I’m talking about the upgrade offered by Ay-Up. Wondering whether or not to go for the full upgrade or just the LED upgrade.

Speak to Johnclimber off here, he had his ay ups done by Troutie a while ago after the originals failed quite quickly. Know he was happy with it.

He’s away at SSWC at the mo, but send him a message and he’ll get back to you.

thanks for that. really looking for real world experience of the upgrades offered by ay up.

Not that it’s much help to you but i very nearly did it. Spoke to their UK chap about it all as well to get it all straight in my head.

My main problem was the drop in battery performance which is really the Ayups strongest selling point. My winter night rides are around 2-3 hrs and although the bar mounted battery would be ok, the helmet one would have to be changed mid ride and i decided against it. Plus the hassle of being without them for a few weeks is annoying as well which is why i should have had it done in the summer.

I very nearly bought another helmet set anyway as the newer ones are 400 lumens whereas my slightly older ones are only 320 lumens i believe. That would have at least given me a 25% increase. May still do it but have a feeling as soon as i do they’ll release a newer model….

My Ayups have been faultless for about 3 years now and i think they’re great but i’ll admit i’d prefer then slightly brighter now though.

I’m in the same boat – mine have been fantastic but are 3 years old now and I quite fancy a bit more light. I’ve been thinking about just buying another set

I really like my Ay-Ups but the new ones don’t seem to offer the value for money that the previous ones did.

Same here, mine are 3 years old and I could do with a bit more light – I figured if I sent them off for upgrading over summer they’d only end up announcing something better for the winter so waited and now can’t be without them long enough to send them off :p Think I’ll just order a new set but waiting to compare the new model with the ones I have as a friend as a set of the new ones. They’re still pretty good value IMO, whilst they don’t compete on a lumen/£ with magicshine stuff the beams are better (I have both) and battery life is very good.

I thought about it for a while before taking the plunge, choosing only to go with the LED upgrade as i didnt want to mess with the battery life which is a big plus point for me. With mine being from 2007 they were claiming quite a big improvement with just the LED upgrade anyway.

Turnaround was exactly 2 weeks, as promised.

Performance wise, to my very uneducated eye they are certainly brighter however i didnt do any beam shots before i sent them off, so i’ve only got a comparison with a Bastid light to go on. An individual lightset is now a match for the Bastid and with the 2 sets on they’re much brighter.

All in i think its a good upgrade to make.

i was wondering about the loss of run time, might not be a big problem if only using the smaller battery on the descent’s.

The other thing to consider is that the newer ones have high/low/flashing options rather than the old on/off batteries so at least you could make the batteries last a bit longer i guess by running it on low for the non technical riding.

Am now thinking again about getting a new one thanks to this thread….

Mine are in the post to Oz as we speak.

Whilst there were likely more cost effective options (18650 cell xm-l, MCE or P7 torch from DX using exposure mount), I actually like my Ay-ups as helmet lights – 3hr battery pack weighs next to nothing.

Mine are over 4 years old so the first of the Cree ones that Ay-Up did. Went for the R2’s led upgrade and resistor change, but also ordered one of the 3hr batteries with the various settings – reckon I can pull back on power to get run-times per old but then can get more light when I really need it.

I ended up buying a new set last week and they are due for delivery today. I went for a single helmet set up with the 40% (560 lumens) brighter setting and will be sending off my original 2 sets for the simple LED upgrade in a few weeks whilst i’m off on holiday.

I’m hoping that with the newer multi setting battery i’ll be able to use it on my 3 hour winter night rides by switching to lower power on climbs and turning it off during trail stops etc. I’ll also have plenty of spare batteries now as well if i need to stay out longer.

Got stung for £27 customs fees though which was a bit of a pain. I’ll post up again once i’ve had a chance to compare them to my older ones.

I was going to order an upgrade for both the helmet and bar lights but whenever I go to the site they are sold out 🙁

They put 50 new upgrades up each week on a Monday i believe so that they don’t get swamped.

If you look Monday mornings then they usually have them available (they did last week).

Yeah I’ve tried that and it is always sold out, was on at 8:50 this morning and they were gone. Is it Monday morning UK or Aussie time? 🙂

Its an easy job to do it yourself
I did a thread last year on how to but cant seem to find it now .

I remember the thread and would happily send them to you but having no electrical or soldering experience wouldn’t risk bodging it myself!

I cant do owt till late sept due to away

No rush from my end!

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ay-up-grade

Tried it briefly last night and on a simple test against my 2008 set it is noticeably brighter (as expected i guess!).

Will have to try it properly in my local forest where there’s no background light to see if it is really that much better. My riding mate has a standard set so it’ll be easy to compare and contrast the two. The new Ay-Pod is cool though, far better than the neoprene set they used to use. Headband mount is also very good if you do night running/dog walking etc.

Up grades are going thick and fast currently waiting for mine to be sent back – the weeks allocation is released 8am Oz time or 11pm Sumday UK time. Last week half had gone by 11:10 so be quick.

Pal has upgraded and he says best money he has spent in a long time.

Do agree battery life is concerning me though

I have a set of the new ones and when comparing them to my friends two year old set they are noticeably brighter. I did the comparision in the local woods where ambient light was very minimal. We changed lights over half way through ride. I use mine on low setting when climbing and high setting when descending I get about 2 and a half hours on a half epic battery and about 4 and a half from a full epic. So with a quick battery swap halfway through ride about 20 seconds due to having a extra gecko mount.I can happily do a 4 hour ride without worrying about a blackout

I rode a few weeks back with my Troutie- upgraded ones alongside the visiting ay up reps latest ones.

Firstly he was a cracking bloke. Secondly the trout upgraded 3 yr old ay ups and the ay up latest versions were similar in output. The new ay ups have a slightly warmer colour than the old ones or the trout upgrades..

Either upgrade route would be worth it I think.

Sent mine away last week. +1 for them selling out quick, I think I ordered mine on the Sunday evening BST and there was only a couple left. Looking forward to getting them back. I’m not too worried about the battery life, most times I’m out for about 3 hours, 2 hours riding and I’ll only use the helmet light with the small battery when descending. Might upgrade the batteries in a year or two.

Mine came back about 2 weeks ago…postage from Oz quicker than postage to Oz…nice update emails from Ay-Up too – great guys.

Verdict?

Jeezus…much brighter…but that may be because mine were the first cree ones so newer led’s plus the 40% output and change to new narrow beam means much brighter on the eyes.

That said with the new battery with 2 settings plus flash then run-times fine an dandy…the lower of the 2 settings is plenty bright, the higher is silly bright…

Money well spent!

Just a heads up…

There are 15 upgrades available at the moment. I expect they will be gone by the morning!