Endura’s customer service is excellent. They happily exchanged my 2 year old jacket which had developed a rip where the rear zip was. I just wish I’d requested a smaller size, as I’ve lost quite a bit of weight since I bought it. *sigh*

I love my Gore Alp-X (GT Active Shell) as it’s super light, waterproof and comfy. It has a nice fold-down flap at the back to keep your bum clean(ish) too. At the moment, I mostly ride in a Loffler Gore Windstopper that I picked up for £50 at Tx Maxx in the summer.

It must be said that I’m not a commuter, and this is what I wear for full day, off-road excursions.

Lamp powers down from high setting to med when battery is running low. Did so for me tonight and that gives you an hours warning to get home.

Yeah, the instructions mutter something about this. A friend has a USE light which claims “infinite battery life” – effectively, it keeps turning the brightness down so that it never actually runs out. Very ingenious and if it works, it’ll be nice to be able to go riding without worrying about flat batteries.

Now, where did I leave that DI2 charger… ;)

Dearn great colour scheme on the bike too, all matches well

New adapter looks decent, really raises the light above the bars, i’ve had to ziptie cables out the way in the past to stop shadowing.
Thanks! Matching the green battery case to the bike was, frankly, a completely coincidence, but it looks ace :)

Yes, the adapter raises the lamp well out of the way, but as it’s so small, it doesn’t feel intrusive. With the setup on my bike, the coiled battery cable has just enough tension to keep the cable taught enough. All being well, I’m not expecting to have to use any cables ties or velcro, which is ace for reducing installation-faff when I want to go riding with the lights.

Ah, don’t think my mate’s R2 had a twist release for the light unit.

OK. Yes, the clamp is permanently fixed, but the battery and lamp are quickly removed. The clamp appears to be £30 on its own, so best factor this in if you want to use on more than one bike – it’s not really designed to be switched back and forward.

On the plus side, the clamp is itself a lovely thing. Expensive it might be, but at least you know it’ll be pretty ;)

One thing I forgot to say was the price!

I bought from Winstanleys and paid £160:
http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/74403/Hope_Vision_R4_2015_LED_Front_Light

(note: I am pretty sure that a lot of places still have stock of the older, non-energy-status version of the R4. Certainly, most of the images on other sites are of the older “black” batteries, as opposed to the newer “green” one. Winstanleys had the correct image and, most importantly, no stock. I checked in advance and they confirmed that they would be ordering them direct from Hope. Delivery took around a week all in and I was happy with the extra delay to be sure of getting the correct version. Probably worth double checking if you’re about to rush out and buy one!)

Do you have to wiggle the connectors between the charger and battery to get it to charge?
My older R4 is like that and my mates got the point where it wouldn’t charge at all.

I’ve charged it exactly once so not really an authority here, but no, I just plugged it in and the red charging light came on. Took about 3 hours to charge from “empty” (or however it comes from the factory).

Cool stuff – that’s quite an array of kit on your bars! I’m surprised you had room for your hands :)

That battery box ! WOW

Nice light review too
Thanks :)
Yes, it’s a sturdy bugger. You do get the feeling that if it came off the bike and was dragged behind you through the woods, it would probably still be working at the bottom…

Are they using a qr on the clamp yet?
A mate of mine had the R2 a few years ago and while it was a good light, the clamp seemed like a real ball ache, compared to the qr clamps on the Lumicycle lights I had at the time.

No, it’s a permanent clamp (well, allen bolts, but you get the idea), and has a 90-degree twist on/off for the lamp unit. The lamp fit and removal is extremely solid feeling and there’s no question about it coming loose mid-ride – not a chance!
My clamp looks like this one and has two small allen bolts to secure to the bar. The lamp is offset from the clamp, so is dead-central over the stem.

@daern, I was referring to the Hope rather than the ebay special! The cables are very weak and prone to damage. Bit of a shame but Hope being Hope they’ll fix it when it breaks but they won’t fix the design flaw.

Ah, ok. Whereabouts are they weak? Be good to know so I can keep an eye on it…

Also, with the new battery design, I wonder if they’ve improved this at all. I’ve stuck some more photos above, so perhaps you could compare with your own…

I quite forgot to mention something here. The battery box is a work of art in itself and appears to be machined from a solid lump of aluminium, much like most other components that Hope sell. In truth, it’s as close to a work of art as a metal box full of batteries can ever be:

Also, nice to see that there’s a battery status button, even if on my bike, it’s sat against the frame so you can’t get to the bloody thing! Perhaps I’m doing it wrong…

If you treat the cable with extreme care then they can be pretty reliable. Nice light though, no lumen war madness, just a good usable beam

I quite understand. My eBay special was never abused and even when “dead” was still helpfully lighting up the blue button on the back of the lamp. It’s just a shame that this was the only bloody light that the thing was giving out… :roll:

I’ll be giving the same love to the R4s, but they’ll certainly get some use!

Won’t auto power off at 20mph whilst surrounded by trees, cliffs, rock and wolves.

Thanks for the info – I’ll make sure I’m wearing the thicker of my cycling socks in future, just in case the wolves appear ;)

Regarding the premium price, did you factor in the postage for every time you need to experience their super duper customer service? TCO and all that.

Sure, I work a few minutes from the factory and see Hope guys around here all of the time. I’m not too worried on that score ;)

Also, I’ve been using Hope stuff for 20 years now and I’m yet to be let down by either the product or their service. First experience with their lights, so we’ll see how we go. I have an open mind here…

Worth mentioning that my cheapy-cheap eBay specials let me down big time on my last ride out and I had to crawl back, tailing a friend, so things can only get better from here in :)

Doh. I just spotted this thread, right after I posted some pics of the new R4 in another thread. *sigh*

Anyway, it’s all here. Hope you find it interesting:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/hope-vision-r4-comparison-with-cheapy-ebay-light-and-fitting-pictures

Daern