Product Test: Light and Motion Taz Headlight

As frustrating as it is sometimes, there are only so many hours of daylight available when we can still get some good miles in. Of course, there are also those of us who yearn for the sun to go down simply because the days are full of other priorities or just to get in some cooler temps. No matter why you choose to ride at night, there is still the need to see where you’re going.

One of the many options for illuminating your path is  the 2000-lumen Light & Motion Taz 2000.

The Taz has four settings, as well as the option to use the side amber lights in each mode. There is a low level that they claim offers 500 lumens, medium that offers 1000 lumens, and the high setting that offers 2000 lumens, as well as a pulse mode. The pulse offers 500 lumens with the top two lights on constant and the lower beam pulses for daytime use.

The front element has two sections—top and bottom. The top is a more focused beam that has two LEDs, while the lower single LED is more of a wide flood beam.

For run-time we found that all of the claimed times were spot-on except the pulse mode, which they claim almost nine hours, but during our testing we only got six hours. The 2000-lumen high setting offers one and a half hours, 1000-lumen medium offers three hours, while 500-lumen low offers six hours.

There are two buttons on the top of the body that control power setting and are under-lit to identify power remaining. On the bottom side there is a micro-USB port used for charging. The unit took a little over four hours to charge from a completely exhausted battery. The light is waterproof IP67, and even after a few drops our unit shows no signs of fatigue.

The Taz came with two different mounting options. The first is the bar strap that even works well on aero bars as long as they aren’t too wide because the strap is a bit short. The second option is a GoPro interface that works well as long as you can get the thumbscrew tight.

The first impressions of the Taz are very good. It is easy to mount, easy to charge, and after figuring out how to take it out of lock mode, it’s very easy to use thanks to its four settings. For most of our road riding we leave the light in the low setting and have more than enough light at 500 lumens. We really only turned it up for fast descents. The Pulse mode is good if you want a light that is easily seen by oncoming traffic as the sun is setting; otherwise, we didn’t use it much.

The beam on the Taz is one of the things we like the most, as it was easy to focus the beam where we needed it, but thanks to the third LED that fills in the void between the front wheel and the focused beam. Battery life is easy to monitor, as the power button cycles through a few different colors to identify the level remaining. If there is one thing that bothered us, it was that when the road got rough the light was a bit nose-heavy and would adjust down. This was rare, but did happen a few times during testing.

• Simple and straightforward
• Fits aero bars
• A bit expensive

Price: $250
Weight: 221 grams with bar mount