Hope Vision 1 LED Review - BikeRadar

Not cheap but you seriously get what you pay for. No problem at all riding in the forest at night. Great for the road too. Fixing clamp is very effective and even on a very rough downhill "ride" ...err... hold on for dear life...,it did not move an inch. I find power setting 2 (out of 4) fine for most rides and the batteries last much longer. You will still be loving the effectiveness and quality of this light long after you have forgotten the purchase price.

Great light if you buy QUALITY 2700mh batteries which will then give you the quoted run time. Should be able to get this if you shop around for £75 so i reckon good value. Good light for a single for either on or off road coupled with the fact it is easy to take or buy 4 re chargeables if you are out for an extended period. Just want to re enforce the quality batteries part. I bought quoted 3900 and 3200 mh's off fleabay and they gave 40 mins at max. then bought 2700 duracells and they gave over the quoted time which i measured at 3 to 3.20 mins on max. More than enough for a night time ride.

I like Hope lights and have the vision 4 on my bars every night ride. Tonight I have just tested a 300 lumen (claimed) torch that I bought from HK on ebay. it cost me less than £14 delivered and came with a charger 2 lithium batterys and is fully waterproof too. It is also light enough to head mount. It makes the vision 1 seem a bit pricey for what you get

Lumens aren't everything, I just took delivery of a light from Germany that knocks this and every other light into a cocked hat and it's relatively inexpensive. It's a philips LED bike light and it's fantastic, I highly recommend it, for the road especially. It will knock your socks off.

Rubbish, it's not powerful at all, totally wrong beam patter for bar useage and hasn't got the reach to go from your helmet to the ground 20ft infront and to heavy and sticky out for that to.

DON'T BUY THIS, don't know anyone who's 1 vision lasted more than a few months to.

@ Antfly: I agree about the lumens not being everything but it's a figure that a lot of people understand although manufacturers claims can be very creative. My point (which I missed in my original post) was the Hope V4 & V2 are imo very good lights but the V1 is a bit... well pants really the HK special I mentioned on my head was very bright and had a good beam with a nice bright spot in the centre. I do think Hope need to reduce their rrps a little though now as I have had my V4 since it 1st came out and was about as good as things got. Now there are a lot more players in the market and the technology is moving forward at a rapid pace.

I am interested in this German light you mention though. Care to share?

@Bengdogg, I already shared, it's just called the philips LED bike light. I got it from bike24.

This light is awful. The 240 linen output is low, and you'll have big trouble if riding in a group with average power lights. My 10 year old vistalite 10 + 15w halogen system totally outclass this.

I bought this for overnight races such as dusk til dawn as I thought the runtime plus a 1h fast charger would allow me to go all night swapping batteries every two laps. However it sucks as the beam is so tight its unusable. It would work as a helmet light but its way too heavy to mount.

But, most dangerously there's no warning at all that the batteries are low, it just cuts out dead. Even with decent branded 2900 batteries, once they have seen a few cycles the run time varies between 1h30 and 2h depending on the weather.

At dusk til dawn I also had a £12 dealextreme torch. Used only 2 batteries rather than 4, was brighter, with a usable flood, and let you know when to change batteries.

Your call.

I'm very happy with my Hope - took me through the grim weather of last winter and has kicked off this winter fine too. I'm a 30-mile round trip road commuter in the Highlands of Scotland. The beam is great for road use with the four power levels being really useful for the different lighting conditions I go through (street lighting to pitch black forests and pouring rain). Full beam is plenty good enough for piling down the lanes at 40mph. My only criticism is the lack of power meter or low power warning. That said, it's never been a problem for me. On the upside, the ability to fit rechargeables or dry cells is really useful - if you forget to charge the rechargeables just sling in a set of dry cells - that's not something you can do with many lights.

Maybe the optics have changed for this year, but my 1 year old Vision One has a better spread than any LED torch i've seen. It has a focused beam with a wider, less powerful circle which lights from just in front of my wheel when the spot is aimed at the ground about 20ft away, which it does reach on full beam. Important note: this is when riding alone in pitch darkness.

When I got mine there was no other light at this price or cheaper I'd seen do better. Some were more punchy and powerful, especially torch LED types, but all had a flood that starts too far forward unless you shine them directly in front of your wheel. Not to mention a harsh light tone. However, many others have uprated their LED's this year while Hope seem to have left this alone, meaning others will have caught up.

It's not really enough for off road riding at a decent speed and I don't know why anyone would expect it to be for a single lamp 240 lumen light unless they were mis-sold it. I've never heard anyone recommend it as suitable for 24hr enduro's on it's own, or anything else in it's price range.

I'm not surprise an older 2 piece halogen beats is as you have one light dedicated to spread and another dedicated for spot. Lets not forgot that these double halogen types were at least twice as expensive as this Hope, and thats without taking the years of inflation into account. Compare them to an equivalent priced light today and they will show their age.

I do have issues though, the biggest being the sudden cut off, instead of gradual dimming when the battery runs out. This means you get in the habit of changing batteries early to be safe, and therfore never actually get the full runtime.

It is too heavy for helmet mounting, unless you modify so the battery is seperated but you shouldn;t really have to modify a light in this way. When it comes specifically supplied with a helmet mount it should be usable from the box.

Also, I said the light was ok for off roading at slow speeds when riding alone, but if you ride in a group then the vision one quickly gets drowned by those with better lights and usually there will be at least one person in a group with something juicy.

