NiteRider is an American brand headquartered in San Diego, California that is dedicated to designing high quality performance lights for extreme sports that are waterproof, very bright, lightweight and hands free. We got an opportunity to review one of NiteRider’s urban safety lights, the Sentinel 250, and here’s what we think.
The NiteRider Sentinel 250 is one of the top-of-the-line safety lights from the American brand, and has multiple features that make it stand out from the pack, quite literally. The first thing to catch the eye, apart from its ultra bright Daylight Visible Flash, is its laser marker lines that mark the rider with two parallel lines on both sides, making sure that the rider is visible from multiple angles, thereby enhancing the safety aspect of the light. The light has also been designed in such a way that the laser markers and the LEDs can be switched ON/OFF sepa-rately, so that the rider can choose the type of illumination required as per their choice.
Equipped with a USB rechargeable in-built Li-Po battery, the Sentinel 250 is capable of running up to 45+ hours on a single full charge, and all it takes just about 3 hours for a full charge. With a total of 7 different modes (4 steady and 3 pulsing) with 3 types of Laser line op-eration modes, the Sentinel 250 offers a wide range of lighting patterns for the rider to choose from. Although robustly built, the light weighs a mere 116 grams, and packs quite a punch for its size. The Sentinel 250 also has a “Group Ride” mode, which ensures that the light doesn’t shine into the eyes of other riders who are directly behind when riding in a group.
We loved the Sentinel 250 for multiple reasons, and one of them was the intelligent and min-imalistic design. The light is long and slender, with the ON/OFF buttons for the LEDs and the Lasers placed on the top of the light for easy operation, and the USB charging port deftly hidden on the bottom side and covered by an airtight rubber cap. The mount of the Sentinel 250 has also been designed with a rubber strap that makes it easy to wrap it around seat posts of all width and shapes, and the light itself has a wearable safety-clip design that can be used to clip on the light onto bags loops and belt straps, and can also be clipped into the rubber mount.
Fitted with a 250 lumen LED, the light is super-bright, and has quite a long range also, be-ing able to be spotted from almost a kilometer away in darkness, and almost from 250m away in daylight, thanks to NiteRider’s patented Daylight Visible Flash (DVF) technology. The laser lane markers that appear on both sides are also hard to miss, as they are crisp, bright and long. The robust build of the Sentinel 250 is compliant with FL1 standards for dust and water resistance, which keeps the light functioning in all environmental conditions.
Overall Rating
True to its name, the Sentinel 250 serves as a guardian angel to the riders using it, with its impeccable visibility, ultra-bright lasers, and DVF technology. Priced at Rs. 3,799 (as on 31st July 2019) the Sentinel 250 is one of the best safety lights that also have a wearable provision.
Prices and Specifications/Components are subject to change by the brand, without due notice.