Exposure Strada 1200 – anyone have one yet?

Interested in opinions before I buy.

Yes, other options are available but I’ll be getting it free so money not an issue.

I’ve been thinking about one of these for the commute this winter so interested in this too.

Confused about your post though – you say ‘before you buy’, but then you say ‘getting it free’.

also what are the other options?

I don’t have a budget for the light so looking to buy the best available.
As far as I can tell that should be the strada based on reviews of older versions.

So not getting it free then?

I’ve an older Strada. It’s very good. Nice beam pattern. Good battery life. It did break and had to be sent back to Exposure for a firmware update and it’s been fine since. It’s a lot of lumens for a road light and most of the time I run it low to medium, but it’s nice to have a high for fast country lanes.

Only pain is you can only have one thing plugged into the smart port, so you can’t use a red eye and the remote at the same time.

I have the last – 1000 lumens – version. I’d say that for road riding I now finally have something that is up to the job ie road rides at night for 2-3hrs on full power. I’m not saying that I always have it on full, but at least I know that it’s there if I need it. I ordered a Maxx–D at the same time but it was just too big and I decided that I didn’t need that level of brightness. The jump to 1200 lumens will be more than enough I’m sure. I also pair the Strada with a Diablo for night riding.

Gary M, sorry you’re confusing the hell out of me.

Anyway, went ahead and ordered one from CRC ( with a blaze and bunch of other stuff ). They’re Now £247 if your interested.

Gary M, sorry you’re confusing the hell out of me.

Can’t think why, maybe I’m misreading your op 🙂

Interested in opinions before I buy.

Yes, other options are available but I’ll be getting it free so money not an issue.

That’s not a bad price, plus I’ll get 10% off for BC members discount.

Had a 400 lumen Mk2 paired with a Joystick for many years. The Joystick has been replaced with a Fly 12. Exposure lights are excellent and the Strada has been flawless. It’s also been dropped a few times.

I’d replace it in a heartbeat. Forget the 1200 lumens, I’m more interested in low level battery life, and it sounds impressive.

Exactly. The 1200 has a bigger battery so more runtime on lower levels.
I don’t think I’d ever need three hours of 1200. But 6 hours of 6/700 , I’ll take that.

I’ve an older one (puts out 625??) and its ace. if I was going to replace it I’d be getting another strada.

Light just arrived.
Nice case, build quality, fit etc are outststanding – as they should be.
Obv can’t really tell what’s the beam profile is like in the house, but they’ve a really interesting optic on the lower LED.

Minus points. The rear indicator leds are bloody bright. They could be half as bright and they’d still be annoying. Also not sure why they’re needed when the screen could tell you what mode you’re in.
I think I’ll need to get the black electrical tape out to cover these as best I can.

The mount is really nice, possitive engagement and looks solid. I’ll probably whip off the hex bolt and replace with a wing bolt so I can move the light up and down without tools.

Hard to judge this one. It’s over twice the price of my lezyne light but with slightly more output and four times the run time. But is it worth the money?, for £200 I’d say absolutely. For the 247 I paid, bit expensive.
For the RRP, narrr that’s too much money.

Also picked up a blaze rear light- 80 lumens.
It’s only 5 more than my exposure flare but in reality, these 80 lumens must be special SAS steroid abusing lumens as its much brighter than the flare.

Expensive for a rear light but worth every penny. It’s a weapon and I’m pleased I took the plunge.

Oh- also kicks the 1w super flash thing in the nads.

. For the 247 I paid, bit expensive.

I thought you were getting it for free? 😉

OH FFS 🙂 still have to pay CRC before getting the money back 🙂
Dunno why I bother 🙂

I have a mk1 strada which isn’t quite bright enough for me on unlit country roads over 15mph so will prob change to one of these. I was worried about the brightness of the LEDs on the back of the new model though, I’d hoped they’d used something very dim but seems not, that’s going to get annoying unless there’s a function to turn them off (I guess gaffer tape works to but probably a pain when using the wired remote as well).

Fail, just spoke to exposure. The two lights are a new “feature” to show what mode and runtime you have available.
I thought that was the idea of the big OLED Display ? The heldesk guy was pretty helpless and suggested buying the older 1000 lumen model as it doesn’t have the new “feature” . He totally missed the point that it’s was a pointless thing to add to a light that has a BIG display.

If this wasn’t free I’d send it back and get something else 🙂

Sooooo frikin bright and unnecessary.

If this wasn’t free I’d send it back and get something else

I thought you’d paid for it? 😉

Are those light actually in your eye-line on the bike. I found with my (older) Strada, I couldn’t actually see the battery use LED indicators when the light was on the bars of my cross or road bike without contorting myself, which makes them both slightly pointless but also not a nuisance as I can’t see them. Have you tried the light on the bike yet?

but I’ll be getting it free so money not an issue.

Oh no he didn’t.

For the 247 I paid,

Oh yes he did!

He seems confused. Perhaps it’s all those flashing lights?

I offered it up the bike. They reflect like a bitch from the phone mounted on the stem.
On the CX bike they are in direct eye shot. On the road bike with more drop they just reflect back off the phone screen.

