Non-bike bike gear tested: Turning any helmet into a headlight with BioLite
The best way I’ve found to reduce or eliminate car usage in a city is with an electric bike. But in the winter, nights come at you early, and it’s more important than ever to ensure that as cyclists, we’re visible to the biggest danger on the roads: car drivers. I’ve been testing out a new headlamp called the BioLite HeadLamp 800 Pro that isn’t specifically meant for cyclists, but has proven perfect for me as a way to add both front and rear LED lighting to pretty much any helmet.
That’s a major part of this series, often finding cool gear that might not have been originally meant for us as e-bikers, but that works great and can be co-opted to make car-replacing electric bikes even better and easier to use.
I love helmets that have built-in LED illumination. While most electric bikes come with their own headlights, having a higher-mounted LED makes riders even more visible. These are usually lower power be-seen lights, though the ability to actually shine light in an area you want to quickly glance at is a major superpower for those early winter nights on poorly lit trails and bike lanes. Light is good, but directional light is great.
The downside of helmet-based lights is that you’re limited to the few manufacturers that actually do incorporate them, and even then the lights are usually fairly weak. Even though there are great options out there (I love the helmet offered by Electric Bike Company for its 100% customizable paint job and built-in LED lighting), adding lighting to your own helmet can save money and give you a wider range of options for helmet features. I’ve been testing out the HeadLamp 800 Pro from BioLite for use as a cycling light, and this thing is darn near perfect for riding at night or in other low-visibility scenarios like rain/snow storms.
Like most headlamps, it’s easy to adjust it to fit just about any helmet, instantly giving you old-school mining helmet vibes. It’s also got a coating inside the bands that makes it lock onto the shell without sliding around like an old underwear waistband. I don’t ride without a helmet often, but it’s still comfortable right on your head or over a knit hat, if you like to go sans brain bucket.
Unlike my hiking headlamps that have been dancing around in my camping gear bags for nearly a decade, this thing is much lower profile so it doesn’t add a lot of bulk or momentum when turning my head around while cycling. I do a lot of shoulder checks, so not having something heavy out for in front of my face is important to me.
As far as lighting levels, there are plenty. The low brightness mode is just 5 lumens, so I don’t really use that one except when all I want is to be seen by drivers. Usually I like having more light thrown out in front of me to serve as my own headlight. The 250-lumen medium mode and 500-lumen high mode are great for everyday cycling use. There’s an even higher 800-lumen mode, but that’s more than I need and I don’t want to blind drivers, either. And it’s easy to adjust between the front spot light modes, flood light, strobe light, and dimming options.
There’s also a red light on the rear that is perfect for cyclists like us, as it gives you a high-mounted tail light – something you’ll almost never see on a bike. Lower-mounted e-bike lights under the seat are often blocked by backpacks or winter jackets that hang lower, so a high-mounted tail light on the back of your head is a great idea. That one can also either be full-on flood light or a strobe, depending on how you prefer. I like solid lights as opposed to strobes, and your head motion will likely give the rear LED enough movement to catch drivers attention, but the strobe option is there if you like it. The front light also has a red option, which is great for when I’m camping, but I wouldn’t use that front red mode while riding as it could cause some directional confusion for other drivers and is really meant as a night vision-preservation tool outside of cycling. For camping and hiking, it’s great.
As far as run-time, I find that the built-in battery is longer than any typical commuting trip I’ll ever make. The say medium power lasts four hours of constant use and high power lasts for two hours on constant use, which I haven’t really measured because I just try to charge it around once a week to not get too low. It uses a micro-USB port to charge, which I wish was USB-C since I have more of those cords laying around, but it’s not a deal breaker for me.
If you want to keep the power up high and still have an even longer run-time than several hours, the BioLite HeadLamp 800 Pro has pass-through charging that allows you to run the light from a powerbank like you’d use to charge your phone.
