£64.99 is very much mid-market: there are a lot of lights for this kind of money. Some are brighter. I don’t think any are necessarily better
Rate the light for design and ease of use. How simple was the light to use?
7/10
Any further comments on design and usability?:
All good, if not exceptional.
Rate the light for the design and usability of the clamping system/s:
7/10
Any further comments on the clamp?:
Silicone strap supplied is okay, optional plastic mount is better.
Does the light have a waterproofing rating? If so, what is it?:
IPX7
Rate the light for waterproofing. How did it stand up to the elements?
10/10
Any further comments on waterproofing?:
IPX7 is about as good as it gets.
Rate the light for battery life. How long did it last? How long did it take to recharge?
9/10
Any further comments on battery life and recharging?:
You can ride all night with this, and run it off an external battery if it does run out.
Rate the light for weight:
8/10
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? Yes
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes
Use this box to explain your overall score
Excellent overall. Notwithstanding the daft AI mode and the less-than-ideal battery info, this is as much light as you reasonably need for full nights in the saddle, and it’s good value to boot.