Thursday, November 29, 2012

2013 Diablo Mk.4 Review from KDAY Racing

Thanks to KDAY RACING for the review - This copied from his blog post.


the diablo mk4


Wednesday, November 21, 2012, 6:42:24 PM
KDAY

For the past few seasons I’ve been fortunate to work with the folk at Exposure Lights USA, testing and demoing new products. The first time I strapped on the Diablo MK2, I was completely blown away. I had no idea how such a little light could be so bright. It was essentually all I needed for the trail riding here on the Wasatch Front. With this little light, I could rip the trails for over an hour on high beam. 900 lumens! And I could hardly tell it was mounted on my helmet. Add a single or triple cell battery and you’re looking at over three hours of high beam action.


Since that first ride, I’ve used a number Exposures lights and am always impressed with how dependable, durable and easy to use they are. My favorite combo is the Diablo mounted on my helmet with the MaxXd mounted on the bars. It’s pretty much lumen overkill, and blinding to those oncoming riders and hikers on the trail, but well worth it.

For 2013, Exposure launched a number of new innovative lights with smart technology that raises the bar and continues to lead & light the way. The perfect Go-To light, The Diablo, got a small and extremely bright upgrade and it’s all kept in the same, sleek package. From 900 lumens to 1,100 lumens, the Diablo MK4 is simply the best light, wrapped in the best package.







From the moment we hit the trail head, everyone was talking about the little light on my helmet that was making their, bulky, 800–1,000 lumen lights look dim and outdated. It quickly proved its worth and shined well above the rest.

 

During the 25 Hours of Frog Hollow mountain bike race, in Southern Utah, a few athletes from the Kuhl Rockymountain Cycling team, ran laps with lights from Exposure. One of the pro riders, Chris Holley, was heard saying: “There seems to be a big difference in the 1,100 lumens from the Diablo, compared to my other set of lights. That Diablo is so much brighter and the beam is much wider.”

Have you ever been night riding before and always wondered what’s beyond the trail? What’s learking in the bushes and trees? Well, if you’re using the Diablo MK4, you’ll have no doubt that, that sound you heard, was in fact a sasquach. And, there’s no need to worry, because the 1,100 lumens will probably spook it off before it even thinks to come after you.

Ryan Blaney, another Kuhl Rockymountain athlete that participated in the 25 Hours of Frog Hollow had this to say about the Diablo MK4: “Pound for pound the best light on the market. I recently confirmed this at the annual 25 hrs of frog hollow in southern Utah. The course had tight high speed single track that was tough to track properly in the light let alone the dark. having the diablo mounted on my helmet was the ultimate advantage in finding these turns in the dark. It was practically weightless and the on the fly adjustment is the icing on the cake. The size and brightness of this light make it unbeatable. Many of the competitors make 1k lumen lights, but it seems 1k lumens is a relative rating because they just aren’t as bright. The others also come with baggage like batteries and cords, which often prove to be an issue. There is nothing the same size that is even in its league.”

The all new Diablo MK4 features, as I mentioned before, 1,100 lumens, it weights only 108g and is fully self contained, CNC machined aerospace quality aluminum body (AKA: It’s tough as nails and water resistent) and comes with three different light settings that can burn for up to 24 hours depending on the OMS setting.

To top it off, Exposure packages it up in a clean, sturdy case to keep it organized and together which makes for easy packing in nearly any bike or gear bag.

This is by far, pound for pound, the best light in the tightest package, I’ve ever used. The Diablo MK4 gets my vote as the highest quality and most versital light on the market.



2013 Diablo MK4 Specks:

Diablo Mk4 Technical Information

Weight: 108g

Output: 1100 lumens

Power: 3100mAh Lithium Ion battery

Burn time: 1 — 24hrs (depending on OMS selection)

Emitter: 3 Cree XPG R5 LEDs.

Cable Free Design (CFD): A primary feature unique to Exposure Lights removes the hassle of cables and straps.

Utilising the critically acclaimed Exposure Lights Helmet Mount.

Function button: 3 colour Mode and Fuel Gauge indicator that doubles as the OMS display.