I now use this for road sections where my main light would dazzle cars and as an emergency backup, but thats after paying more for a truly better solution.

My concern as a law abiding cyclist is that cyclists are increasingly using these purpose-designed off-road lights on the road. As cyclists we are the receiving-end a great deal of criticism from the irresponsible behaviour of a minority and we don't need more criticism for some blinding other road users with illegal lights.

I looked at the Hope website and nowhere could I find any mention that these lights were illegal for road use. This is undoubtedly so, because if they were road-legal, the beam shape would demonstrate the necessary cut-off, as is the case with the StVZO approved B+M Ixon IQ and the manufacturers wouldn't omit to advertise this fact, plus the lights would be marked as such.

In a visit to my LBS, there was some kind of off-road light, but no indication of its unsuitability for road use.

Naturally, many cyclists think a light's a light. They couldn't be more wrong.

Just because a 'bicycle light' is offered for sale doesn't mean it's well designed, reliable, robust or suitable for use to alert other road users to your presence.

Lights that dazzle would include:

LED 'flashlights' as front lights and most purpose-designed mountain bike headlights intended for off-road use that have a generally circular beam geometry – these have no beam cut-off and were never designed for use on-road. They're very bright and are likely to dazzle drivers. If they weren't so bright, the beam geometry would be unimportant.

That's why most (if not all) such lights aren't BS approved or equivalent (e.g. German StVZO approved), they're almost certainly not legal for road use in the UK.

Let me make it perfectly clear: AFAICT, lights that dazzle are as illegal as no lights at all. With the light output of bicycle lights increasing as technology becomes more efficient, it seems likely that the Police will begin to take interest. In-fact I've heard of at least one cyclist being stopped near Brighton and instructed to turn off his Hope Vision MTB headlight. Dazzling is dangerous, and AFAIK it's probably universally illegal in Europe at least.

I refer you to the CTC's guide to the Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations.

http://www.ctc.org.uk/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=4071

DfT's Guidance about lights on pedal bicycles

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/vehicles/vssafety/guidanceaboutlightsonpedalbi4556

“Optional lamps and reflectors

1.Additional lighting to the above mentioned obligatory lights is permitted under certain conditions:

2.- IT MUST NOT DAZZLE other road users

- It must be the correct colour (white to front, red to rear)

- If it flashes it must conform to the required flash rate (1-4 equal flashes per second)

3.Optional lights are not required to conform to BS 6102-3 and there is no minimum level of intensity. So for example, on the rear of the cycle a cyclist may wish to have both a steady red lamp which conforms to BS 6102-3 and an additional flashing lamp which is not meeting the minimum level of 4 candela.”

Furthermore:

Important performance criteria of properly designed bicycle lights are: brightness; off-axis visibility and a substantial arc of visibility, above, below and either side of the light's central axis. Well designed optics and beam geometry. Presumably waterproofness; ruggedness; reliability and battery life would also be assessed.

Purpose-designed road lights would be BS approved; German StVZO compliant “K~number”, or Eu member state equivalent approved lights. These lights must bear the approval marks. No marks=no approval.

If a light's not approved the typical cyclist who hasn't read the DfT guidance will have no real idea whether it's safe to use or not. Even then, nagging doubts may remain. I've got some well-known brand-name lights and the only ones that I know are safe and legal to use on-road are BS / StVZO approved.

So just because a light's blindingly bright, doesn't automatically mean it's safe to use, in-fact the opposite may be true.

@snoopy

I find your comments interesting, mainly as i'm a guy that mixes riding and driving in to work, and some one who fallen victim of some guy saying "I just didnt see you" even though i was using a road legal unit, wearing last years altura night visiuon yellow jacket aqnd a white helmet, and he ploughed me over breaking my leg.

I had always been of the opinion that flashing lights are bad as they dazzle me when being a driver, but after that incident i have changed my tune. I would rather be dazzled and actually notice the cyclist when i am driving, and concurrently be noticed when riding than be run over again.

This is just my opinion and from speaking to police they, although not contradicting the law, say that lights are better than no lights, what ever they are.

and to review the Hope 1-

I've had the unit for a few weeks and hit some night time trails and it holds up pretty well, admittidly the dealextreme tourches are mates use are pretty good especially for the money but they keep saying that their charger is faulty etc, and so buy a seperate charger, therefore inflating the price.

I think for the price, and for the assurance you are buying from a UK based company (which is never a bad thing) i think the light is pretty good. Beam pattern is fine and the 4 levels are a great idea, altough the lack of battery warning is a pain in the a**, but, pardon the pun, i "Hope" they address that in the next edition of this light.

Pros:

Well built

Good Beam Pattern

Suitable for cummuting/off road use (used sensibly obviously)

made by a UK company

Cons

Could be cheaper

Lack of battery indicator

I've been using this light for road use for a year now. A great light, very well made, self contained - have had no problems with it what-so-ever.

Very bright, more than adequate for road use, has a decent burn time too. As previously mentioned make sure you buy the correct batteries.

As for dazzling other road users - certainly not as bright as an engine powered headlight!! Just make sure it is angled correctly. In the year I've owned it, I haven't been flashed or had any comments from other road users.

Personally I like to have plenty of light to dodge the potholes and other obstacles, this light does a great job.

Probably not the best buy for off-road use but on road - ticks all the boxes!