Hope’s 500-lumen R1 LED light is the Lancashire firm’s entry in the hotly-contested £150 price arena.
The first thing that strikes you when unboxing the R1 LED is the myriad of mounting option included with the head unit. These include handlebar mount 31.8mm and 25.4mm (but not Deda’s mammoth 35mm), an elasticated strap head mount for adventure racing, and finally a helmet mount.
While most of these will be ignored for road riding, it’s nice to see some thought going into the fact that many people will have multiple uses for a light of this price. The bayonet mechanism of the handlebar mount is especially slick.
We are testing the standard 2600 mAh battery but it is also worth noting that Hope offer various combinations of 2600mAh and 5200mAh battery, depending on your needs, and available separately should they change post purchase. Unsurprisingly, the 5200mAh unit doubles the run time offered by the 2600mAh. The ‘Epic’ option contains the 5200mAh battery as standard.
All up (including battery), the R1 weighs 273 grams in standard handlebar configuration. Due to the options available, the light comes as a separate machined aluminum head unit and a plastic battery case. The head unit produces a maximum output of 500 lumens from its single LED.
The six settings will allow anything from a two-hour run time at the maximum setting of 500 lumens to 50 hours at the ‘ultra low’ setting of 25 lumens. These are split into separate menus – Race and Trail – so it’s worth going against all man’s instinct and reading the instructions to make sure that you are in the right one to achieve the required run time/brightness.
Hope supplies the R1 with a wall socket charger. Charging takes an impressive three hours, which is great if you only tend to remember these things a little while before a ride like I do!
We feel we should mention that in dealing with Hope that you are dealing with the manufacturer and as such spares availability and warranty is in our experience far easier than dealing with a wholesaler.
We will be using the R1 on some of our night-time ‘cross missions, so check back soon to see how we get on.
Price: £150 (standard); £200 (‘Epic’); £60 – spare battery
Colour: black
Website: Hope Tech
