Light & Motion Stella 300 Light

The Stella 300 is Light and Motion's workhorse, albeit a tiny one. It's a single LED lamp unit with a custom designed reflector to shape the brilliant white light from the efficient and ultra powerful Cree emitter. It goes easily on the handlebars or on your head, our favorite spot for it when we double it up with an eye-blasting Seca 800 on our bars for all out singletrack assaults or used alone when we're commuting home. When it's on the helmet mount, we've found that we can look directly at motorists and feel better about proceeding through intersections in the dark.

Its 300 lumen measurement is four times the light output of a 3 d-cell Maglite. It's enough to see and be seen quite easily. The center spot penetrates a great distance, so you can ride with confidence, even at speed. The peripheral fill light feathers out from the bright spot and casts an even white light to give you a very good sense of depth without strange halos.

The Stella lamp is completely waterproof, so you can ride in the rain all night long, or slop through puddles without fear of a short-circuit. The housing is made from aluminum and, with its stack of concentric anodized aluminum fins, it looks a bit like Marvin the Martian's bubble pistol. Not to worry, the Stella is safe for everyone, and the finned design keeps the unit from overheating on steamy nights.

The Light and Motion Stella 300 can be mounted on either your handlebars or on your helmet. The mounting apparatus consists of a sculpted base and a thick rubbery strap that cinches around any bar size or shape and fastens back onto a peg on the base of the lamp -- just like a belt. The included helmet mount uses a hook-and-loop closure to strap it into place through the vents in your lid, and the lamp attaches to it like it would to the bars. You won't have to fumble with any tools or prone-to-be-lost O-rings, and the mount will secure the lamp for shake-free performance. To facilitate the mounting options, you'll get a 50 inch power cord so you can mount the battery anywhere on the bike or in your pack or jersey pocket. It can be operated in two modes -- (1) Cruise mode allows you to toggle through high, medium, low, and flash. (2) Race mode requires a two second push on the button and allows you to select either high or low. It will run for 2.75 hours on high, double that on the medium setting, and a whopping 11 hours on low. The included Mini L 1.5 charger will refresh the 3-cell Li-ion battery pack in 3.25 hours.