Is the joystick up to the job of off road riding on its own or do you need another bar mounted light to back it up. I'm not looking for flat out riding but more technical slower speed stuff. Anyone want to share their view.

I wouldn't have thought it would be enough although I generally use mine fitted to my bars on my roadrat with the odd bit of rough thrown in here and there. The beam is a bit narrow to use for hard core MTBing IMO

It's really not intended to be used on it's own, but I have done it with not too much bother. I'd want more light to go fast, though. 🙂

Use mine on its own when i ride on my own its fine…..

Found i only started to need powerful lights when i started riding infront of riders with super powerful lights. So i have maxx d and joystick for those occasions

edit – double post

I'm tempted to say no, you need lot and lots of light. But I think my (lots of people on here) view is tanted because we have all become Lum junkies. I current run a troutelight LL (which is fantasticly bright), so I'm deffiantly in that bracket. But looking back to when I first got a joystick and I was running a 10W halagon on my bars, I couldn't believe at the time how good it was and pretty well just used the joystick with the other as backup (until the lum addiction really kicked it). I've rode trail centers with just the joystick and have seen people ride them with less light. So I would say yes you can (just a bit slower), that said I would always have a back up, even if its just a tesco LED. IMO

The less light you have the more fun it becomes!!! I have one and ridden off road with it on my own fine! What trail rat said really.

i tried my new one last night and it has a better beam sporead than the older one (few years old now) I'd be tempted to say it would be pretty good starting point.

If you want to upgrade it's the best thing for the helemt anyway so you won't be left needign to buy 2 new lights.

I've been using the 08/09 joysticks only for the past year. I'm night riding at least four times per month and I generally have one on the bar and one helmet mounted. I use them on Lakeland Fells, sneaky beaky Ashdown trips, South Downes, Highlands etc.
They give totally clear vision for about 30 paces but if you use two (as above) it gives far more clarity.
They are definately adequate. If I had the choice of buying one billybollox million lumin light or two joysticks…. I'd go for the two joysticks.
I have just bought a Diablo which gives clear vision to about 50 paces but even that benefits from being used in conjunction with another helmet/bar mounted light.

You could get they joystick with the white eye add on. This doubles the brightness to 480 lumens, but also halves the run time.

cool, I'm gonna get a joystick as a starting point and then add either another joystick or similar bar mounted if I need it. Thanks for everyones input.

One is not really enough the white light is helpful but I would pay the similar money for a exposure race or strada or even a enduro maxx which you can get for under £200.

compared to what I used happily ten years ago for night riding, the joystick is utterly mind-blowingly bright. We get spoiled so easily and forget how good modern lights are. I've used my joystick alone for night singletrack and it is doable.

Go for it!