Exposure Strada?

earth

My 2 £15 eBay lights don't cut it anymore on unlit roads.

I'm trying to decide between an expensive Exposure Strada 4 light which is conveniently self contained with a remote switch
or a much cheaper brighter Fluxient:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2013-model-Fl ... 17d&_uhb=1

This is a third the price and has 1000 lumens.


Or the even brighter Fluxient

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181023035484? ... 1423.l2649

Half the price and 3000 lumens.


I think I have already ruled out the 3000 lumen light as probably being too bright. Even on lowest power it will be brighter than the Exposure on high. The worry is this will dazzle drivers. But the 1000 lumen Fluxient is similarly rated brightness to the exposure but a third the price.

I am bothered that although Exposure lights are convenient, the brightness and beam patterns are not up to it. I want decent throw for faster downhill parts of my commute and would appreciate a wider flood for the unlit narrow lanes. The Strada does appear to be made for this and hopefully casts most light horizontally rather than vertically.

Does anyone have any experience of any of these lights?

orangepip

the seller of those lights is a well recognised source of quality lights. Check out his blog, Torchy the Battery boy... he knows what he's talking about. On that basis only I can probably say they're pretty good. Unfortunately I have no experience with them myself.

earth

I came across them from Torchy. Wish Torchy had a beam pattern photo for the Strada.

I am worried that the Fluxient light will dazzle drivers and doesn't have a remote switch to easily dim the light.

Thanks though.

Paul 8v

For a similar price there's always magicshine, very pleased with mine, I've got the one with three lights that looks like mickey mouse's head, can't remember what it's called! I use it for offroad and road and it's great for both.

asprilla

Check out the road.cc light test for some comparison and beam patterns.

http://road.cc/content/news/69237-big-r ... -test-2012

Pigtail

I've been agonising over lights for ages (well since the clocks went back) I don't want separate batteries and cables, and dont want a 2 hour run time.

I wanted something which was suitable for commuting in an urban environment, could switch from bike to bike, but which would also let me go out in the dark. In the summer I regularly do 35 miles before work on mostly country roads, but that has really been curtailed since it became darker. I think last year I just reduced my riding, but I don't want to do that this year.

So I've ordered this. http://road.cc/content/review/47688-trelock-ls-950-ecopower-control-front-light. I've no idea if it will provide enough light to ride at speed in the dark, but I'm ridiculously excited about it, and really looking forward to it after a succession of cheap 'to be seen by' lights.

nferrar

The Stradas are very good but pricey, just bright enough to train with at night(rather than just commute which needs a lot less light). The remote switch works pretty well to although it just kills one of the LEDs rather than changes beam angle, it's a bit more convenient/safer than covering the light with hand though to stop dazzling on-coming traffic

sashmo

I have a Strada and am very pleased with it. It is expensive and you will almost certainly be able to get the same brightness for less.

What attracted me to the Strada was the dual beam, which has a horizontal flood as the "dipped beam" and then adds a bright narrower throw for the "full beam." The dipped beam is bright enough for me to use on my commute on unlit lanes through the Chiltern hills (cars pull over expecting a scooter), but others may prefer more light. I like the fact that it is designed for use on the road with the dipped beam not dazzling oncomers. I also like the flashing mode, in which one LED flashes and the other stays on so you can see where you are going, the remote switch, the quality of the thing, no separate batteries and the fact it is made in the UK. You can also charge it using a USB cable - mine is plugged into my computer now.

I had a problem with mine and Exposure fixed it with no problems, so customer service is good too.

As I said at the beginning, they are expensive and you may well be able to get close to these features for a lot less money. Not sure if you will get all of them though.

earth

sashmo,

These are all reasons why I would like a Strada. The ability to having one LED solid and the other flashing is very useful. Otherwise you can appear to a driver as a distant car rather than a close bicycle. I've even experienced this myself with on coming motorbikes and scooters. The cost is prohibitive. The Fluxient for a third the price is very tempting. Maybe that Evans deal at the weekend will cover a 25% discount on a Strada.

Has anyone used a Fluxient?

Would a 1000 lumen light pointed down so the spot a few meters in front of the front wheel still dazzle an on coming driver?

pdw

earth wrote:

Would a 1000 lumen light pointed down so the spot a few meters in front of the front wheel still dazzle an on coming driver?

Probably not, but potentially still quite annoying, and it won't do a great job of lighting up the road, as the spot a few meters in front of you will be washed out and you won't be able to see that far beyond it.

