BQ Tests: See.Sense ICON3 rear light

When is a bike light more than just a light? See.Sense have developed a range of lights that don’t just respond to your riding and environment to maximise battery life and visibility – but they can also help you create a better and safer riding network in your region.

The Icon 3 has a low profile mount for your seat post, a nice feature to help it fit smaller frames and mountain bikes with dropper posts. The light has a vertical orientation, and pumps out a whopping 350 lumens! Thanks to the design of the light and LED placement, See.Sense claim 270 degrees of visibility for the light. As a smart light, the Icon 3 adapts the amount of light to your surroundings, and with its motion sensor it can send a message and location to a chosen mobile number as a crash alert, and even give you a theft notification. For those who are civic minded, you can also use the See.Sense app to report incidents on your ride, or issues with roads, shared paths and bikeways.

A closer look

As a light, the Icon 3 is bright! Using the dynamic function the light will be brighter when it need to be, and less bright at other times to conserve battery life. There are 5 little lights across the top of the light to show approximate battery life, and See.Sense have built in functionality of an hour of low output run time to get you home when the battery is getting low.

One of the standout features of the Icon 3 is its ability to collect real-time ride data. The light can record information on road surface conditions and even areas of high-traffic stress – plus plenty of other insights. This data can be synced to a custom dashboard that See.Sense are building for Bicycle Queensland, providing insights into where cyclists face the most hazards or issues when riding – a powerful tool to support BQ’s advocacy work. This is all possible thanks to accelerometers in the light, and some very snazzy coding in the lights that are made in the UK.

Of course, any reporting occurs through the partner app, where you can see a tally of your kilometres ridden, and report any incidents that may have occurred on the ride, including exactly where they were. You don’t have to do any of this if you just prefer the idea of having a light that adapts to your riding and environment.

In use

I am often a set and forget user for things like lights, and I certainly felt assured I would be seen when using the See.Sense Icon 3. It is bright, with a secure fit on my bike. I did find the Bluetooth connection with my phone would not always connect when I turned the light on, so not all my rides were recorded. This is less of an issue for me, but in terms of making a consistent data set for a dashboard, I would have to ensure it was paired for each ride. I also found the battery life wasn’t quite as long as I would like, but far longer than a radar rear light.

The Icon 3 is a high quality light that is very visible and bright. As a premium light any bike rider should be happy that their light will not only optimise output for the user, but it can also be used as an advocacy tool to develop

BQ members can save 30% off the price of See.Sense lights, and they are a very high quality product. If you’d like to be supporting BQ’s advocacy via ride reporting, they are a great light option to look at – just check the pairing before you set off.

From: See.Sense