EDIT- just to clear this up. I purchased the light but the payment will be reimbursed 🙂 c now let’s not ever talk of this again.

Back to their stupid leds. On and my OCD doest like the way the rubber cap opens to the right. It should upen downwards so it doesn’t flap around. They they wouldn’t need an indent on the screen where’re the bright leds are located. Did I mention those 😉

I’m curious to know who does his nails. They’re immaculate.

Free manicures, which he pays for.

Office hands, so I pay pay for expensive lights which I then can claim back 🙂

So you work somewhere that gives out lighting refunds if you have nicely manicured hands? It seems like an interesting scenario.

I’ve been hacking at them with a pen knife. I though all blokes did this ?

The OLED is nice but when your actually riding its quite hard to tell what mode you are in with just a quick glance, your eyes just cant focus in quick enough. The extra lights (while obviously annoying) would be a benefit IME.

Can you not mount the Strada upside-down under the bar? Do that with my MaxxD, the OLED even flips the display 😆

Rubber cap rotates on my older models, can can be pulled off to be replaced if required.

Thought I’d revisit this one as my Strada 1200 arrived on Monday so I’ve used it every day this week.

My commute is 8 miles through suburbs then 12 miles across an unlit moor.

For the proper dark bit even on low I can see fine, on a couple of faster sections I switch to medium but low setting is fine. The beam shape and spread is perfect.

I don’t have an issue with the led’s – it’s quite difficult to see the display when your riding along, you need to slide back in the saddle as the switch is sort of in the way. Having the oled display on the top of the light would make much more sense but I guess its easier to have all the circuitry in the same place.

For normal commuting through lit streets the light would be overkill, for road riding on dark country roads it’s absolutely brilliant.

Run time is great, running on mainly medium/low I only need to charge it once a week.

A wireless remote would be great – I’d like to have the remote on the side of the hood so I can change light levels with my thumb, but if I do this the wire is kind of in the way.

Oh and some sort of off centre mount would be good so I could have the light mounted above the stem in the centre of the bars.

I got it free too, well not quite as I got 10% off with my October British cycling crc code so for £24 worth free 🙂

Gary_M, what program are you using when you say low/medium? Do you not use high at all?

I’ve just sent back a Strada 800, it simply wasn’t bright enough to pick out the potholes at any kind of speed (there are lots of them on our route) so am considering the 1200 instead.

I agree re the LEDs, not a problem for me. Runtime great. And a centre mount would be good too.

Pleased you like it. Still think those rear leds are too bright 🙂

I used my older leyzyne 900 lumen job a few days ago on another bike. God the beam has some holes in. At the time, I thought it was great but compared the exposure beam, it’s pants.

I’m very much of the opinion that a decent beam is far more important than mega lumens.

what program are you using when you say low/medium? Do you not use high at all?

It’s on program 1, very rarely use high. There are some roadworks on my route across the moor at the moment with signs at the edge of the cycle path, I usually flick to high for a couple of seconds as I’m approaching them. I like to have high available but its barely used.

How different are the new models, apart from the obvious lumen ratings?

Just bought a Mk6 last week, same price as the new 800

A wireless remote would be great

How different are the new models, apart from the obvious lumen ratings?

Think the old models only had led’s to show run time not the oled display.

The optics are also very different.

The optics are also very different.

How do they differ? Is the horizontal cut-off more defined? The old one has a focussed Joystick spot plus a wider spread horizontal beam that’s more horizontal oval than flat-topped. You need to point it carefully left and slightly down for it not to dazzle ime.

Also, I’ve found an additional Joystick on the bars is a good supplementary ‘main beam’ for rough, unlit stuff. A Diablo works too, but is less spotty.

I have a Joystick on my helmet, but with the strada on the bars I don’t need to use it. It’s handy to have as a backup up though and if I never need to do any repairs in the dark.

I was considering buying one of these and was reading the quick start manual which says:-

“The beam pattern acts like a car headlight with high and dipped outputs. There is a wide flat beam for dipped usage and the focused spot beam increases in intensity in high mode for greater distance visibility.”

How does it achieve that? Does it shut off one LED or drop down the brightness on both LEDs?

on and on – Member
The optics are also very different.

The Strada 6 and the Strada 1200 have identical optics, I asked Exposure.

Interesting. I asked them too and they said they were totally different. Then again the guy wasn’t very helpful with my other questions either.

This was my response when asking about the differnces:

Thank you for getting in touch, the key differences are:

· 1000 lm from the 6, 1200 lm from the 1200.
· Strada 1200 has a positive, stainless steel button whilst the 6 has the Capacitive Switch on the back:
· The 1200 has LED’s on the back that act as a battery life monitor for ‘at a glance’ (using red, amber and green).
· Both are the same size, beam pattern and have OMS and OLED: http://www.exposurelights.com/technologies

I could do with more power from my 6 as at 25+mph, it’s hard to see far enough ahead on very dark roads, but it’s not worth upgrading.

Should anyone hate the LEDS on their 1200 soo much, I’d happily trade for a used 7 times Strada 6.