I’ve tried it with the Charge 80 PD battery that BioLite sent me with the headlamp, which has massive capacity yet still fits in your pocket. It’s barely larger than a smartphone, yet can recharge a smartphone around 5 times. You could even use it to charge a laptop (which I have also done in a pinch while traveling) with the 18W USB-C PD port. I like my gear to be multi-use, and I try to avoid carrying single-use tools on principle whenever possible. So a power bank that can run my headlight, charge my phone, or come on flights with me to keep my laptop charged is a major force multiplier. (With a note towards travel, I once had to talk my way into not getting my 110Wh powerbank confiscated in a German airport, so this 75Wh power bank is a lot more airline-friendly in countries with 100Wh flight-approved battery limits).
When used with my headlamp, the Charge 80 PD powers the light with a “Run Forever” cord that includes a band clip so that the USB port isn’t put under stress while connected. That means I can keep the battery in my pocket and still have it powering or charging the headlamp. In practice, I tried this to test it out and it works well, but I’m never biking for more than a few hours in a row at night, so I haven’t really needed to run the headlamp off auxiliary power in a real-world use case – at least not yet. But if you’re taking it on a night hike then I can absolutely see that scenario being useful.
The only downside that jumps out at me is the price, since the BioLite HeadLamp 800 Pro is rather expensive at $99.95. Since I’m used to my 10-year-old camping headlamp from REI that owes me nothing, that seems steep initially. But then again, this thing lasts so much longer, doesn’t require AAA batteries, is around 8x as powerful, is built out of aluminum for long-lasting ruggedness, and gives me a rear red LED light that’s perfect for cyclists.
It’s also not light, at 5.3 oz or around 150g. That’s a third of a pound or so. But I find that I don’t notice the extra weight after a minute or two, and the low-profile design helps it stay close to the helmet.
BioLite also has other models with some of the same features, though not quite as tricked out, for significantly less. So if you like the idea of adding front and rear LED lights to your helmet and can get away with fewer lumens or other features, they’ve got other options there too.
Lastly, I should probably note that helmet manufacturers usually say not to add things to helmets as it changes how they react in a crash.
Your bike helmet was certified in its naked form, so adding things like lights, GoPro mounts, and other foreign attachments is considered a “no-no” by helmet companies, even if everyone still does it.
The nice thing about adding something like the HeadLamp 800 Pro is that it is merely held on by an elastic band and thus likely has more freedom to move or slide out of the way in a crash. That doesn’t mean it necessarily will, and anything external added to a helmet probably reduces its performance in a crash compared to stock, but I feel like the ability for an elastic band to simply slide off is better than rigidly mounted objects like GoPro mounts that create non-moving stress risers. But hey, that’s just my two cents. Helmet manufacturers will still tell you to keep it clean.
Read more: Non-bike bike gear review: Foldylock Forever is the most secure folding bike lock
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Newly published data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), reviewed by the SUN DAY Campaign, reveal that solar accounted for over 75% of US electrical generating capacity added in the first nine months of 2025. In September alone, solar provided 98% of new capacity, marking 25 consecutive months in which solar has led among all energy sources.
Year-to-date (YTD), solar and wind have each added more new capacity than natural gas has. The mix of all renewables remains on track to exceed 40% of installed capacity within three years; solar alone may be 20%.
Solar was 75% of new generating capacity YTD
In its latest monthly “Energy Infrastructure Update” report (with data through September 30, 2025), FERC says 48 “units” of solar totaling 2,014 megawatts (MW) were placed into service in September, accounting for 98% of all new generating capacity added during the month. Oil provided the balance (40 MW).
The 567 units of utility-scale (>1 MW) solar added during the first nine months of 2025 total 21,257 MW and were 75.3% of the total new capacity placed into service by all sources. Solar capacity added YTD is 6.5% more than that added during the same period a year earlier.
Solar has now been the largest source of new generating capacity added each month for 25 consecutive months, from September 2023 to September 2025. During that period, total utility-scale solar capacity grew from 91.82 gigawatts (GW) to 158.43 GW. No other energy source added anything close to that amount of new capacity. Wind, for example, expanded by 11.07 GW while natural gas’s net increase was just 4.60 GW.
Between January and September, new wind energy has provided 3,724 MW of capacity additions – an increase of 28.6% compared to the same period last year and more than the new capacity provided by natural gas (3,161 MW). Wind accounted for 13.2% of all new capacity added during the first nine months of 2025.
