Ay-up's or Exposure Maxx-D

AndyOgy

Got back into cycling earlier this year and was commuting 22 miles a day. However, the commute involves an unavoidable 3 miles of unlit country lanes which has meant that I've wimped out and gone back to driving. This sucks so I'm gonna get myself some sort of serious lighting to give me the confidence I need on these dark dangerous roads.
I know that there doesn't seem to be a brighter light for the same price as the Maxx-D but, for the same price, I can get the Ay-Up Endurance pack with bike light, helmet light and a whole load of batteries.

Any thoughts or opinions?

karlmoreton

Have an exposure maxx enduro, bright enough for a 25 mile each way commute on unlit lanes. If used mainly on Low setting battery lasts all week. Lumicycle new LED system worth a look also (great customer service and every spare and upgrade available, they are also British).
Cheaper alternative that I also have is the Hope vision one which uses 4 AA batteries, if you buy a decent charger can be charged in 15 mins just doesn't have a battery life indicator like the others.

Hope that helps

mtbhenry888

I know a guy with the exposure and it's turely amazing, it's so bright, and i'm sure the ay-up is too, they have good reveiws but exposure have such good backup and service/replacement parts etc its worth it (i have the joystick and it's fab too)

ellieb

TBH I think that with the rate at which LEDs have advanced over the past couple of years you can't really go wrong whatever you buy. Modern lights are all extremely bright & have long run times. Ay-Ups are great, I'm really happy with the set I have got, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go for Exposures .

robbarker

mtbhenry888 wrote:

I know a guy with the exposure and it's turely amazing,

I used one on the Bryan Chapman 600 once - it was not waterproofed properly and gave up on me in heavy rain. USE grudgingly replaced it under warranty but included a note saying that it would not be replaced for the same reason again.

Needless to say I've avoided USE products since then.

cougie

Have you looked at other lights ? These set ups do sound good - but they are pricey.

Get two MTEs and batteries - twice the lumens (at least !) and less than 1/3 of the cost.
Plus - you have two lights rather than one - if your Maxx fails - you're stuffed.

johnnyc71

Take a look at these:

http://www.mtbr.com/dualbeamcomparisoncrx.aspx

http://www.mtbr.com/beamcomparisoncrx.aspx

http://www.mtbr.com/trailbeamcomparisoncrx.aspx

AndyOgy

cougie wrote:

Have you looked at other lights ? These set ups do sound good - but they are pricey.

Get two MTEs and batteries - twice the lumens (at least !) and less than 1/3 of the cost.
Plus - you have two lights rather than one - if your Maxx fails - you're stuffed.

Forgive my ignorance but what are MTE's? Twice the lumens and a third of the cost sounds very interesting.

System_1

I've voted for the Ay-Ups. Haven't had any experience of the Exposure (but Robbarker doesn't make it sound too good). The Ay-Ups however are totally waterproof (see their caring for your Ay-Ups page to see how they recommend cleaning them), fantastically well built (tested by dropping them onto a concrete floor from 5m), tiny little things that take up no amount of room on the bars and apparently if you do manage to break them they'll replace 'em for free. More than enough for 30mph on unlit country lanes. Spare mounting kits and batteries are really cheap too. Even easier to buy now that they have a UK distributor (I got mine when direct from Aus was the only option).

PS: Nice post johnnyc71. Those beam shots are handy.

cougie

Andy - check these out. They are v popular for MTBing - offroad - so gallons of light.


http://www.mtbbritain.co.uk/mountain_bi ... w_led.html

AndyOgy

I can see how this is going to end up. Maxx-D on the mountain bike AND Ay-Up's on the road bike.

If I get any after sales service with USE, at least they're only based in Petworth (not too far from me) so I can complain by way of a personal visit rather than e-mail, phoning etc.

If the light output of the Ay-Up's matched the Maxx-D then it would be no contest. But I just love the sheer amount of light that is thrown out from a single Max-D, combined with the simplicity of a self contained unit. That said, the Ay-Up's do look like a superb piece of kit. And so incredibly robust too going by the link that System posted.

I guess my next few planned upgrades will just have to wait a couple of months.

Whilst typing this, I just got the post from Cougie. That looks like a really cheap possibility, certainly a good thing to have as a back up to either of the above systems or maybe as a helmet mounted light. At that price, 2 or maybe 3 wouldn't be out of the question.

mac10

When my Electron twin 16 LEDs broke - build quality is cr@p - I had 2 sets charger at home charger at work etc and it allowed me to tape 1 set to my helmet for night MTB races - light output was pretty crap so i was always ending up in the undergrowth - avoid!!!!!

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... ystem-9177

Anyway, when they cut on me at 25mph on an unlit road i thought i'd bite the bullet and invest in a decent set of lights (and a replacement set of shorts - soiled when the lights went out) - I looked at both the AY-UPs and the Daddy - In the end i went for the AY-UP MTB kit.