Intelligent Thermal Management (ITM): Patented technology that combats the loss in efficiency of LEDs at
elevated temperatures, maintaining optimum output keeping you shining ‘Brighter for Longer’.

Smart Port Technology Plus (SPT+): Patented technology that enables a wide range of accessories to be used; Additional rear lights, back-up power supplies, remote switches and even charging other USB devices direct from your light.

Collimated Lens Technology: Exposure Lights use these high-tech resin lenses which have been extensively researched. These lenses are specifically designed to maximise light collection from the LEDs and efficiently produce an optimum beam pattern for cycling ensuring no light is wasted.

Weatherproof Body: CNC machined aerospace grade aluminium body with efficient heat transfer design. Fully manufactured in the UK.

Gold plated charge port: The charge port is gold plated for corrosion resistance, more efficient conductivity and it is sealed to a greater level adding protection to you light.

Storm Cap: The Smart Port in protected by a silicone cover to stop muddy gloves pushing dirt into the port.

Includes: Helmet mount, Lanyard and Smart Charger

Thursday, October 25, 2012

 

Join us this weekend at NEMBA's Wicked Ride of the East. Come check out the 2013 Exposure Lights. This is a favorite of ours, looking forward to the Chili and riding. See you there!

 

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Exposure Lights - 12 Hours of Millstone, VT


Exposure Lights USA will be at the upcoming 12 Hours of Millstone, July 28th in Websterville, VT. We will have a limited number of rental lights available for anyone who is in need or interested in trying them out. We will have Diablo and Maxx D lights available.


Please email us to reserve your light or for more information.


Thanks!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Exposure Lights - Twenty Four Hours of Pat's Peak



Heads up New England 24 Hour Racers!

Exposure Lights will be at the upcoming Pat's Peak 12/24 Hour Mountain Bike Festival, June 9 & 10 in Henniker, NH. We will have a limited number of rental lights available for anyone who is in need or interested in trying them out. We will also provide charging through the night for all rentals and current Exposure Lights riders. We will have Diablo, Toro and Maxx D lights available.

Please email us to reserve your light or for more information.

Thanks!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Tour de Breakfast 2012

Now this was fun, we're just back from the 2012 version of the Tour de Breakfast. What is the TdB, you ask? Well it takes place on National Bike to Work day and the idea is to ride on a bike to as many commuter breakfasts being held for riders/walker in the great seacoast NH area between the scheduled hours of 7-10 AM. It's a rigorous agenda, but with a quick bite ("chew and screw" says the ride leader, Arlon) or sip of coffee at each stop, it can make for a super fun training ride. That's pretty much why we went, but also for the fun factor and the good peeps in the bunch. With about 12 riders, we had some great local representation too. There was of course, the star of the show, Arlon Chaffee from Loco Cycling who was hammering the front most of the ride, adding to the engine, there were a couple of NorEast racers, Scott from Riverside Cycles, a couple of DG Cycles riders, and also some local citizen riders along for the fun. 

The ride started at the new location for Independent Fabrications (IF Bikes) located in a lovely old reconditioned mill building in Newmarket, NH. Gary from IF pulled out all the stops with fresh coffee, hand rolled steaming hot crepes, fresh fruit & juice, as well as pro bars for the ride ahead. 

The Crepe lady, it's blurry because I was full of coffee and having the shakes!

So yes, technically the starting location, but also the first stop for us since we rode over from a somewhat nearby park and ride lot, we then headed to our second stop at the Exeter, NH Bandstand in the center of town. There we found more breakfast type goodies, coffee and well known local cycling advocates from SABR and the one and only Susanne Delaney who organizes the Portsmouth Criterium.

Arlon (in shorts) signs the group in at the Exeter Bandstand.


Riding away from Exeter, our next stop was at the USA HQ for Timberland in Stratham, NH. It's only about a six or seven mile ride and we hammered that out in quick order and arrived to a self serve spread of scrambled eggs, potatoes, all kinds of muffins, danishes, coffee, juice, fresh fruit...it was loaded with goodies! I had eggs and potatoes in a cup and a chocolate chip muffin. YUM!

 Smuttynose Beer rider, Bill, loads up on eggs and potatoes.

