This high-powered all-in-one unit offers impressive functionality in a neat package

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Moon’s Rigel Power bar-mounted light has a maximum claimed output of 3,600 lumens and a claimed run time of up to two hours when set to full power.

That power is provided by six LEDs, their light projected through two 34-degree wide-angle lenses and four 17-degree spot optics.

Thanks to three different programmes, each with eight modes, it’s possible to activate either all the LEDs, four of them or just two, depending on the amount of power you want. There’s also a daylight running programme.

The Rigel has an intelligent light function, where the unit changes its brightness depending on the ambient light, and turns the light to standby mode when it senses a lack of motion.

A matrix-style LED display shows mode and battery life information, and there are two buttons, one to turn the light on and off and select modes, the other to toggle Boost mode on and off, and select which beam pattern is being used.

The aluminium body (313g) has an IPX7 waterproof rating and features a USB-C charging port on the rear. The port doubles up as the wired (33cm) remote’s (12g) connector, the remote featuring the same two buttons on the light’s body.

It’s sold with a bar-only out-front style mount (47g). Rubber shims make it compatible with both 31.8mm and 35mm-diameter bars. The light clips into place using a twist lock, with an additional securing pin.

Impressively, the Rigel’s power is well distributed. The central focal point is bright, providing enough light for high levels of detail, but isn’t so bright that it bleaches out the trail’s colours, or makes the contrast between light and dark too harsh.

Plenty of light is bled out to the sides, giving good context. Given the unit’s small size, power is impressive.

The LED’s power matches its beam pattern well, with a solid mix of throw, spread and spot lighting just in front of the light. Most important is the spread, where seeing around turns to spot lines and getting context on the trail was issue-free.

Thanks to the spread, more technical trail features could be attacked with confidence; the light’s beam was always lighting up the part of the trail I was looking at.

Although its power is good, the 3,600-lumen maximum output meant limiting riding at pace to red-graded runs or slightly less involved black ones. For anything harder than that, speeds needed to decrease.

Split into two parts, the beam’s hue is yellow/green closer to the light, and white/blue further away. This means the beam close to the light is soft and easy to see with, while the further away section provides more contrast and power.

Impressively, the Rigel’s hue is like Exposure’s Six Pack in this respect.

In the run time test, the Rigel lasted for 1 hour 56 minutes on full power, just four minutes shorter than Moon claims.

The LED matrix display doesn’t make deciphering which mode the light is in or how much battery life is left hugely intuitive, and isn’t quick or easy to read on the move.

Likewise, reading the manual is required before operating the light, and it took time until operation became second nature.

Its wired remote’s two buttons aren’t illuminated, and the overly long Velcro strap can’t be tightened enough to fasten it securely to the narrowest part of the bar close to the grips.

The remote’s small size, however, means plenty of mount locations are possible, plus its cable is long enough to reach. None of the light or remote’s buttons are backlit, which makes them hard to find in the pitch black while riding.

While the mount is secure on the bar, and the twist-lock quick-release system made removing it quick and easy, the small Allen bolts on the mount’s underside are a pain to install.

The size of the bolts makes them fiddly to install, and they are easy to drop as you tighten them. If they were swapped to the top side of the mount, it would be a much easier job.

The over-the-stem mounting position helps streamline the look and means the beam pattern isn’t skewed to one side.

The Rigel’s beam pattern and power, crammed into a fairly small form factor, are its most impressive traits, and rival that of more expensive units.

A clearer mode and battery life display, along with more obvious mode functionality, would be a vast improvement. Still, in terms of price versus power, the Rigel is one of the best.

This year, we put 10 of the best mountain bike lights that enable you embrace the darkness and see riding after nightfall as an opportunity. Well-ridden routes becomes a fresh and exciting challenge after dark, and the crackle of ice under your tyres on a starlit night is a special experience.

Alex Evans is BikeRadar's mountain bike technical editor. He started racing downhill at the tender age of 11 before going on to compete across Europe. Alex moved to Morzine in the French Alps at 19 to pursue a career as a bike bum and clocked up an enormous amount of riding. Riding those famous tracks day in, day out for eight years, he broke more bikes than he can remember. Alex then moved back to the UK and put his vast knowledge of mountain biking to good use by landing a job working for MBUK magazine as features editor. Since working for MBUK, Alex's focus has moved to bike tech. He's one of BikeRadar's lead testers, knows how to push bikes and products to the limit, and wants to search out the equipment that represents the best value for money. Alex is also a regular on the BikeRadar Youtube channel and BikeRadar podcast.

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