Canadian company Gemini are relatively new to the light market but have produced some banging LED lights since they formed in 2010.

This Olympia 1800 Lumen model is the big daddy of the range. Three CREE XM-L U2 leds in the lightweight 85g head unit kick out a mighty impressive flood of light. A flood light even.

The riding I do around the Welsh woods at night mainly consists of about a 2/3 hours session, which involves 30/40minute climbs followed by fast descents of two to three minute. Previously I’ve used a two light set up, 1000 lumens on the bar and 1000 lumens on the lid. (This is a popular set up with the local crew, the bar lamp gives a good spread out front while the helmet lamp keeps your line of sight lit as you corner.)

But with this 1800 monster, I find it’s so bright that even for the fast, flat out stuff and the technical descending, I’ve switched to just running this unit alone on the helmet without the fuss of an additional bar light.

If you prefer to run the Olympia on your bars then the common rubber O-Ring system is a doddle to use and the battery pack sits neatly on your top tube with a velcro fastener. Fitting the light to your lid via the mount will depend on the number of vents, I always gaffer tape mine on for extra stability and run the battery pack in my backpack with the extender cable.

Out of the box you get four settings low, med, high and a separate flash mode. Two modes are enough for me, low for climbing and high for descending. A middle setting keeps everyone happy and the flash is probably for roadies or ravers. Gemini have included a programmable feature which lets you customise the brightness of each setting, if you are really fussy about things.

Battery life is great, my night time sorties never go much beyond the three hour mark but the six cell supply will run on full power for nearly four hours, even longer on the lower power settings. In fact they’ll run for over 10 hours at 40%.

(I’ve got a bit of night riding helmet cam footage with the light which I’ll add in a bit)

Any snags? Only one small point is that the the on/off button on the back is a bit small with my fat gloved fingers.

Price: £209.00
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