Endorsements
Here are just some of the reports - see Magazine reviews from around the world here
See the start of the Ay Up Dusk Till Dawn 2009 on Youtube here
UK review by Gary, Mountain Bike Instructor - Aug 2010
The bike kit is staggeringly good. Used for the first time last night over two hours on technical, wooded, single-track that I’d never ridden before, and (as far as is possible to gauge) I don’t think I’d have been going any faster in daylight.
The lights give complete confidence, instantly. There simply isn’t any “getting used to” them, you just ride without thinking. I was taking rough ground, gullies, drops and jumps on-sight, at pace, without any degree of hesitancy. The units never needed adjustment, as are seemingly impervious to trail wobble, and the gecko system on the helmet was comfortable, and un-intrusive. This is genuinely “fit and forget” stuff.
I’m hugely impressed by the quality of the light output. Having used a variety of headtorch/lamp combinations in the past, I’m overwhelmed with the consistency, clarity and colour response of the beam. There are no dim spots (or bright patches), and the depth perception even with just one light-unit is excellent. A lot of the sandy trails I run and ride can appear to go “flat” under certain weather/light conditions, so I was really impressed with the level of detail they pick out.
With regard to the intensity of light, I rode almost exclusively with the lights on their lower setting, as I’m most interested in their performance as an endurance product. I can see why you don’t advertise this as “half power”, as the step down is marginal, considering the extended burn time this level offers. I can see the full power level being really useful in bleak weather, really technical trails, or just when the brain starts tiring, but also for navigation across more open ground that I was riding last night. The narrow beam on the helmet is certainly useful for picking out features either stationary, or on the fly, and this is what I’ve always looked for in an “adventure” set u
If you are already a valued customer and want to spill the beans on your experiences with Ay Upper's, drop us an email and we'll publish it.
Endorsement from James Cracknell on his recent world record attempt with Rebecca Romero
“Thank you so much to Andrew and all at Ay Up Lights for their support for my recent world record attempt with Rebecca Romero to cycle non-stop from Land’s End to John O’Groats on a tandem. The super powerful Ay Up Lights for both bike and helmet were invaluable to see us through the night – they lit up the road ahead and made sure we were safe by making us as visible as the cars on the road the lights were so bright! Everyone kept asking us where our lights came from as we went along.”
Read more about their attempt here
Review from Andrew Bell, Australian 24hr Champion
Ay Up have set out to achieve what no other lighting company have - to produce an extremely lightweight lighting system practical in just about every way possible ……. read more here
UK Review
Dudes...
Ordered my lights from you guys only a few days back.. they arrived all the way here to UK in super quick time and riding the trails in the dark is now like riding in daylight..!
can't describe how pleased with the lights i am...!
thanks dudes
jez
Review from a US customer
Ay Up! Stunned. Absolutely stunned.
1. Wicked fast shipping.
2. Amazing design. Someone agonized over details, bravo.
3. Is this all it weighs? Really?
I put my Ay Up! set up against my HID, (you know I would), against a wall in my house. The HID was completely drowned out. I bought your product thinking I'd use the HID as well until the ballast died because the throw is so good on HID's. Blah. Whatever. No point in carrying the weight. HID, meet Ebay. I found your gear from a MTBR.com light shoot out, maybe it was my years in yachting and scuba working with Antipodeans that gave me a sense of admiration for things down under, but I just love a simple, powerful design.
I suspect you'll have a solid following in the race community as well as the all-year riders like myself if we all knew about your product.
Anyway big thanks for making a solid product.
Best of luck.
Can't wait to hit the trail at night.
Kevin
Hi guys,
Bought the road version of the lights about 12 months ago now and on my recommendation have 2 mates/riding buddies with them who are also smitten by them. Wife was envious so sorted her out too with a light/battery set to replace other recharge sh-box suppliers.
What can I say, light, compact, fast recharge and massive battery life with the brightest of lights which have motorist perplexed when you ride 2 abreast in the wee hours of darkness pre sunrise.
Thanks for the quality product
UK review
Hi Ayup.
I'm not the best MTB'er in the world and it's unlikely that I will ever be. I ride for "s%@ts and giggles" as we call it. However I got invited to be part of a team at the Bontrager TwentyFour12 Endurance event which meant upgrading my 4 year old Kona, getting some lights and for the first time buying a helmet. (Which I found out later was a damn good idea)
After blowing my entire budget on a Yeti 575, and then being forced to buy what was the most manliest helmet I could find. I was faced with getting some lights.