Lots of Pro's and cons for each, however here is my reasoning:

Whilst the Maxx D's max output is retina burning it offers the option of adjusting the the light output for longer burn times (cant do this with the AY-UPs). It can only be fixed to the bars, and you can only adjust the light to point in one direction ( you can direct each light on the AY-UPs independently to focus your light) - you can unclip the Maxx from your bike really easy as there are no cables and external batteries. Want a spare handlebar mounts for the Maxx D? ...... £20!!!!

The Ay-UPs offered me the most flexibility for road and MTB use - additional batteries, mounts etc aren't too expensive - all the blogs you read suggest that customer service is pretty good too esp if you stuff it regularly, which I do.

I've been using the lights for 3 weeks: I have two light sets and 2 batteries mounted to the handle bars on my road bike (easy mounting and weigh nothing) and I have 1 handle bar mount and the gecko mount for my helmet when I’m on the MTB. They chuck out loads of light even at 30mph +, so much so that you will never find yourself riding in your own shadow ever again (even when a car comes up behind you with their lights on full beam), in fact, I had my headphones on blaring away, unlit road, and because the lights lit up so much of the road I wasn't aware of two police cars, with their blues and two on, travelling at warp speed coming up behind me – that’s 2 pairs of shorts I’ve had to buy in quick succession!!!!

Summary - both options are awesome packages and you probably wont be disapointed by either - but from experience i can't recommend the AY-UPs enough

cougie

Is the Ay Up kit £249 for 640 lumens ?

Two of the torches will give you more light than that at a fraction of the cost.

£25 for one 500 lumen torch ?

So you'd pay out about £65 for the two lights and charger and batteries and adaptor.

A saving of £185 ! For that money - you could get another 7 torches !

AndyOgy

cougie wrote:

Is the Ay Up kit £249 for 640 lumens ?

Two of the torches will give you more light than that at a fraction of the cost.

£25 for one 500 lumen torch ?

So you'd pay out about £65 for the two lights and charger and batteries and adaptor.

A saving of £185 ! For that money - you could get another 7 torches !

Yup. But I was looking at the enduro kit which is closer to £300.

I think that the torch solution will come into play to compliment whichever other light(s) I get. But for the main light, I don't mind paying a bit extra for the longer battery life, better beam pattern and more stable mount. Although, I am having fun trying to imagine what 9 torches pushing out 4500 lumens would be like.

cougie

I think you'd need some wide bars to mount them - but man - it'd look like something out of Close Encounters !

System_1

cougie wrote:

Is the Ay Up kit £249 for 640 lumens ?

Two of the torches will give you more light than that at a fraction of the cost.

£25 for one 500 lumen torch ?

So you'd pay out about £65 for the two lights and charger and batteries and adaptor.

A saving of £185 ! For that money - you could get another 7 torches !

Torches are great and absolutely fine if you're on a budget, but for me there's a few things worth paying the extra for. A proper beam spread designed for cycling vs a torch, a 6 hour battery life vs 1 hour, and most importantly a light that measures 4cm vs one that measures 14 :shock: . I just can't imagine riding with two such huge protrusions poking out the front of my bike like some antlers.

cougie

The 6 hour battery life is a bonus - I'll give you that one - but its not much of a problem stopping every 70 mins or so to pop a new cell in. And if you ever want to do a 24 hour - my P7 can go all thru the night - just with new batteries - you cant do that with the battery built in.

The beam off the p7 is great for MTBing - very wide spread. You need to try one to see.

As for the antlers - well I think the torch is about 12cm long - your bars are prob 2cm wide - so thats only 5cm hanging over either side. Dunno about your bike - but mine has a stem longer than that, and I have a big rubbery thing at the front of my bike that sticks out way in front -thats not usually a problem either. ;-)

AndyOgy

Just got myself a couple of those Tescos 3w Cree torches as the previously mentioned 'back up' to whichever main system I eventually go for. Can't believe how bright they are for the money. Very focused beam though. As for looking like antlers, the main bike that they will be used on is my old Trek 6000 from the mid 90's. It already has some pretty retro Onza bar ends that look like antlers.
Still haven't made a purchase on the main light but I think I'm swaying towards the Maxx-D. Main reasons being that it'll be easier to switch between my 3 (hopefully soon 4) bikes, being an all in one unit. Also, it's medium setting is still more lumens than the maximum (and only) setting on the Ay-Up's. And on this medium setting, the battery lasts for a claimed 10 hours compared to 6hrs on the Ay-Up's. I also like the Exposure Red Eye option as it would appear to be the beefiest rear light that I have seen so far. Naturally, this will be backed up with as many other flashing rear lights as I can possibly fit onto my seatpost and camelback.
Luckily, I'm away from home at the moment with a very limited luggage allowance. Probably a good thing as I'm normally a terrible 'Impulse Buyer'.