From Timberland, we headed to a local bike shop that's legendary in our area, Gus' Bike shop in North Hampton, NH. Jeff the owner greeted us as we pulled in the lot. Yet again, an awesome spread of food for the commuters. Mmmm more coffee? Okay, sure!

Gus' Bike!
We had a nice chat among the group through the little town of Rye and stayed single file as best as we could arriving to the Rye public library in a flash. I wasn't very hungry, but they too had a delicious mix of food for commuters, along with a mechanic from Gus' bike for any needed repairs. 

Noreast Rider, Peter Corriveau (in red) is pondering eating another muffin I think...Rye SINGLE FILE!

From Rye, we were off to our last official stop in Portsmouth, NH at Market Square, sponsored by Popovers. Along the way, I was calculating my exertion level and feeling really good, so I decided to go for a Strava segment and actually pulled off a PR on the climb! Good miles and food in me I guess? With the sprint bunch arriving just ahead of the main field, we were greeted by Seacoast Area Bike Routes (SABR) President and local shop Manager for Papa Wheelies, Josh Pierce. He took a few photos, we hung out chatting for a bit and then from here a few folks drifted off to work and the main group split. About seven of us hammered one of the local commute routes through Pease Tradeport and then from there I split off with one other rider on a cross bike named Ben, when he said "Do you want to hammer back"? I knew it would be a fast ride back to my car. Thanks to his long hard pull I got my second Strava PR for the day, so good work and thanks, Ben! We worked hard together the rest of the way to my car and went our separate ways from there.

Fourty Seven miles all said and done. It was a great way to celebrate the end of Bike to Work Week. With all the commuting back and forth to work and the TdB, personally I got in over 150 miles, and it was a super welcome addition to the seasons training. Thanks to Arlon Chaffee for organizing and having us along for the ride.


Steve from Exposure Lights USA / U.S.E. chatting about bikes and stuff with Susanne and Peter.


Finishing up with our ride link for the TdB from our Strava club.

Thanks for reading
-Steve




Thursday, May 17, 2012

Bike to Work Week Day 2, 3, & 4.

What a great celebratory week for riding bicycles! I'm pretty pumped about my own personal participation in National Bike Week. So far I've commuted 105 miles, climbed over 4,000 feet of elevation, and have burned about 4,000 calories. Plus, I've got an extra 6 hours of ride time. Oh and the there is at least one Strava PR and a couple of silver medals! I've purposely taken some different routes everyday giving me a nice change of scenery on every ride.

Like this...

Bike to Work Week day two - this beautifully colored field!

...and this, just down river from our office.

Bike to Work Week day three - a bit rainy.
Diablo in low power & Flare flashing as daytime running lights!

When I got home on day three, I ate homemade Mexican food!

Salsa, Chips and Guac! Yummo!

Day Four! Sunshine, Safe Routes and Geared Bikes! My regular road bike is about six pounds lighter than my SS Cross bike, so it was a fast commute today.

 Yay for Bikes!

For the last Bike week ride tomorrow, we'll be doing the Tour de Breakfast. You'll see what I mean in the next blog post, but in the greater surrounding towns there are spots along well traveled bike commutes that have a breakfast for riders, it's the 10th annual rider breakfast. There is a big group that gathers every year and tries to make a stop at as many locations as possible between 7-10 am. It should be a great time!

Thanks for reading, 
~Steve

Monday, May 14, 2012

BIke to Work Week Day One - New Wheels!

Happy Bike to Work Week!



It's going to be a big mileage week this week, thanks to bike to work festivities. Day one had me heading out on the inaugural ride with my new Specialized TriCross single speeder. I had to make a few adjustments, including adding an Exposure Flare and Joystick for today's rainy ride, but it was a great way to start the day. Besides riding to work everyday, we'll be participating in the Tour de Breakfast this coming Friday. The Tour de Breakfast makes a stop at all the various "breakfast" stops being offered for riders commuting to work on that day. There's six or seven stops and we'll probably hit 50 miles or so along the whole route. Arlon Chaffee, the ride's organizer, has coined the phrase "chew and screw". With a tight schedule and many miles to ride between stops, that's exactly what we'll be doing. More photos and fun coming this week, stay tuned!  -Steve


Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Sea Otter Video Coverage

Here is a short video that MTBR.com & Road Bike Review.com filmed while we were out at Sea Otter last month. It gives a brief overview of our goodies. Check them all out at www.use1.com & www.exposurelights.com.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Demo an Exposure Light at the 2012 Sea Otter

Did you wish you had a new light this past Winter - Been thinking of buying one of the latest generation LEDs? Going 24 hour racing? Now is a great time to 'try before you buy' with no obligation.

