Similar to Exposure, but not... is there such a thing?

[Euge]

Toro here at £236 and the site has an extra £10 with their code, so £226 (I bought mine from here
https://sdjsports.com/products/exposure ... bike-light

Aaaah they went out of stock - probably too good a deal.

[ZeroDarkBivi]

I would love to love USE - Made in Britain, innovative designs (beyond just the Exposure lights), aesthetically pleasing products, and people who respond to customer enquiries. It's just a shame that every item I have bought from them has let me down. Aero bars that refuse to stay in place, and then crack when you raise the torque to solve problem 1. and all three of my Exposure lights have suffered from crap batteries which don't hold their charge for more than a few days. They have not had a lot of charge cycles as they mostly come out in winter for weekend rides, but can go from fully charged to almost completely depleted in 7 days stored in a warm, dry place.

The Diablo went back and I was told it was checked and OK. Given up on the brand when the rest of their lights went the same way. I have Ay-Ups from around 2011 which I can pull out of a drawer six months after their last charge and still get a decent amount of usable light from. My goto lights now are Bonty DLR blinkies for conspicuity, Moon rear and Fenix Front. Happy with their performance.

So... Before I junk them, can the OEM batteries be replaced by something better? By a chimp with poor DIY skills?
It would be nice if the Diablo and Tracer could be resurrected.

[Cheeky Monkey]

MTBbatteries has a very good rep and the limited dealings I've had with him have always been good. He does work on Exposure (and loads of other) lights and can replace cells.

https://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/mountain-bike-batteries/

Your experience [with Exposure lights] does seem to be an outlier compared to others, have you checked how you're using and "caring" for them?

USE seatposts with the tiny bolt heads though .......

[EDIT - in case of confusion ]

[redefined_cycles]

MTBbatteries has a very good rep and the limited dealings I've had with him have always been good. He does work on Exposure (and loads of other) lights and can replace cells.

https://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/mountain-bike-batteries/

Your experience does seem to be an outlier compared to others, have you checked how you're using and "caring" for them?

USE seatposts with the tiny bolt heads though .......

Is that me that you think had bad exp of MTBbatts?? Nope, loved em every day of the 3 years I've had em

[Cheeky Monkey]

Shaf you have misread my post. I was talking about his experience with his Exposure lights.

[Huwblut]

Mark at MTB Batteries is super friendly & easy to deal with in my experience. I’ve got two of his lights & batteries. All are really good quality & reliable.

[redefined_cycles]

Shaf you have misread my post. I was talking about his experience with his Exposure lights.

Aha... I think I can explain myself on this one... dropped car for bearings replacement 50 miles from home yesterday. Very tight schedule for work (night shift). Then rode my gorgeous bike to work (47.8 miles or summat).

Then found a cheap(er) train ticket back to Leeds (and not Huddersfield where car's located). £5.50 to Leeds and then a 15 miler post night shift and dribs of sleep, to the car. Then read your post. It's like having read it after/mid a BB200

Yes, I agree the poor experiences with Exposure are totally few and far between

[redefined_cycles]

Thats a 97 miler round commute on £5.50 if anyone's trying to quantify it. Add the extra £3 worth of scrambled, mushrooms n beans at 0900 (yes, I waited til the work canteen opened) and you get the handsome sum of £8.50

Bikes, dont you just love em (Nitecore did the pitch black duties on the night (last 1 hour of it) commute...

[mattpage]

Exposure have been ace for me. Sponsored by them for many years and still have some lights that are almost 10 years old and still good.

Not supported in any way now but the service is still amazing. I had a broken Trace-R that I think was my fault leaving the USB cover off on a wet ride. Sent it back explaining and within a week it's back for me to keep using.

For a Dynamo light I've got a kLite and do really love that for road use.

The only other lights I've used that are any good are Lezyne and I do use them occasionally and mostly as they are easy to switch between bikes, no mount needed.

