Sunset from the Swamp

As the sun was setting, my heart rate was racing. As fast as I could pedal, I descended in the dust of the four riders ahead of me, while railing all the right lines with only a couple of near misses causing me to scrub a little speed here and there. At the bottom of the hill is this lovely swampy, marshy area.  Going no where fast, the swamp is thriving habitat for many insects, animals and aquatic life, not to mention how scenic and serene it looks.  Last night, the mosquito's were voracious.  At one point near this spot, I must have counted (until my eyes crossed) 15-20 Dragon Flies, (I am sure there were more) they were all flying quickly around eating up the skeeters by the hundreds, which made me happy!  Summer life, bugs feasting, frogs swimming, the fox hunting, the deer grazing and the riders riding, with night time fast approaching. Stopping here to breathe a breath of life and enjoy a still moment, adds peace and harmony to ones mind, it's why I ride!

Why do you ride? 

Our Charge station for the 24 Hours of Great Glen.

Some people ride to race, speaking of racing, we are headed to the 15th annual 24 Hours of Great Glen next week.  We're getting our stuff in order to attend the event and support riders who need charging for their lights and racers who have taken us up on our rental / demo program.  There are still a few lights available for rent, so get in touch with us through our website.

One important component to our success in staying up for over 36 hours in a row will surely be our Coffee Press. Since we're camping, we would normally bring our little camping style titanium press, but I think we will go "full on-caffeine mode" and include the 12 cup stainless press. Stop by for some coffee!


See you there!
Steve

24 Hours of Great Glen

Now in it's 15th year, we are honored and excited to be a part of the upcoming 24 Hours of Great Glen, which will be held the weekend of August 14-15, at Great Glen Trails, in the heart of New Hampshire's White Mountain National Forest, at the base of the tallest peak in New England, Mount Washington.  Racers will compete solo, or on two or four person teams, and try to complete as many laps as possible on the race course, in 24 hours!  Exposure Lights USA has signed on as a sponsor of the event and we will be on hand with rentals, (which are booking up fast) and available for neutral charging for current Exposure Lights users.  We will also be available during all expo hours, so you can check out all of our goodies and we may even have a few of the upcoming 2011 products for a little sneak peek of the exciting things Exposure Lights has planned. 


If anyone is interested in booking rental lights please send us an email.

Summer Swing

With the Solstice here, we begin our descent toward shorter days and longer rides in the dark. Check out our website for our Summer special pricing on lights.  If you're looking forward to those crisp, cool, fall night rides, we've got your back and we'll light the way for fast forward motion.  Our prices are at the lowest they have ever been right now on all the lights.  A couple of suggestions would be the Toro & Diablo Package or the MaxxD & Diablo package.

All of us here at Exposure Lights USA are well into our seasons miles on our road and or mountain bikes.  Lately, on our Wednesday night mountain bike ride, as the day light has reached max length, we're going minimalist, only carrying our Joysticks and WhiteEye combo, using them toward the final hour and a half of the ride for super light weight and superior lighting.  This combo has plenty of light to maintain a confidence inspiring pace for several riders in our group.  Everyone is really enjoying the cable free aspect and brightness of this combo.

As a sneak preview of what Exposure Lights has coming, I give you the following link to the revealing artice on London Cycle Sport website.  The new light is called the Six Pack at 1800 lumens, this is the brightest light Exposure has made to date.  As always, Cable Free! Also shown, but briefly mentioned, is the new MK2 Diablo, which bumps up to nearly 1000 lumens bright. Check back here for more information as we approach the August / September release.

Thanks for reading...

Sea Otter / MTBR.com competition - win a Free Maxx D!

Announcing our latest competition!  Win an Exposure Lights Maxx D!

You can play at MTBR.com or stop by our booth at Sea Otter or send us an email!

Here's your chance to ditch the cable and clunky external battery and enjoy the new generation of high powered, cable free lights!

Your ipod doesn't have an external battery and your cell phone sure doesn't either (they used to before consumers wised up to the benefits of a self contained unit!)

We would like to demostrate that ditching the external battery doesn't mean you lose anything - especially burn time!

The spec burn time on the brightest 960 lumen setting on our top of the line model – the Maxx D is 3 hours, but as all users know, it delivers over that by a significant margin!

Here’s what we are asking you to do:

If you are at Sea Otter – come by and enter and you get the inside line on how much time has already elapsed by checking the VDO stopwatch! We’ll be running separate burns all weekend.