I use two lights, a Philips Saferide modified to run at about 350 lumens, and a converted Lumicycle running at 1770 lumens which I use as a main beam. The Philips light has a very good beam pattern, with a very sharp cut-off and most of the light concentrated to just below the cut-off. This gives very even illumination over a large area of road, and in terms of illuminating the road, the extra power of the second light really doesn't add a lot.

Before I got the Philips, I used another converted Lumicycle pointed well down, and running at probably 600 lumens, and I was always very conscious of how much light it spilt all over the place. Never had any "complaints" from oncoming traffic, but I got the impression it was annoying to pedestrians when riding through an unlit village, and it was vastly inferior to the Philips at lighting up the road.

CarlosDSanchez

How did you go about modifying the saferide? I have one and it's perfect other than the short run time, my commute is about an hour and a half each way mostly through unlit country roads. December is a nightmare because it's dark the whole way there and the 8.5 hours at work isn't quite long enough to charge the batteries fully.

Are there any beamshots anywhere comparing a saferide with the strada? Can't find anything on Google.

pdw

The modification is easy enough. You basically need to bypass the built-in electronics altogether, and replace it with a different LED driver. The b2flex from taskled is ideal. The LEDs are rated to 1A, but as standard are only driven at 0.7A. There's quite a lot of info on over on CPF on this thread:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/sho ... bike-light

I removed the original PCB altogether and replaced it with a new switch, and status LED, but others have taken the simpler option of just wiring into the existing switch and LED.



I stuck a 2.5mm socket on my so I can power it using my existing Lumicycle battery:



Should be good for 9 hours! The taskled drivers are very flexible and allow you to have 2, 3 or 5 different levels of brightness available, a flash mode, and battery monitoring via the status LED.

The only beam shots I can find of the Strada are the road.cc light tests, and there it seems to light up the top of the tunnel just as well as the floor, but that's probably on full power. From the comments in their previous test, I don't think it's got anything like the proper cut-off of the Philips light.

Let me know if you want any more details on the mod.

Mettan

I'd go for a XinTD C8 with a U3 T6 emitter - decent quality, ultra-bright at a good price - regards beam patterns, it's easy enough to create a beam-cutt-off semi-circular ish (or related) ) piece which wraps around the top - I run mine on Low/Med generally, with some High usage on unlit no-traffic areas (however, it only takes less than a second to click down from High to Med if a vehicle is coming the other way...). Pair a C8 with an O.P P60 and you'll have a decent mixture of flood and throw.

CarlosDSanchez

That looks pretty good, will have a read through the candle power forum and check out the options. What would be really good is to keep the batteries in, but have the option for a piggyback battery to extend the run time or something.

pdw

That's going to be harder. The built-in electronics have a timer, so even if you use a higher capacity battery, the brightness will drop down after a certain period of time, and you have to disconnect it completely to reset it. Although there is a hack you can do which makes it drive the lamp at full power when in eco mode:

http://swhs.home.xs4all.nl/fiets/tests/verlichting/koplampen_accu_afkapping/Philips_LED_bike_light/modificatie_en.html

This means you no longer have an "eco" mode, but should mean that you can keep using full power until the batteries actually run out.

earth

Had a look in an Evans yesterday. Firstly they didn't have a Strada, secondly I just noticed the offer that ends today explicitly excludes exposure products.


While I was there I did look at a diablo and a torro. Both these have similar lumen ratings as a Strada. I have to factor in that I was shining it in a lit shop but I was not blown away with the brightness. Now my existing lights with fully charged batteries begin to look appealing again.

wubbzy

just wanted to say THANKS to Asprilla for posting the light-test link. I put in an order for a Strada 4 on Sunday, even after looking all over (unsuccessfully) for a beam comparison. gotta say, after seeing the test results, i'm pretty stoked with my decision. Yes, the Strada is expensive, but it seems to me like a very reliable piece of equipment i'll use for several years!

Spinfaster

I bought a exposure toro mk4 last week, took it out for the first time on Thurs night, it is a brilliant light, has so many settings to choose from, 8 i think and has a lot of different brightness settings within itself. 1200 lumens and the beam is just what i was looking for, bright white light would be the best description, it is brighter on the road than car headlights that are following behind. I know it is a little more expensive than the strada but i went from looking at buying to lezyne super drive to this exposure light and am not dissapointed.