by Kevin Rogerson
Northumbria Police (UK)

Famous brands always have a "hook" line which the company hopes will sum up the nature of their product whilst embedding itself in the minds of a target audience. "Own the Night" is how U.S.E. - the official lighting sponsors to the Kona 24-Hour Global Series 2005 - have marketed their Exposure Lights.

The Exposure Light is different to anything which has been on the market to date and for this reason alone, the two-eyed little bug needs to put under the microscope for closer examination.

THE EVOLUTIONARY CHAIN

There can be no denying that over the last couple of years, lighting technology has come on in leaps and bounds. The evolutionary stages of bulb and battery advancement are plain to see - standard metal filament bulb to SLEDs (Super Light Emitting Diodes) and single-cell amoeba alkaline through to the "king of the jungle": Li-on. So what do you need from a light, and how much will you have to pay? Well, that all depends on how you plan to use it. If you cycle to work on a well-lit road, a decent light will cost £20-£30. If you want something rechargeable but cheap, invest in a sealed lead acid (SLA) bottle pack - £40-£60 buys some excellent halogen lamps with burn times of two to three hours. If you are feeling a bit more flush and have £100-£200 to invest, then you'll be after NiMH batteries to power up those halogens. Still not satisfied? Into serious night riding with the adrenaline only kicking in with the risk of serious injury lurking round every darkened corner? Satisfy your craving with some darkness- piercing HID (Halide) shiners powered by NiMH and be prepared to part with at least £300 English pounds. The serious enthusiast & professional rider will be at the £500 mark. For this amount of hard cash in your hand, your local bike shop will supply some hand-built German Lupine Edisons. This HID - throwing out 65W worth of illumination on high and 40W on low beam - will give you a nighttime pass of 2.3 to 4 hours, thanks to the Li-on battery.

SLA, Ni-Cad, NiMH, Li-on - the further down the list you progress, the more money is wrenched from your wallet, but playtime just gets better and longer.

Filament, LED, Halogen, Halide - SLED can fall either side of halogen - again, the further to the right the more cash you part with, the more night is turned into day, and the more confusion will reign in the nocturnal animal world.

THE USE BUG

To evolve successfully you improve the good bits and lose those you don't need. The humble LED has taken another step up the evolutionary ladder with the help of U.S.E and has now become a Super LED. The Exposure Light uses 2 x 5W (32W Halogen equivalent) SLEDs in an attempt to turn night into day.

The Exposure Light is simple by design but highly functional. An anodized CNC aluminum tube 9.5cm in length by 4.3cm in diameter houses a 7.4V 2.15mAh Lithium-Ion battery. A single push-to-operate rubber button on the top of the light performs all the functions. The underbelly sports two holes - one takes the allen bolt for securing it to the handlebar bracket and the other is the charging point. The simple but functional ethos extends through to the handlebar bracket with an O-ring incorporated into the design, which, when the bracket is bolted onto the light, seals the charging point and protects it from the elements. This attention to detail continues to the packaging, with a foam-lined tin being the nocturnal bug's resting place during the day.

The light is very well thought out, but can you really "own the night" with a creature that weighs in at only 165g?

I've had the Exposure Light Race model for a month now and have put it to work in the streets and on the trail. The first thing I noticed was just how small it is. The whole light is self-contained, so there are no messy wires running round the bike frame, and the water bottle cage is free to do its job. What's more, as the Exposure Light replaced my Cat-Eye SLA-powered halogens, a couple of pounds were lost from my running weight. As for performance, the bug's two eyes produce a thick, broad 120 degrees (my estimate) of panoramic white light which saturates the immediate surroundings. However, the light lacks real penetration further down the track and leaves your eyes almost straining to make out the finer detail of what you are rapidly approaching. Even on familiar terrain, it is easy to lose track of how far you've progressed when tunnel vision has become your guide, so a slower pace should be expected anyway.

The low setting is perfectly acceptable for plodding along, or on long, slow inclines, and helps conserve battery life for when you need it most. This is where the small bug really does out punch the heavy weights. Burn time is 2.2 hours on high or 8.5 hours on low. The Race has a bigger brother - Enduro - which is a little bit fatter (but at 275g still lighter than the majority of most cycle helmets), with a larger capacity battery offering high and low burn times of 5.5hours and 16.5hours respectively - quite staggering. The burn times of the Race and the Enduro are one of the light's strongest features. When patrolling in town and housing estates, the primary function of cycle lights is to warn other vehicular and pedestrian traffic of your presence, and the low setting is more than adequate for this. With this little creature mounted on my handlebars, I didn't have to think about how much battery time I had left. On one shift, I ran it for six hours non-stop, switching between high and low without any problem. The broad beam proved its worth when making a search of a poorly lit park one night. The light also has a strobe mode, which, due to its sheer brightness, would also act as a reference marker during any helicopter assisted searches. If you're out on the trail and are badly knocked about, this could be a real lifesaver.

I've managed to own a fair bit of the night for a heck of a long time. My bug buddy has proved 100% reliable throughout the wind, wet, ice and snow. Whilst I've found myself straining to see further than the light will allow, I can live with this. Life is full of compromises - price, battery longevity, brightness - you really can't have the best of all three, but this little bug-eyed lamp is up there with the best in the first two categories and is putting up a good fight in the last.

U.S.E have just announced that they will be bringing a quick release mounting bracket and a "halo" to fit to the front of the light which deflects light to the sides - these have been developed especially for the commuter. They are also developing a single SLED "spot" beam light which will weigh even less than the Enduro. I'll be approaching the good people at U.S.E. for a field trial as soon as they are available.

P.S. The casing comes in a multitude of colours, and the nice people at U.S.E will even etch your police logo on the casing at no extra cost. Each light has a unique serial number, so when you've broken yours, you can't swap it with the other shift's bikes!

Kevin Rogerson is a member of the IPMBA UK Steering Committee. He is a keen mountain biker in his spare time, with the emphasis on fun, and is committed to expanding the use of mountain bike patrol in the UK. He can be reached at ssmkpr@yahoo.co.uk.

© 2005 IPMBA. This review appeared in the Spring 2005 issue of IPMBA News.