First ride with Baja Designs Strykr

Tweezak said:

I received my Strykr yesterday and commuted with it today.

Impressions:

Heavy. I'm comparing to my Ayup which is on the very light end of the range so I'm unfairly biased.

Construction is ridiculously solid. The light body appears to be some kind of resin...maybe a cast metal...I don't know. It doesn't feel like plastic or metal. Maybe magnesium? In any case, it looks like a piece of military hardware. I like it!

The handlebar mount seems solid but I wonder if it is going to rotate forward with time and vibration. The setup seems front-heavy. I had to shim one side of the rubber insert with a piece of inner tube because my handlebars taper a lot near the stem. Seems solid otherwise. For what it's worth, I rode 30 miles today on skinny 100psi tires on rigid forks over road shoulders that are covered with gravel because of recent icy conditions. There was lots of vibration and a few hard hits but the light never moved.

The battery is bigger than I expected. It's also pretty heavy. Again, I'm used to the Ayup which is much lighter but I'm sure doesn't deliver the punch of this battery and doesn't have an armored shell.

I turned on the light expecting to be blown away. I think I had my expectations too high. Yes, it's bright but it's not as painfully overwhelming as I had hoped.

The spot reflector has a little bit of a dark circle in the center. I think that may be why it got a lower light meter reading than the wide reflector. The wide reflector is amazing. A wide, uniform swath of light with a nice halo. This wide swath is essentially the same brightness as my Ayup...just less directional.

I rode with the light this morning. It was ink black out and pouring rain. We got 1.66 inches today. These are the conditions when you need a really good light. I could see the road probably 15 feet in front of me very well. Beyond that, there just wasn't very much reflecting light back at me. Wet pavement just seems to suck up light at shallow angles. I don't think any light would do well...it's just the way it is. Note, however, that objects in the road were very well illuminated and I could easily avoid things while clipping along at about 18mph. I also noticed that the license plates of passing cars were brightly lit up...this is one of the marked differences in the wide beam compared to the Ayup's relatively tight beam (the Ayup used to be on my handlebars).

Coming home I tried to take note of about when the battery indicator started kicking in.
~70 min. Green flashing
88 min. Green/Yellow alternating
~90 min. Yellow
105 min. Home...still yellow.

From the manual, these codes mean:
Steady green: 3 hours to 1.5 hours remaining
Green flashing: 1.5 to 30 minutes remaining
Steady yellow: 30 minutes to 10 minutes remaining
Red flashing: less than 10 minutes remaining

The battery is supposed to last 3 hours on high. My indicator went to yellow (30 minutes left) when I should have had about 90 minutes left. Note that the temps were between 40 and 50 and the battery sat outside on my bike all day while I was at work. That might affect the burn time.

Complaints:
Weight. I appreciate the over-built nature of the light and battery, but damn! I really hope I like this light because if not, I'm going to hate it for a very long time.

Cord length. I doubt there are very many bikes that have a short enough distance between the handlebar and down tube such that the pigtails on the light and battery will actually reach. You therefore MUST use the extension cable to bridge the 4"-5" gap. You are left with some 2+ feet of cable that you have to wrap up somewhere. A shorty extension cable for this purpose would be great. Baja Designs...if you feel like making something like that...I'll buy one.

Strobe mode. Wow. Really, guys? The strobe mode is just that...like a dance strobe light being turned on and off about every second. It's a full brightness flicker at...oh, maybe 10-20hz...then off for a second...then back on. Really hard to look at. I'm actually concerned it will cause a motorist to go into a seizure. Seriously...I doubt I'll use it.

As a side note, the Ayup is now on my helmet and I have to say I'm happier than ever with it. That is really its best application, IMO. I have it mounted too low (just above my visor) and the reflection off fog, smoke, rain and spray really impedes your vision. I will add some velcro patches to the top of my helmet for commuting and use the front position for mountain biking. But anyway...the Ayup was FAR more effective than the Dinotte 200L that used to be on my helmet (now converted to a taillight). I also like the new 3 hour battery I got for the Ayup...very light.

Not to take anything away from the Dinotte. It's an excellent and well built light. I paid about 100 bones for it and it's been well worth it. The Ayup was about 2x that and the Strykr was about $300. So comparing these lights to each other is really not fair. I'd say that all are great lights for their respective price ranges.

Hope this helps. If you have questions...feel free to ask them here.

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