Of course being in the UK I started down the exposure route, then the Hope route (I didn’t fancy changing my stem) Looked at the cateyes, then got confused and asked a mate who races for some help. He said Ayup and I said I thought you were from Bolton not Leeds. He went no ya fool get some "Ayup lights" he'd tried all the others and had found these were brilliant. He then went onto show me how good they were and then dropped them into a bucket of muddy water whilst they were switched on to show me they were waterproof. As they shone through the murky water he said you won’t get that with the exposure ones. It took them 4 joysticks and a couple of maxx ones for them to finally admit they weren't waterproof, and they'd only been out in the rain. So on such a recommendation I did what I could to order them. I was bit gutted to find the uk place was no more. But nevertheless I order from your Australian site and they were here within days. . . complete with a bill from the UK govt pay up or we break your legs taxation dept. but still the whole price was less than it would have cost me to purchase an exposure unit. Not only that I got 2 sets of lights and 3 batteries 2 x 3hrs and a 6 hr.
So the weekend just gone was the Endurance race. We were a team of 6 and competing just for fun. Exposure heavily sponsor the event and were offering a discount to anyone who wanted to buy some lights. So I was the only one on our team with Ayup's. I was also the only person on our team who was still riding at 2 o'clock in the morning. After one lap everyone else's lights were on charge in the exposure tent. One of our team halfway round didn't see an object on the trail and as a result stacked his bike and went down so hard his BELL helmet broke in several places. So he couldn't race. Another guy went out and came back 20 minutes later saying he couldn’t see squat. And so I took up the reigns, did a couple of laps so the others could get their light charged, and or the sun came up.
I have to say whilst riding around, my skill with a bike on a course is rubbish, I'm just starting out. But in the dark I could catch and overtake other riders that in the daylight left me for dust. So the lights helped me feel a little bit better then I was.
It was also good to see the Yeti team riders had Ayups on. I felt even more special then. Unfortunately I'm not as good as them, and I have a bigger belly but still. I felt like I'd made a brilliant decision to go for the Ayups.
So my apologies for the longwinded email. I just wanted to say thanks, and tell you how well they have performed compared to your competitors. Even those that were sponsoring the event. I get the feeling that if everyone was using Ayup's they wouldn't have needed a charging tent :)
So utterly brilliant lights, the confidence and light they give honestly had me riding at the same speed I was riding in the daytime. And I can see why my mate swear by them, and why he uses them for his endurance xc events.
So thanks for everything and hope the feedback is of some use somewhere along the line.
Best Regards
Tony
Classic review ...
I was commuting home tonight on a dark and rainy Melbourne night in my full Ayup glory (Bars and helmet mount) when I came to a roundabout where the traffic was not moving. I rode on the inside of the queue of cars to get to the round-about when a lady in the front car who passed me earlier, was stationary and was now holding up the traffic wound her window down and asked me 'where did you get those lights'. I answered dubdubdub-dot-ayup-dot-com-dot-au in my thick Geordie accent and she looked at me confused, I repeated myself about 3 times while the cars behind where now beeping their horns before she said 'your lights are great' and then she drove off .....
Review from Pete, a Unicycle Rider see here
"Months after the initial purchase I am still happily buzzing around the Wombat Forest with my Ay Up! lights. The Ay Up! lights work as advertised - super low weight, bright, tough, small, long burn time, versatile mounting system, and oh yeah, don't cost a fortune. Perfect for Mountain Unicycling. It's as simple as that!"
Hi – I haven’t been able to pick anything in my AYUP experience which has not been sensational.
The product arrived (to Perth) the same day I got my shipping confirmation (a day after shipping), installation was a breeze and the light is as bright as I could possibly want (in fact, so bright, a police wagon went to do a u-turn and pull me over for high beam before he realised I was just a bicycle and changed his mind, driving off shaking his head in dismay).In the short week I have been using the light, my buddies have gone and ordered the same and I have had three strangers ask me where I got it and how much it was. I did a bunch of research before purchasing and the light is every bit as good as your claims. My only regret is not buying the bigger Enduro kit. For anyone hesitant of buying the MTB / Enduro but not sure whether it will be worth the investment (or spending small on the multisport kit to check it out first), then don’t bother. It is well worth the upgrade up front. I will end up buying another Enduro Kit for other bikes just so I have my bases all covered!
Cheers and thanks for a kick-xxxx bike lite!!!
Hi guys,
Just wanted to drop in and say that I think your lightsets are nothing short of amazing. I live in Missouri, USA and ride all kinds of stuff road and mountain. My buddies and I ride your lights and are so pleased with them and just wanted to let you know how happy we are with your product. Thank you very much!
