This is one of the most interesting products we saw at Interbike 2005 and it comes right on time for this year's night riding season. The Hope Vision puts together a proven HID bulb with the best Lithium Ion battery technology available. The revolution here is the mounting system. The light and the battery are mounted on the stem plate. The result is an incredibly compact light system that seems tucked away in a space normally unused in a bicycle.
Along with the novel design of the light system comes incredible machining and craftsmanship. As the photos show, the Hope Vision is beautiful to look at with great lines and impecable machining. The light head is a work of CNC art. The Lithium Ion battery is encased in a machined aluminum case. Lithium Ion technology allows the Hope Vision battery to be ultra-compact. Instead of designing for a light with a 5-hour battery life, Hope optimized for size and weight with this 323 gram battery. The result is a shorter burn time of 2:50 hours but a size about one-fourth the normal waterbottle battery light.
Charging and Set-up:
The Hope Vision comes with a smart charger. The indicator light shows red when charging and turns green 4-6 hours later. The connectors are the new pin-style with screw-in body. You have to align the pins, push them in and screw on the connector body. It takes a bit of getting used to but this system seems much more secure and consistent that those old push type connectors that are either too loose or too stiff.
Hope prescribes that their light only be mounted on the Hope stem. Luckily the Hope stem is light, nicely designed and affordable. Once the stem is in place, mounting the light and the battery is very simple and elegant. The light head has up and down adjustablility but no left to right. We figure that if your light beam is not centered perfectly, your stem is probably out of center and you can simply adjust your stem left and right. The battery tucks away neatly under the stem. Special attention is needed that the brake and derailleur cables are not interfering with the battery box.
On the trail
One of the hassles of night riding is dealing with the mounting of the battery and the light. Light heads don't seem to mount well with riser bars it's always a bit of a production to mount and center the light head and light switch. Then one has to mount the battery then deal with the darn battery cable and make sure it's out of the way and doesn't interfere with steering. With the Hope set-up this seems much simpler. The system is so light and out of the way that it's actually practical to leave the light on the bike for the whole night-riding season. In any case, aiming the light is simple by just pointing it up or down as centering is not an issue.
But how is the beam pattern? The light itself is a Solarc bulb which is also on the Topeak HID and other lights. The solarc has a very bright, tight center then a very wide beam that gets about 30% of the light. Visibility is great as one can aim the light far ahead while the wide beam still lights up what's shortly ahead.
Some might be concerned that the light and battery position might interfere with steering. In our experience, this was not an issue. Steering was just as light as usual. The forward mounting of the battery did not seem to make our bike front-heavy as well.
We measured battery run-time at 2:50 hours. This is one of the shorter run-times we experienced for HID lights as this system is optimized for weight and ease of mounting. This is quite a bit longer though than halogen light systems. Since 99% of our night rides are under two hours long, the Hope Vision run time is just fine with us. Note that this light does not feature any battery light indicators or auto-dim features as the battery runs down. When the battery is drained, this light will just shut down without warning. In some riding situations, this can be extremely dangerous. Thus, one has to be very aware of the amount of charge left in the battery during use.
Another issue worth noting is this system is more vulnerable than others in the event of a crash. If the light head hits the ground, it cannot twist around or pop off like other lights with plastic mounting pieces. The aluminum mounting pieces will probably bend or break. Another are of concern is the battery can hit the frame during a crash. When the handlebar twisted all the way to either side the light battery box touches the frame.
Summary:
This is a great effort from the innovators from the U.K. Simplifying the mounting system and lightening it up will make night riding more appealing to riders. The fact that it looks so good does not hurt either. The beam brightness and pattern is excellent. The run-time is not optimized for endurance racing. And a couple weaknesses are light shut-off without warning and vulnerability in crash situations. Overall, it's a great effort and a fresh approach to lighting systems.
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