OR

Simply post the hours, minutes, seconds in a post at MTBR.com.

We’ll be monitoring the burn time on the stopwatch and will check the stopwatch against the posts at 12pm Sunday and then announce the winner by posting an image of the stopwatch on the forum and blog.

Good luck playing!

2010 Sea Otter Classic preparation

One of our Exposure Lights displays in mid-build

We're in the midst of our prep for the 2010 Sea Otter Classic.  Now in it's 20th year, the Sea Otter Classic held at Laguna Seca Raceway near beautiful Monterey, California is such a great event to attend. This will be our 4th year in a row that we break from the regular routine in the office and head to the left coast for some social interaction with consumers, industry journalists and other bicycle industry folks. It's always nice to leave New England in the early spring when the weather is sometimes dreary and cold, jet setting to where the grass is green, the sky is blue and the sun shines most of the time. 

We fully staff a booth at the event and display our fine products from Exposure Lights, USE, and VDO Cyclecomputers.  We traditionally also have a contest giveaway every year, and this year will be no different.  We're planning on giving away to one lucky attendee a 2010 MaxxD light from Exposure along with some runner up prizes from USE, plus we'll be bringing back the very popular and fun bean bag game for a chance to win some free VDO bicycle computers.

In years past, we try to hit a different restaurant every night, by far my favorite is our tradition of heading down to Nepenthe, Big Sur.  It's such a beautiful drive and the food is amazing!  

 Also, we try to hook up with our friends from Cannondale.  They usually set us up with a demo bike so both James and I take half a day and get out for a nice ride on the cross country race course.  It's a grueling 20 mile ride that travels through some amazing country around Fort Ord and the Laguna Seca recreation area.  The race course includes some vicious climbs, fast flowing descents and some of the prettiest single track I've ridden on.  The last 3 miles climb up the three sisters road, which just adds insult to the hurt you've put on yourself the previous 17 miles of riding. 

So if you're headed to Sea Otter and want to win a light or other goodies, be sure to stop by our booth and check out all the fine wares.  We may even have a top secret new product from Exposure...You'll just have to stop by and see what I'm talking about!

Peace Out,
Steve @ Exposure Lights USA

Exposure Lights 24

Exposure Lights 24 - World's first dedicated solo 24 hour race and qualifier for the Solo World 24 Hour Championships.


www.24hoursolo.co.uk from ResetFilms.co.uk on Vimeo.


24Hrs of Exposure Preview from ResetFilms.co.uk on Vimeo.

Exposure Lights Diablo review from Velo News tech editor Zack Vestal

This appeared in the April issue of Velo News, page 64 "Commuter Gear".

"The Diablo headlight is a compact, powerful and sophisticated front light. It's petite and versatile for commuting, but adequately powerful for threading a little singletrack after work.  In contrast to the Light and Motion Stella series or the MiNewt from NiteRider, Diablo is a self contained unit, with the lamp and the battery housed in a machined aluminum body similar to a small flashlight.  Other companies make self-contained lamp and battery lights, but at 700 lumens claimed output on "high," the Diablo is much brighter than anything we've found of its type. Plus, at just 130 grams with the included aluminum quick-release handlebar bracket, it's very light. 

One cool feature is the Smart Port, which functions as an input jack for piggyback batteries to extend burn time, a jack for a handlebar mounted remote on/off switch, or an output jack to power an accessory helmet or seatpost mounted rear light.

The Diablo has four light settings (high,medium, low and flashing) toggled via a single on/off button on the rear of the light body. Claimed burn time on high is one hour, but in a test burn I coaxed almost 90 minutes out of it. Running the light at lower output extends the burn time significantly. Time to full charge is about four hours. Burn times and basic operating information is conveniently etched on the light body. The on/off button doubles as a charge/low battery indicator light. 

After a few months of commuting in all conditions, I've found it to be a sweet little light. It's visibly brighter than other lights I've used, and throws a nice focused beam with just enough dispersion for peripheral vision. Plus, the flashing mode is great for safety in high traffic intersections. The construction is bomber. I love the absence of battery cables and heft, especially when used with the included helmet mount. The aluminum handlebar bracket works well, too, but installation requires a 4mm Allen wrench. It's quite secure, but I switch bikes frequently, so I need to swap the bracket from bike to bike, which isn't quick.  Additional handlebar brackets are available separately." - Z.V.