Exposure Strada RS

Exposure’s Strada RS is a road-specific light, and with excellent build quality, brilliant beam pattern, loads of modes to choose from and great battery life, it really is all the light you’ll ever need, whether you’re out for a full-speed quick blast or an all-night epic. If you are willing to pay for it, you won’t be disappointed.

• Pros: One of the best all-round light packages out there, beam delivers light exactly where you need it
• Cons: Very few, but some will baulk at the cost

For 2018/19 the Exposure Strada has been split into three models: the 1,500-lumen SB, this 1,200-lumen RS, and the ‘entry-level’ (£210!) SL, which packs 900 lumens. As each one grows in power, it grows in size too, with a larger battery to maintain burn-times across the range.

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The RS is based around two XPL2 Cree LEDs positioned vertically, although each has a slightly different lens in front of it. The upper offers a punchy spotlight which delivers crisp white light down the road, picking up every sign, white line, pothole and imperfection, while the lower LED diffuses the beam wide for added peripheral vision; it also has a slightly yellow hue to it, which reduces glare to the sides and right in front of your wheel.

At full power it is literally like riding in daylight.

The beam, as you can see from our comparison engine above, isn’t completely cut off like a car’s dipped beam, and angled at a few degrees below horizontal it caused no issues with disgruntled drivers, and that is over hundreds of miles of riding on main routes and country lanes. Obviously this all comes down to common sense, too, by keeping the output minimal for oncoming traffic.

You can control the output by selecting one of the seven various programs available (they are etched on the bottom of the light), which offer two or three different modes/brightness settings (H, M and L, or just H and L) per program.

When the Strada first came out a fair few years ago (I had the MKI and MKII), you only had the choice of High, Low and Strobe modes.

With the Strada RS, Program 4 was the one I found the best for weekly commuting and general fast road riding. Within this program, high puts out 1,200 lumen for 2hrs, and about 400 lumen on low with battery life lasting for 10hrs. You can toggle between the two by the on/off button or, even better, the included handlebar button which plugs into the Smart Port charge socket.

Depending on the width of your bar, the cable is long enough to fit the button at the rear of your shifter hood, allowing you to dip the light when oncoming traffic approaches without having to move anything other than your thumb.

When I was a full-time commuter I used to run the cable under the bar tape for a clean look.

No matter which mode you are using, pressing and holding the button for a couple of seconds will see you enter the flashing/strobe mode, which is where Exposure keeps the LEDs permanently on at a low output while they also flash brightly.

Exposure has also incorporated its new DayBright flash pattern, which sees a single strobe and then a double to get you noticed on sunny days or filtering through traffic. There is also an SOS flash pattern, too, should you need it.

Battery life is quoted under high, medium and low for each mode, and depending on the output you can get burn-times anywhere between 2 and 24 hours. Thankfully, you don’t have to ride along doing mental arithmetic in your head: like most brands, Exposure uses a traffic light system to show battery life. Above 50% and it’ll be green, 50-25% is amber, below that down to 5% it’ll be red, and when it starts flashing, well, you’ll need to get home pretty sharpish.

Going one better than that, though, Exposure has included a digital display that tells you what mode you are in and how much battery you have left as you swap between them. It can fluctuate a little bit as you ride along, especially if the temperature starts to drop below freezing (the cold can decrease battery life) but only by a few minutes over the course of a full charge. It’s a neat addition and takes a lot of the guesswork out if you want to stick a little bit extra on your route home.

The overall quality of the Strada is backed up by an excellent two-year warranty and the whole light is just a joy to use whatever the weather.

The storms have been rolling through and the RS has seen some seriously heavy rain and road spray from passing lorries without missing a beat. The only thing you need to do is make sure the rubber cap is in place covering the Smart Port. On older editions of this light the Smart Port always carried a small amount of charge so that it could be used to power accessories like the plug in Red-eye light, so if water gets in it can turn the light out until it dries.

No such issues here with everything in place, and it has stood up to its IPX6 weather rating with ease.

> Buyer’s Guide: The best 2018 front lights for cycling

When it comes to the cost, yeah, you can get similar outputs and burn-times for a lot less money. The very good Cateye Volt 1300 is one at just £129.99. The Blackburn DayBlazer 1100 is another good value offering, with a price tag of £84.99.

Narrowing things down to just lumens and batteries kind of misses the point, though, when talking about the Strada. I’ve already mentioned the beam pattern and I’ll reiterate that for road use it is literally the best one out there in my mind. The light spread is spot on and lets you see everything you need to rather than just chucking a heap of unregulated lumens out there. It’s not that heavy compared to some, and things like the full CNC’d body all go to justify its price. The top quality, sturdy and simple to use bracket is another plus.

Overall, the Strada RS is a truly exceptional light for those who want to ride fast whatever the conditions.

Verdict

An excellent road-specific light that shows it’s not how many lumens you’ve got, it’s how you use them

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