[EDI_Dave]

Anyone have any thoughts on either a Hope R2 or a Moon x-pro 950/850??

Am finding web searches for mtb stuff increasingly difficult as results are full of auto-generated review 'aggregators' and am really strugging to understand what's what, what's new, what's old, what's really old, what's really really old...

Would love an exposure but... £££

[voodoo_simon]

Had a moon 850, brilliant lights. Only battery except exposure that lasted beyond two winters for me (see my earlier post). Good light in my opinion and burn times weren’t too bad either (chart on their site shows the times). Ran mine int he second highest setting and was good for most of my riding (think gravel/easy mtb/bridleways etc rather than trail centre hoonigan)

[JimmyG]

Plus one for the Moon 850 here. I've had mine for about two years, been very pleased with its performance and had no technical/reliability issues.

[Stevemorg]

I've been really happy with my Gloworm XS and X2 lights - quality is great and a minor problem I had (after 6 years of use) was sorted quickly.

[belugabob]

There seems to be a theme emerging here. Can't quite put my finger on it

Two themes...

1/ Exposure users are generally happy, and don't want to change
2/ The main selling point of the Exposure lights is the internal battery, so most of the other recommendations are missing the point (unless, of course, I'm missing the point)

[rudedog]

Another +1 for moon. Had the x-power 1800 until my bike got nicked, it was an amazing light for £70.

Parker’s had the x power 1300 on sale a couple of weeks ago so I got it as a replacement. It’s a good bit smaller and lighter than the 1800 so makes a great helmet light and is still plenty powerful.

[jameso]

Question for Exposure users - when new how accurate do you find the battery life countdown timer on the display?

I'm getting about 17% less than stated eg 2.5hrs on High vs stated 3hrs (Strada 600). That's a static test in a room where it's about 18-19 deg and the light warms up a bit. As far as I understood it batteries discharge faster / give less output duration when cold ie on a bike at night with air flow, could be wrong though?

[ScotRoutes]

Can't help on that. My MAXX-D has the Reflex mode which adjusts power according to terrain etc. That makes the battery life projection pretty inaccurate.

[benp1]

Question for Exposure users - when new how accurate do you find the battery life countdown timer on the display?

I'm getting about 17% less than stated eg 2.5hrs on High vs stated 3hrs (Strada 600). That's a static test in a room where it's about 18-19 deg and the light warms up a bit. As far as I understood it batteries discharge faster / give less output duration when cold ie on a bike at night with air flow, could be wrong though?

I always think of the battery countdown as an indicator. As an example I've had mine running when it's on zero, and if it's fully charged it shows slightly more than 24 hours on the 24hr setting

It's a very good indicator, and is mostly accurate, but I guess it can never be perfect. I do like it though

[Lazarus]

As far as I understood it batteries discharge faster / give less output duration when cold ie on a bike at night with air flow, could be wrong though?

In the cold the voltage of say a car battery drops so it therefore has less power - or more accurately again its drains faster - i can do some maths but just trust me it draws more amps for the same brightness
I dont know how much of an issue this would be for the type of battery that they use but it certainly not going to help.

As for accuracy no idea as i only have a Joystick and have never run it out to know but the review i saw of it before i bought was slightly more than stated

Worth noting all batteries will deterioate over time and with use - its not liek a laptop battery gives the same perfromance after 3 years use as when new

[Cheeky Monkey]

Can't help on that. My MAXX-D has the Reflex mode which adjusts power according to terrain etc. That makes the battery life projection pretty inaccurate.

Do you rate the reflex function? I've been toying with the idea of a Toro and see it has it but it's a new thing to me.

[sean_iow]

I'm getting about 17% less than stated eg 2.5hrs on High vs stated 3hrs (Strada 600). That's a static test in a room where it's about 18-19 deg and the light warms up a bit.

Be careful doing that as a test, my Joystick got tuned on by accident in a bag and I didn't notice and it melted the lens as there was no airflow over it.