Reading reviews doesn't always tell the whole story, but taking one out in the dark will give you valuable feedback when you are ready to replace the old light!

Again this year, we will be offering free overnight demos
Thursday - Saturday, April 19-21, to Sea Otter attendees. Whether you are camping or staying in a hotel, grab a light to check out and 'try before you buy'. Exposure Lights pioneered the cable free design, with LED based, high output, super bright lighting systems for cyclists. They continue to lead the market with the current range.
Take the opportunity to check out the 2012 lights including the Diablo, Maxx D, Six Pack and Toro.

To obtain a confirmed reservation on a specific night, please email us with your preferred date and we'll confirm your reservation and provide you further details and instructions by email.

Sorry, demos limited to those over 21 years old with proper ID and credit card for security.

We are in booth #303 in the first grass expo pod closest to the food court.
Look for the Exposure Lights tent and flags.
See you there!
Steve & James at Exposure Lights USA.

Friday, February 10, 2012

How do you use your Exposure Lights?

We recently had a customer send us this really cool little video of Martin's First Jog. Here the Diablo and RedEye are used to create safe passage for the Martin family's first run. We're quite honored the little guy loves our lights. This is a great testament on how diversely the lights can be used. We've had folks tell us their lights have been used while night cross country skiing, used while climbing mountains, while camping, used out night time moto dirt-bike riding and of course on bicycles of all types. We would love to hear from you if you've got an awesome Exposure Lights story, picture of the lights in action, or video of a favorite ride.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Pro Adventure Racer Mike Kloser explains how he uses Exposure Lights.

Photo courtesy of Mike Kloser

Joystick and Diablo are Kloser's lights of choice



"I’ve used a variety of lighting setups over the years for the various racing and training outings I do. From multi-day Expedition races, such as Eco Challenge, Raid Gauloises, and the Adventure Racing World Championships, to the renowned Elk Mt. Grand Traverse (Crested Butte to Aspen back country ski race), 24hr mountain bike races, night time Randonee Ski competitions and just general night time outdoor adventures, I have had my share of time with a head lamp on. Light technology seems to advance like the computer industry, it’s hard to keep up with all the improvements that come along every few months.


I was first introduced to Exposure Lights by Team Helly Hansen while filming them during the 2010 Patagonian Expedition Race. I couldn’t help but notice how bright, compact and simple their light setup was! I of course had to know what these were and who manufactured them. My team “Blackwater” was going to be racing the AR World Championships in Spain later that year and I didn’t want to be left behind in the dark.

We got outfitted with their lights and accessories for the race and couldn’t believe how much amazing stuff they make for their product line! We primarily used the Joystick and the Diablo, but had other lights of theirs which we mounted on the bikes. For the trekking sections, and there were many at night, we rigged up the Joystick with a single cell Piggyback battery. Nathan Faave and I were constantly joking during the race about how long this single setup (light weight if I may add) would last without needing a charge. We intentionally didn’t worry about turning the light off at times when we would normally power down to save battery life. We calculated that it was in the neighborhood of 70 hours of light if regulated between the low setting (which is still amazingly bright) and the high setting when needed for spotting distant terrain!

During the winter months, I do a lot of early morning and night time Alpine Touring (AT or Rondo Skiing as we like to call it) skiing, the Joystick and Diablo are perfect for this. If I am using a helmet, I simply mount it in the slick little light mount on the helmet, if not, I use the nifty head strap they offer.Now when I’m out training or racing and my fellow competitors or friends see my Exposure Light set up, they are the ones asking the questions and of course have to have one as well!

Life’s an Adventure, Live It!"
Mike Kloser
OutThere! USA