Exposure Lights Strada review

I recently purchased the 2010 Exposure Lights Strada.

I was originally going to wait for the 2011 mk2 model version of this light, but the light was not going to be available until November.

Being commuting daily (and nightly!) I needed a light sooner.

I managed to get hold of the mk1 Strada for £180, which was a fair price.

The light arrived with all the accessories, including the remote switch, same as the mk2 model.

The only difference is that for 2011, Exposure have included their USB-compatible mains charger, which can be purchased separately anyway.

The mk1 model emits 480 lumens at full beam, compared to the 600 lumens of the mk2.

They both have similar road-oriented optics, which spread the light horizontally over the whole lane rather than in a torch-like spot.

And that's where I can recommend this light over any of the competition at this price point.

Dual Beam optics

These pictures will hopefully show you how the beam is spread horizontally. The pictures were taken with the light pointing at a wall 2 feet away in dim daylight.

The two pictures show the beam at full (maxx) and mid (ride) intensity:

As you can see, the spread is very wide. On my regular commute, on unlit country lanes, the spread of light from the medium (ride) setting can easily cover from side to side of the road, for about 10 yards in front, with excellent visibility.

Performance

The _ride_ setting, roughly set at 240 lumens or so, takes advantage of the excellent optics to spread the beam sideways, yet still give a good depth of view thanks to two LEDs.

The light can run in this mode for up to 10 hours on a full charge, with a builtin fuel gauge to alert when running low on juice.

Charging from near empty takes around 6 hours for 90% charge. The final 10% is trickle charged and takes a couple of extra hours.

The best thing about this light is that not only it spreads its light beam horizontally, in a manner that is considerate to fellow riders and drivers, but also it is so bright that drivers do see you and stop upon your approach to junctions, because they are tricked into thinking you are a much larger vehicle than you are.

With my other lights, even though I didn't have too much difficulty in seeing directly in front of me in the evenings, I always struggled to see enough to avoid some potholes, and more crucially, they weren't bright enough to convince drivers to give me right of way at junctions.

The other lights were also not bright enough, so drivers would not lower their full beam when approaching, not give me right of way at some higher speed junctions, and I would also find it hard to see clearly in heavy rain.

With the Exposure Strada mk1, all of those problems have vanished.

It has made a huge difference to my commute habits, and I feel a lot more comfortable and safe in the knowledge I have a reliable source of identification with me!

Fitting

The handle bar bracket provided fits handle bars from 25.4mm (STD) to 31.8mm (OS).

Unfortunately my bar is much narrower, at 21mm. I had to use the spacers provided plus additional rubber spacers which I happened to have kept from other light brackets.

Fortunately, tightening the retaining screw enough, provides a sure installation even on those thin bars.

The remote switch is very useful. I find the cable to be long enough to position the switch just where my thumb would be on both my commuter and my race bike.