I find the indicator is ok, it's hard to be sure as with the Toro I change modes. When it's on the lowest setting the indicator does seem to go down slightly faster than real time, so after an hour has passed the time remaining on the light will have gone down by slightly over an hour.

I also think that LEDs draw more current when hot? But no idea where I've got that from. If that's the case the battery would last longer in use with airflow over the lens.

[jameso]

I'm getting about 17% less than stated eg 2.5hrs on High vs stated 3hrs (Strada 600). That's a static test in a room where it's about 18-19 deg and the light warms up a bit.

Be careful doing that as a test, my Joystick got tuned on by accident in a bag and I didn't notice and it melted the lens as there was no airflow over it.

I find the indicator is ok, it's hard to be sure as with the Toro I change modes. When it's on the lowest setting the indicator does seem to go down slightly faster than real time, so after an hour has passed the time remaining on the light will have gone down by slightly over an hour.

I also think that LEDs draw more current when hot? But no idea where I've got that from. If that's the case the battery would last longer in use with airflow over the lens.

I kept an eye (hand) on it while it was on and it didn't get hot, slightly warm I'd say. I just checked as I was sent one that had a fault, the countdown was going maybe 3x actual time and when it got to zero it could be turned off then on and it'd display 75% capacity again. So it was replaced and I wondered if this one was ok as my hit rate so far is 3 faulty lights in a row The service has been 1st rate though, has to be said. I'll see what I get on a road night ride. Maybe I'm expecting a bit much but I would expect approx 3hrs when new in real use if it says that on the item.

RE. LED current draw when hot. Something like that. Thinking back to some basics of light design from a supplier, to get the max output from an LED it needs to run cool. I don't know about current draw vs output vs temps though.

[sean_iow]

I kept an eye (hand) on it while it was on and it didn't get hot, slightly warm I'd say.

The Joystick is 900 lumen and the lens is a quarter the size of a Strada so it's no wonder mine got so hot, the smell of burning was what alerted me to the fact it was on. To their credit Exposure replaced the lens FOC.

Maybe I'm expecting a bit much but I would expect approx 3hrs when new in real use if it says that on the item.

I'd say that's perfectly reasonable, it certainly should be within a few minutes under typical conditions. In fact I'd expect the runtime claims to be conservative otherwise you'd open yourself up to endless returns when it doesn't perform as described?

[ScotRoutes]

Can't help on that. My MAXX-D has the Reflex mode which adjusts power according to terrain etc. That makes the battery life projection pretty inaccurate.

Do you rate the reflex function? I've been toying with the idea of a Toro and see it has it but it's a new thing to me.

Yeah. It seems to work. It's most noticeable when you stop. After a few seconds the power output drops significantly, then increases again as soon as you move the bike.

[Jurassic]

Can't help on that. My MAXX-D has the Reflex mode which adjusts power according to terrain etc. That makes the battery life projection pretty inaccurate.

Do you rate the reflex function? I've been toying with the idea of a Toro and see it has it but it's a new thing to me.

Yeah. It seems to work. It's most noticeable when you stop. After a few seconds the power output drops significantly, then increases again as soon as you move the bike.

I have a Toro and am a new Exposure user this season. I was surprised when I first experienced the Reflex function as I'd been using the light on my gravel bike on one of the other programs that doesn't activate it. The first night ride on out local techy trails I was sitting on my mountain bike with the light switched on while chatting to my riding companion prior to riding the first descent. As soon as I started rolling on the downhill the Reflex feature kicked in and my light went from what I thought was bright to really bright, it was quite impressive. I don't think I'd use the Reflex feature on a longer ride (for example while bikepacking) but for a couple of hours local riding it's excellent. I think the ability to tailor the light program to the type of ride you're doing is one of the more impressive features of the light for me and it makes it more useful for different rides and different types of bike.