As out-front bike light and computer mounts increase in popularity, more and more people are mounting bike lights upside down. If your bike front light has an anti-glare or directional beam design, mounting the light upside down can actually increase glare and reduce the effectiveness of the beam. The Moon Sport Rigel 700 solves this issue with a reversible anti-glare lens that allows the light to be mounted in either direction safely while reducing glare. With 700 lumen verified output and a retail price of only $57.84, the Rigel 700 is a compact and bright commuter light. The headlight uses a dual LED design with a two-piece lens – a standard flat lens and a removable anti-glare lens that can be mounted in either direction. As with other Moon Sport lights, the Rigel 700 features USB-C charging and their Variable Lumen System (VLS) for full customization.
The Moon Sport Rigel 700 is a bright and compact commuter style bike headlight that has a reversible anti-glare lens ideal for upside down mounting.
| Retail Price | $57.84 |
| Rating | 9.1 / 10 |
| Measured Weight (in g) | 88 (headlight), 20 (mount) |
| Likes | + USB Type-C + Reversible lens for upside down mounting + Garmin quarter turn mount design |
| Dislikes | – Lacks DRLs – Intelligent mode turns light off during day instead of day flash mode |
| Where to Buy (US) | Moon Sport |
UNBOXING
The Moon Sport Rigel 700 comes in a cardboard box with a sleek black and yellow color scheme. An open center section allows you to interact with the headlight and see design details. Inside you’ll find:
- Rigel 700 headlight
- Handlebar Garmin style mount
- USB Type-C charging cable
- Instruction manual
As with all Moon Sport lights we’d highly recommend keeping the instruction manual handy and reviewing it as the interface has quite a few options.
MOUNTING
Moon Sport has integrated a standard Garmin quarter turn mount to the base of the Rigel 700. Unlike lights with proprietary designs, this allows the headlight to be used with a variety of aftermarket mounts and accessories on the market. It’s a simple quarter turn mount with two tabs on each side that securely hold the light in place. Unlike the more expensive Rigel Power which comes with an out-front mount, the Rigel 700 only comes with a simple plastic and rubber handlebar mount. It’s a tool free design with a long rubber strap that looks identical to a watch band. Moon Sport added clever hinged hooks on the mount which allows the mount to work on flat aero bars or round handlebars without modification or optional mounts. Although the mount is well designed, we’d still highly recommend a dual-sided out front mount like the Topeak UTF mount to really take advantage of the streamlined upside-down mounting.
FIT & FINISH
The Rigel 700 features a compact dual LED design with rectangular metal housing and plastic extension that is shared with other Rigel headlights. The metal housing is gray with a metal flake that gives it an interesting appearance. The Moon Sport logo is printed on top with white reflective dots with Rigel printed below the power button. The interface of the Rigel 700 is a single rubber button with dual LEDs that indicate whether smart (green) or standard mode (blue) are active as well as a second LED below it with a 4-level battery indicator. On the sides of the light you’ll find a familiar reflective white zig-zag geometric pattern that is also on the Moon Sport U Headlight.
While we’ve seen anti-glare designs with other commuter lights such as the Magicshine Allty 400 / 600 / 800 series they’re major flaw is that they can’t be mounted upside down due to the directional nature of the beam. Moon Sport has solved this issue with a simple two-piece lens design. On the inside is a clear flat lens while a second removable piece has the anti-glare zig-zag design. The second lens is attached with plastic tabs on each side that can be pried up using a flat head or even longer nails. It’s a clever design that allows you to quickly flip the lens to keep the deflectors on the top whether you have the light mounted right-side up or upside-down.
FEATURES
As with other Moon Sport products like the Rigel Power or Cerberus taillight, the Rigel 700has some unique features compared to other taillights on the market.
- VARIABLE LUMEN SYSTEM: This is a feature Moon Sport has incorporated into most of their lights and allows you to adjust the output of each mode independently. Once activated, the light ramps up from minimum to maximum power for that mode (note it flashes at each extreme to indicate a max/min has been reached) slowly until you select the desired level. The chosen output value overrides the factory defaults allowing for full customization. Although it’s a cool feature to see, we imagine most users won’t utilize it as the factory defaults are more than sufficient.
- LOCKOUT MODE: This is often called a “transport mode” that prevents the headlight from accidentally being turned on. The headlight is shipped with lock out mode enabled to avoid the battery from being drained during shipping. It’s a useful feature that’s relatively easy to enable and disable. With the mode active, the headlight simply flashes anytime a button is pressed.