Sincerely,
Joel Gerhardt
Andrew and Team,
Just wanting to say thanks for the effort you guys put in at Insomnia 24hr. Me personally, I have my Cree’s plus spares and enough batteries to power a small village! My appreciation is directed towards the effort Ay Up put in for the kids races. Whilst I love racing and I have a group of good friends who band together and make these events a real hoot, it is my long term goal to ride with my boys. Getting them onto bikes now, and having fun is the key. They have been resisting so far, as the unknowns of the “first event” have always won out.
Aged 8 and 10, it took a lot of convincing for them to try their first race at Insomnia. Incentivised with the potential of their own cycling jersey’s I was able to convince them to have a go. They rode in the day races and really loved it, but it was the night race with lights that really won them over. They loved it. I loved it. The banter at home that night about their races and how different it was with the lights, negotiating the mud hole, taking the jumps and what they plan to do next time……………it was music to my ears. I wouldn’t be surprised if saving for that new Lego model is soon replaced with saving for a set of Ay Ups!!
This kind of effort is above and beyond what I expected out of any race sponsor. Well done and thank you very much.
Looks like I’m off to buy some cycling jerseys!!
Stu
LOVE THE LIGHTS.
Rode about 46km on bitumen tracks this evening (a ride we do weekly) and we averaged about 2km/h faster than usual (and I also felt I was not trying as hard). I was much more comfortable flying into and around corners, now being able to see ahead! It makes such a difference to be able to see the corner you are turning into! Cycling in peak hour on the main track running from the Melbourne CBD out to the Eastern Suburbs (Gardiners Creek Trail), I saw no other lights as bright or effective. I also found people were quite happy to sit behind me to enjoy the benefits of being able to see where they were going. Nobody passed us tonight! I also found I could sit with about 2 people in front of me and easily light the way for them in the corners. Im now even more eager to get out there on the bike in the evenings! Please pass on my thanks to everyone involved in the
production of them!
My lights worked an absolute treat during the Scott 24hr .
I was thoroughly entertained when waiting in transition at midnight, 3 guysto the left had AyUps and 4 guys to the right also had AyUps.
Talk about market domination!!!!!!
Thanks
Met Brendan, borrowed a 6hr battery as planned. This was my first and
probably last attempt at a 24 hr event solo. I completed the race, only
stopping for fluid and food refills - your lights are awesome, and it
seemed almost every third rider had them - so the proof is obviously already
there.
Cheers and thanks once again
Happy customer
Thanks heaps for the lights! They worked brilliantly and I will definitely be recommending
them to others.
Hi Guys,
Just wanted to provide you with some feedback, have tried out your lights over the weekend
during the scott 24 and had immense satisfaction with them. Easy to setup and use, the
lights enabled me to race at great pace with maximum visibility and security! So thank you
very much!
Thanks Guys, I've never heard of such brilliant back up from any other company before. I'm currently packing to go down to Canberra and wondered if I should take my old lights as a back up despite my confidence in the Ay-up system ,accidents do happen. Anyhow I'm doing solo in over 40's and will be on the podium at the end. Thanks again John Evans. Team Unstoppable.
P.s. I really like the System more because you sell extra bits and batteries at a fair price.
Wow respect!
Like your strategy guys.
Besides your product is so good its gonna sell itself anyway.
All the best with the business
Race report of D2D - Queensland 2008 by Andrew Fellows
AYUP 12hr
‘Beat the Heat’ soon turned ‘Beat the Rain’ at this years AYUP 12hr. With the event being cancelled once nothing was going to stop it this time!
Arriving at 5 to register for a 7pm start was great, I thought I would be able to help Andrew from AYUP with light demos, but to my surprise he was pretty much already out of lights. I think AYUP demoed around 80 sets of lights to the general public! That’s massive; nearly every second rider was sporting a set of these powerful, funky looking L.E.D lights.
After a chat to some of the competitors it was revealed that the track has held up well after the massive amount of rain the area has received in the last month. Mind you, we soon found there were still a few mud holes out there!
The racing was fierce, as many teams battled it out, with the big hitters lapping in less than 23 minutes for the 10km course. The real battle was in the solo class, Andrew Bell had his work cut out for him as Craig Storey remained on 2 minutes behind him after 6hrs of riding. In the female class there was a battle between local favorite Prue Owsin and Victorian Alex Kiendl. With Alex eventually proving why she is one of the best in the business.
