Petzl MYO XP

Petzl MYO XP
Price: £55
From: Lyon Equipment www.lyon.co.uk
Tested: Two months

Reviewed: Singletrack Magazine – Issue 39

Not a riding light, but why shouldn’t your camping, walking and exploring lights not make the most of advances in LED technology too? Running off three AA batteries, the Petzl MYO XP uses one bright LED to give a bright, white light with a diffuser to effectively give you spot and a floodlight options.

Though you could just get away with mounting the XP on a helmet, its real strength is off the bike. Used for camping and kept at the bottom of the ‘big day out bag’ it’s proved very useful. There are three brightnesses, plus flashing mode and a ‘Boost’ function with its own button. The head swivels so that you don’t have to keep angling it up and down your head while using it and there’s a flip-down diffuser to give you ‘flood’ or ‘spot’ options. With the diffuser out of the way, the beam is very penetrating and great for spotting missing trails in the woods while the flood option gives good enough light for cooking or walking. With the big battery pack, you get stunning run times of 70, 90 and 170 hours in each of the modes. That’s a lot of tent-bound book reading. There is a Tikka version for around £35 too if you want something smaller and neater, at the expense of run-time. It has a sliding diffuser instead.

The flip down diffuser does have one drawback in that the light catches the tip when in the down position rather like having a bright star right above your head… Hardly a massive failure.

Overall: Everybody, without exception, needs an LED headtorch. The Petzl MYO XP is one of the best.
Chipps