- INTELLIGENT MODE: In this mode the ambient light and motion sensors are used to automatically determine the output mode. If the sensor detects bright daytime-like conditions, the light is automatically turned off to a standby mode after 30 seconds from any current mode except the SOS flash mode. For road cyclists who are used to daytime visible bike lights, this auto-off during the day behavior is strange. Other lights like the Lupine SL, Light & Motion Vya Pro, Magicshine Ray 2600 use ambient light sensors to switch between a day-flash mode instead of shutting off. The Rigel 700 does quickly turn on again if darker conditions are detected though. Also in the intelligent mode the light will go into standby mode if no motion is detected for an extended period of time.
Note, there is no Boost Mode (i.e. a double click to access max power setting) with the Rigel 700 which makes sense. The Rigel 700 only has a single beam mode and simplified 6 output mode options which means it’s easier to access the max constant setting manually.
USABILITY
The Rigel Power uses a one button interface with a multi-colored indicator to operate the light and access all the features. The button itself is overloaded with multiple functions which is why we’d recommend keeping the instruction manual handy. The power button does the following:
- Short Press: switch between output options for current mode (light on).
- Double Press: switch between constant and flash modes (light on).
- 1 Second Hold: turns light on or off
- 3 Second Hold: enable or disable intelligent mode (light off).
- 6 Second Hold: enable or disable lockout mode (light off).
- 10 Second Hold: does a full factory reset of output settings (light off).
For most cyclists the single and double press will be the most common operations. We also appreciate the double-press separation between constant and flash modes as you don’t have to cycle through flash modes to change the intensity. The mode indicator LED also changes color to identify whether the light is in normal (blue) or intelligent (green) which makes it easy to differentiate the modes at glance. Battery status is limited to a 4-level indicator using the lower LED on the power button which will switch between blue (100%), green (50%), red (25%) or flashing red (10%). Personally we would have preferred to see a more standard green / yellow / red color scheme but it’s nice to have a 4-level indicator instead of a standard low battery indicator.
LIGHT OUTPUT
Moon Sport has utilized a dual LED design with the simple beam deflector to reduce glare and focus more light on the road. Both LEDs operate in unison which keeps the number of output modes low and easily navigable. There are two constant modes which are defaulted to 700 and 350 lumen with runtimes of 1.5 and 3 hours respectively. There are an additional four flash options from standard on/off flash to an irregular day flash and an SOS for emergency use. Runtimes vary from 23 to 56 hours with daytime flash offering the highest runtime. The lumen output for flash modes is 100 for standard flash, 400 for steady / day flash and 60 for SOS. Thanks to VLS any mode except for SOS can be customized to any setting between 20 and 700 lumens which can reduce or drastically increase runtimes.
We found the high mode ideal for dark trails as it has enough illuminate for fast riding while offering decent spread to see things to the side. The anti-glare beam is not as sharp as true StVZO lights such as the Lupine SL AF or Kryptonite Incite X6 but it’s still effective at reducing glare. Rather than a simple cone beam, the Rigel 700 has a second diffused beam under the cone that takes the portion of the beam that would cause glare and redirects it on the ground. Although we’d still recommend a 1000 lumen or bright light for those that ride on darker roads or trails consistently, the 700 lumen Rigel 700 is a great option for commuters that want more illumination.
THE VERDICT
Overall, we found the Moon Sport Rigel 700 to be a well designed and compact commuter light. The compact form factor and premium feeling metal housing with white graphics gives the headlight a distinctive appearance. Modern features such as the USB-C charging and the Garmin style quarter-turn mount mean you don’t need to buy extra mounts or keep track of additional charging cables. The big party trick of the Rigel 700 is the reversible anti-glare lens which offers a very simple and effective way to allow the headlight to be mounted upside down on out-front mounts. Commuters or cyclists looking for a day-time visible light should be particularly excited as it allows you to reduce glare and clutter on your handlebars. The main downside to the light is the intelligent mode which turns the light off during the day when activated instead of switching to daytime flash as most cyclists would expect. That said, the Rigel 700 is an affordable and modern commuter light that solves the problem with directional beams and upside down mounting.
Disclaimer: The product for this review was provided by Moon Sport. The views expressed on this website are solely those of the authors and are here to help people make an informed choice before a purchase. The authors or the blog itself does not get any monetary compensation from the product manufacturer or third-party websites/vendor links that are posted here.