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The Light and Motion Taz 1500 is a high-powered portable “cross-over” bike light designed for mountain biking AND commuting. The light is approximately as bright as a single car headlight, yet it fits into the palm of your hand, weighs less than half a pound, and can be attached to your handlebar in less than 10 seconds.
REASONS TO BUY
VERY bright
Wide and even beam
REASONS TO AVOID
Can get super hot
Heavy
Short battery life
18-hour full charge time
Requires two hands to take on and off
Using the Taz on its high light level in a city is an empowering experience because you are quite visible! Our testers felt very safe riding on busy, crowded streets with this light. Unfortunately, the light maintains its high output for a mere 1.6 hours. According to our testers and reviewers elsewhere, this is not long enough for an evening mountain bike ride.
Thus, though we love this light for city riding, we don't believe its battery life is long enough to make it a true 'crossover' light. Furthermore, other similarly safe commuter bike lights, like the Editors' Choice NiteRider Lumina 750 cost almost $200 less. Better performing mountain bike lights, like the NiteRider Pro 1800 cost about the same as the Taz 1500 and last about 4 hours in high mode. Thus, we feel your money can go farther with other lights.
This light has an extremely bright and wide beam but it does take a while to fully charge and can get hot if used for an extended period of time
This is your go to light for quality and distance of beam
This light is bright, swivels nicely and even has an illuminated on/off switch
Great value with bright, narrow beam
Although this light has a 360 degree swivel, its not very bright and has a short battery life
Rating Categories
Light and Motion Ta...
NiteRider Pro 1800
NiteRider Lumina 750
Cygolite Metro 400
Light and Motion Ur...
Brightness(40%)
9.0
10.0
9.0
6.0
5.0
Beam Quality(25%)
10.0
9.0
8.0
6.0
7.0
Battery Life(20%)
6.0
10.0
6.0
4.0
3.0
Portablity(15%)
2.0
3.0
9.0
6.0
8.0
Specs
Light and Motion Ta...
NiteRider Pro 1800
NiteRider Lumina 750
Cygolite Metro 400
Light and Motion Ur...
Max Beam Distance (m)
144 m
175 m
180 m
120 m
110 m
Battery Life (hours)
1.6 hrs
3.8 hrs
1.7 hrs
1.7 hrs
1.5 hrs
Battery Type
USB Recharge
USB Recharge
USB Recharge
USB Recharge
USB Recharge
Mount Options
Handlebar
Handlebar
Handlebar/Helmet
Handlebar
Handlebar
Installation
Attached
Tool-free
Tool-free
Tool-free
Attached
Swivel Mount
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Weight
220 g, 7.8 oz
500 g, 17.6 oz
182 g, 6.4 oz
142 g, 5 oz
120 g, 4.2 oz
Show full specification details ▼Hide full specification details ▲
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Light and Motion Taz 1500 has an excellent wide, evenly lit beam that lights up any nighttime riding experience. However, with its low battery life and low portability score, it just narrowly missed being a contender for one of our awards.
Performance Comparison
This light is extremely bright, but be careful because the light itself does get hot to the touch.
Credit: Greg Davis
Brightness
The only light we tested that scored higher in brightness than the Taz 1500 is the NiteRider Pro 1800, which is kind of hard to believe since the Taz is about as bright as a single car light. We loved using this light out on the road, especially on some scary, low-lit highways with disappearing shoulders that we won't admit to our mothers we've actually ridden in the dark (or light!).
Our Editors' Choice winner, the Niterider Lumina 750, outshines the Taz by a mere 36-meters at their maximum distance. The photo below shows you their differences in distance, as well as the broader beam of the Taz 1500, on the left, compared with the Lumina 750, on the right.
Beam Distance Photos
Light and Motion Taz 1500
NiteRider Lumina 750
Since Light and Motion is considering the Taz a “crossover” light, we also compared the beam distance with the Pro 1800, below on the right. The Taz's maximum beam distance measures in at 144-meters, and falls about 30-meters short to the beam of the Pro 1800.
Beam Distance Photos
Light and Motion Taz 1500
NiteRider Pro 1800
Beam Quality
The Taz 1500 has an excellent beam pattern because it's very wide and even, and in this category it once again scores just shy of the Pro 1800, earning a score of 9.
The photo below compares the beam pattern of the Taz 1500, on the left, with the Pro 1800, on the right. You can see that the Pro 1800 floods light out slightly wider and more evenly.
Beam Diameter and Pattern
Light and Motion Taz 1500
NiteRider Pro 1800
Battery Life
As displayed in following chart, the Taz's high light level lasts for only 1.6 hours. This is rather short for mountain biking, which often requires the highest beam output setting. Running the light on medium (3-hour run time) can save battery life while commuting.
Caution: This Baby Gets Hot!
This is the hottest bike light we tested. It is relatively poor at cooling itself down without the help of cold air rushing over your handlebars. As you can see in this battery life vs. beam distance chart, the Lumina 750 remains quite even throughout it's battery life while the Taz 1500 drops from its high light level to medium when it gets very hot. This is to prevent the light from burning you. But even so, we found that it was too hot to touch immediately after any ride lasting longer than 20-minutes.
Portability
As much as we love the light output for this light, it scores below average in portability. While it is compact for a mountain biking setup, it's also heavier than the other commuter lights we tested. Sticking it in your bag is less than ideal based on both the size and weight. Like all Light and Motion lights, it does attach to handlebars quickly and is easy to transfer between bikes. However, it does not have the same easy one handed operation as the Lumina series and therefore scores relatively low in this category.
Best Applications
We love the beam pattern and output on this light, especially for commuting and crossing over for very short, evening mountain bike trails.
This light performed excellent on mountain bike trails; however, due to a short battery life, we never strayed too far from the trailhead.
Credit: Ryan Kenney
Value
The Taz 1500 is one of the most expensive lights we tested. It might be a good value if its battery life were longer, but it is more than twice as expensive as lights that perform almost as well or about the same as those lasting at least twice as long.
Conclusion
This light scores high enough overall to be a contender for our Editors' Choice award; however, after closer examination of practicality, it fell rather short. It could take the award by proving to be a fantastic crossover light IF the battery would last longer on high—long enough for most people to go on an evening mountain bike ride. If you're looking for a dedicated mountain bike light we highly recommend the NiteRider Pro 1800, because it costs about the same and its battery lasts more than twice as long.
Other Versions and Accessories
We tested that Taz 1500 in Mad Wolf, but it also comes in Black Pearl; it also comes in a 1200 lumen version at $60 less and with about the same battery life as the 1500.