Renewables were 88% of new capacity added YTD
Wind and solar (plus 4 MW of hydropower and 6 MW of biomass) accounted for 88.5% of all new generating capacity while natural gas added just 11.2% YTD. The balance of net capacity additions came from oil (63 MW) and waste heat (17 MW).
Utility-scale solar’s share of total installed capacity (11.78%) is now virtually tied with that of wind (11.80%). If recent growth rates continue, utility-scale solar capacity should surpass that of wind in FERC’s next “Energy Infrastructure Update” report.
Taken together, wind and solar make up 23.58% of the US’s total available installed utility-scale generating capacity.
Moreover, more than 25% of US solar capacity is in the form of small-scale (e.g., rooftop) systems that are not reflected in FERC’s data. Including that additional solar capacity would bring the share provided by solar and wind to more than a quarter of the US total.
With the inclusion of hydropower (7.59%), biomass (1.05%) and geothermal (0.31%), renewables currently claim a 32.53% share of total US utility-scale generating capacity. If small-scale solar capacity is included, renewables now account for more than one-third of the total US generating capacity.
Solar soon to be No. 2 source of US generating capacity
FERC reports that net “high probability” net additions of solar between October 2025 and September 2028 total 90,614 MW – an amount almost four times the forecast net “high probability” additions for wind (23,093 MW), the second fastest growing resource.
FERC also foresees net growth for hydropower (566 MW) and geothermal (92 MW) but a decrease of 126 MW in biomass capacity.
Meanwhile, natural gas capacity is projected to expand by 6,667 MW, while nuclear power is expected to add just 335 MW. In contrast, coal and oil are projected to contract by 24,011 MW and 1,587 MW, respectively.
Taken together, the net new “high probability” net utility-scale capacity additions by all renewable energy sources over the next three years – the Trump administration’s remaining time in office – would total 114,239 MW. On the other hand, the installed capacity of fossil fuels and nuclear power combined would shrink by 18,596 MW.
Should FERC’s three-year forecast materialize, by mid-fall 2028, utility-scale solar would account for 17.3% of installed U.S. generating capacity, more than any other source besides natural gas (39.9%). Further, the capacity of the mix of all utility-scale renewable energy sources would exceed 38%. The inclusion of small-scale solar, assuming it retains its 25% share of all solar energy, could push solar’s share to over 20% and that of all renewables to over 41%, while the share of natural gas would drop to less than 38%.
In fact, the numbers for renewables could be significantly higher.
FERC notes that “all additions” (net) for utility-scale solar over the next three years could be as high as 232,487 MW, while those for wind could total 65,658 MW. Hydro’s net additions could reach 9,927 MW while geothermal and biomass could increase by 202 MW and 32 MW, respectively. Such growth by renewable sources would swamp that of natural gas (29,859 MW).
“In an effort to deny reality, the Trump Administration has just announced a renaming of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in which it has removed the word ‘renewable’,” noted the SUN DAY Campaign’s executive director Ken Bossong. “However, FERC’s latest data show that no amount of rhetorical manipulation can change the fact that solar, wind, and other renewables continue on the path to eventual domination of the energy market.”
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The Century is considered the most luxurious Toyota, and now it’s being spun off into its own high-end brand. Despite the rumors, the ultra-luxury brand won’t be as electric as expected.
Toyota sets new luxury brand up to fail with ICE plans
First introduced in 1967, the Century was launched in celebration of Toyota’s founder, Sakichi Toyoda’s 100th birthday.
The Century has since become a symbol of status and wealth in Japan, often used as a chauffeur car by high-profile company officials.
Toyota previewed the future of the ultra-luxury marquee at the 2025 Japan Mobility Show in October, launching it as a new standalone brand positioned above Lexus.
The new Century brand is set to rival higher-end automakers like Rolls-Royce and Bentley, but it won’t be as electric as initially expected. Toyota’s powertrain boss, Takashi Uehara, told CarExpert that the luxury brand’s first vehicle will, in fact, have an internal combustion engine.
Although no other details were offered, Uehara confirmed, “Yes, it will have an engine.” As to what kind, that has yet to be decided, Toyota’s powertrain president explained.
Like the next-gen Lexus supercar and upcoming Toyota GR GT, Uehara said the Century model could include a V8 engine.
