Most retailers seem to be showing them as not in stock yet
No?
I asked the same question a few days ago and some have them on order but no one actually had one in their possesion yet, it seems.
About to order one myself so feedback would be handy...
MBUK review not great
James FWIW, I just changed from a Hope 4 to the new Maxx D. First ride last night and very impressed - more and better light than the older Hope. I would highly reccomend
From what I can see all they have done is now upped the 'generated' lumen rating and the 'output' rating is the same as what they claimed the Vision 4 would do, i.e. 900 lumens IIRC. I also seen that on full power it last 1.15 hours, which is useless.
I have a vision 4 and 2 for my helmet and love them, but tempted into the DX arena as the prices are too good to be ignored.
We've just received stock - really much smaller unit than I'd expected - took a photo with a £1 to compare!
http://shop.18bikes.co.uk/products.php?plid=m15b0s413p1489
I can't see people running them on full whack for long - it'll be in the middle mode, occasional flick into full power as/when needed.
There has been a thread on here and Buttscratcher (IIRC) had received and made comments on an R4.
As I understand the lights are brighter but Hope are just trying to put some "real world relevance" into the figures. As 18bikes say, I think the "max" setting is intended as a brief boost function, not to be run all the time. 1hr15 is also, IIRC, based on the single, tiny battery that comes in the standard / cheapest set (and at just below Max it has a pretty impressive / sufficient run time so they're not selling it with an under-spec'ed battery). There are Endurance and Epic versions with more battery capacity and increased run times.
This might prove illuminating 😉
[url] http://www.hopetech.com/webtop/modules/_repository/documents/HOPE-VISION-Email.pdf [/url]
[img] http://shop.18bikes.co.uk/products.php?plid=m15b0s413p1489 [/img]
There you go.
If you look at the size of the head unit (18Bikes other pics) then that battery is pretty diddy.
Does the battery lead plug fit standard Hope Vision batteries (ie Hope Vision 2 / 4)?
A couple of the Loco BM racing team guys have them,(only got them last weeks, Thanks Hope!) 'epics' they like them and they're plenty bright enough, Butts is racing Dawn til Dusk but I'm sure he'll give a full account of them after the weekend, his intial feeling seemed to be that he prefereed it to his equivelant Exposure unit that he was using before.
The "other" thread:
[url] http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anyone-have-a-hope-vision-r4-light [/url]
IIRC the connectors are different, but I might be making that up 😉
The R4 is very small in comparison to the old Vision 4 - I took some piccies in my article if you want to compare - seems plenty bright but not experienced one in the course of a night ride though!
http://www.cyclistno1.co.uk/blog/the-cycle-show-2011-part-2.htm
I have one in my car, waiting to be charged up.
I realise this isn't quite the information you're looking for.
[url= http://www.bike-treks.co.uk/284780/products/hope_vision_r4_led_epic_front_light.aspx ]Biketreks[/url] have had them in for a couple of weeks now. The unit is very small and light with a really nice mount. As already mentioned the top power is not meant for continuous use. The mid trail setting seems to be plenty bright enough for most things.
The Epic version I think is the one to go for with one larger battery.
I was impressed by the one they had on their display at the bike show last weekend. Very neat little unit and was very bright indeed. No real world experience of it but it was much smaller and brighter than i had expected.
Battery was also very small so runtimes would be my only concern although i'm sure bigger batteries are available.
Saw one at the cycle show. Looked brighter than Vision 4 on brief try out on stand. Six levels of brightness available, more sensible 'menu' system to operate levels, very nice mounting system. The guy on the stand said that all batteries from vision LED series would work with this light, but they have the newer connector, which does work after a fashion with older packs but is' very loose' so if your pack was 2010 or later will fit straight away but if older would almost certainly need new connector fitted.
He did also say that the new R8 has very different electronics in the battery pack to cope with higher current so older batteries would not work with this unit
Anyone got more views or better a photo of the hope on the bars and showing the battery mounted?
I got one from Wiggle a while back, been very happy with it. Coming from a Vision 2, it's a hell of a lot brighter, the new mount is lovely. It's tiny and light, may well move it to my helmet.
Can't compare it to many other lights, I'm afraid.
bikes direct, holywell, n wales have at least one in stock I belive
They're a very nice little unit, very compact and ideal for a helmet light, however they do run hot and compared to trouts liberator a lot less bright. Smaller and brighter that the previous vision 4.
I don't understand the r8. It's using older generation leds and a tiny battery with silly low run times.
my mate had one on tuesday's night ride, seemed very bright fror it's size, great on open trails but slightly les good in deeply wooded bits, but it's tiny, hardly any weight penalty, on medium lasted for 2.5 hrs we were out
not that you can see the unit, but here it is in action
[url= http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6103/6258162895_20c06a68f9_b.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocketdog/6258162895/ ]the cold is here ride[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/rocketdog/ ]rOcKeTdOgUk[/url], on Flickr