The Century has been Toyota’s only vehicle with a V12 engine. In 2018, Toyota dropped the V12 in favor of a V8 hybrid powertrain for its third-generation.
Toyota’s Century launched its first SUV in 2023, currently on sale in Japan with a V6 plug-in hybrid system alongside the sedan.
Already widely considered the biggest laggard in the shift to fully electric vehicles, Toyota doubled down, developing a series of new internal combustion engines for upcoming models.
Century is one of the five global brands the Japanese auto giant introduced in October, along with Daihatsu, GR Sport, Lexus, and Toyota.
Electrek’s Take
It’s not surprising to see Toyota sticking with ICE for its ultra-luxury Century brand, but it will likely be a costly move.
Chinese auto giants, such as BYD and FAW Group, are quickly expanding into new segments, including high-end models under luxury brands such as Yangwang and Hongqi.
These companies are now expanding into new overseas markets, like Europe and Southeast Asia, where Japanese brands like Toyota have traditionally dominated, to drive growth.
Top luxury brands, including Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, are already struggling to keep pace with Chinese EV brands. How does Toyota plan to compete with an “ultra-luxury” brand that still sells outdated ICE vehicles? We will find out more over the coming months and years as new sales data is released.
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SparkCharge has partnered with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) and Zipcar to launch the Northeast’s first off‑grid, mobile DC fast‑charging hub for shared EVs. The goal is to bring fast, reliable EV charging infrastructure into communities without having to wait for costly or slow grid upgrades.
The hub sits at Zipcar’s maintenance facility in East Boston, an Environmental Justice community. It’s funded through MassCEC’s InnovateMass program and gives onsite mechanics the ability to quickly recharge a rotating fleet of Zipcar EVs before they’re dispatched across Greater Boston. Members and rideshare drivers who rent Zipcars will get steadier access to charged EVs.
“Electrification should never be limited by where the grid is or how long it takes,” SparkCharge founder and CEO Joshua Aviv said. “With this program in East Boston, we’re showing how fleets can deploy at scale, in any community, and deliver clean mobility today.”
At the center of the setup is SparkCharge’s Mobile Battery‑Powered Trailer, which delivers 320 kW of DC fast charging without the delays and big price tags that usually come with fixed infrastructure. The trailer can recharge from Zipcar’s existing onsite power between sessions, topping up its high‑capacity batteries without stressing the local grid. Since it avoids major grid upgrades entirely, the model is designed to deploy quickly and at zero upfront cost for fleets.
MassCEC says the project shows what community‑first fast charging can look like. “Every resident deserves access to clean, reliable transportation,” said Leslie Nash, MassCEC’s senior director of Technology‑to‑Market. “By partnering with SparkCharge and Zipcar in East Boston, we’re showing how Massachusetts is leading the way in clean transportation innovation.”
The hub also plays into Massachusetts’ push to hit its net‑zero 2050 targets. As shared mobility grows, electrifying fleets will be key to cutting emissions in dense urban corridors. This project introduces a scalable charging option to a part of Boston that is underserved by public charging, helping to keep Zipcar’s EVs reliably on the road.
“For twenty‑five years, Zipcar has been a leader in shared mobility, and we’re proud to take another step toward a more sustainable future,” said Angelo Adams, Zipcar’s president. “Working with SparkCharge and MassCEC allows us to bring fast, reliable EV charging directly to our members and rideshare drivers.”
Zipcar, which is owned by car rental company Avis Budget, announced on December 1 that it was shutting down its UK operations by December 31, 2025. An Avis Budget spokesperson stated that the reason was “to streamline operations, improve returns, and position the company for long-term sustainability and growth,” adding that “all other markets remain unaffected.”
Read more: With a $30M raise, SparkCharge takes EV fleet charging off-grid
If you’re looking to replace your old HVAC equipment, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you’re finding a trusted, reliable HVAC installer near you that offers competitive pricing on heat pumps, check out EnergySage. EnergySage is a free service that makes it easy for you to get a heat pump. They have pre-vetted heat pump installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high quality solutions. Plus, it’s free to use!
Your personalized heat pump quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here. – *ad
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
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