Racing conditions were great, although the wind picked up in the wee hours of the morning the rain stayed away and the stars were out for those of us who could afford to look!
As the sun was rising teams were calculating how many more laps they could squeeze in, or in some cases the solos were stretching the lap times out so they didn’t have to do another!
When the dust had settled the winning teams had punched out 28 laps and the lead soloist Andrew Bell had managed 24 laps in what was a great night of racing, the track had held up well, I believe it became quicker as it dried.
A big shout to AYUP, Two wheel Promotions and to everyone who attended!
Race report of 24hr N-Duro - Rotorua, NZ 2008 by Andrew Fellows
Rotorua 24hr - Red Woods Forest
After only finding out about the race on the Monday, come Thursday I found myself sitting aboard an aircraft bound for Hamilton, New Zealand. From there I would catch a coach to some of the best riding you will ever experience in down town Rotorua.
While in New Zealand I would be staying with Andrew and Mark from the AYUP crew. Our hotel was about 5 minutes by bike to the race head quarters, also only 5 minutes to a great coffee shop, appropriately named "Zippies". I soon found that Rotorua is a mountain biker’s heaven, with a population of around 70 thousand it supports 8 bike shops and it is estimated that around 200 thousand tourists come from far and wide just to ride the forest.
The course was 13km long and contained only 1 km of fire road and the rest was solid, technical, life changing singletrack. With sections of the trail named, ‘be rude not to, tickler, exit trail, I could already tell we were in for a real two wheeled treat. The area of the racecourse was only the tip of the iceberg, as the trails run well back into the forest. The N-Duro boys run a 100km marathon in the same forest, just to give you an idea how big the area really is!
The weather for the race was great, overcast with slight drizzle, although when you were in the forest (about 90% of the time) the huge redwoods sheltered you from the rain. The temperature remained high throughout the night and made for pleasurable racing conditions. Night riding was such a rush! Ducking and weaving through the tight trail, launching of natural ramps, railing every corner trying to conserve any energy where ever possible. Throughout the night my Ipod served as my best friend, having a constant beat helps me find a rhythm, and also keeps the sleepmonsters away!
After a long night the sun came up around 6, but it wasn’t until 7 that the light actually filtered through the canopy of the forest and allowed us to switch off the lights. By keeping the pressure on for most of the night I had worked my way into a position of comfort and was able to enjoy the last few hours. The highlight was going out for my last lap with a great bunch of mates and enjoying what is undoubtedly the best location I have every ridden. So mark the date on your calendar and make the journey, you won’t regret it!
And, for all the single speeders, you will happy to hear that the fastest lap was set on a SS. Also New Zealand is having a national SS Championship in Rotorua.
LED light review from Geoff
My HID died a couple of weeks ago and while looking around for some new lights, I found an Australian company from Brisbane called Ay Up (which is pretty appropriate for my riding). They looked pretty impressive but I wanted to see them in the flesh and also see how they compared to the HID's. They sent me down a demo set to try out and I am most impressed. The set has 2 intermediate beams for the handlebars and 2 narrow beams for the helmet. I was a bit worried about the weight of the 2 LED's and the battery all on the helmet, but seeing their info says that they only weigh 150 grams, I tried it anyway. I didn't even notice the extra weight on a 2 hour ride last night and this battery lasts for at least 3 hours. There is an extra 3 hour battery in the kit as well as a 6 hour battery for the handlebar lights. This one straps to the stem, so you don't need a bottle cage or any long wires.
The general consensus of the group on our ride was that the light was on par with a Vicious Power HID and better than a Cygolite HID which we used for comparison. The big advantage over my old Cygolite is the huge reduction in weight and the convenience of the small batteries (Lithium Polymer).
Now that I have had my test run, I will be buying a set.
Review by the Fat Hippy!
I've always felt my home made lights were great - cheap, reliable, and bright. But when the time came for my wife to get some lights, I decided to go commercial ….. read more here
It's official - Ay Up's rock !
Had the first hit-out with mine tonight, the new Crees (1xnarrow and 1x intermediate) and damn I am impressed. Took a little bit of fiddling to get the positioning right - easy to do on the fly. Light as, easy to mount, bright as (as good as 10W HID in my opinion, was riding with 2 others tonight with them).
Lost a bit of definition on the ground with rocks etc, but will get used to that easily. Rate them extremely highly. Value for money excellent. Keen to see how they cut it next weekend at Stromlo!
I have seen these babies work in person. I found myself riding with the Ay Up test dummies one night. I had my vista halogens which I thought were great until you compare them to the Ay Up. My light looked absolutely yellow compared to the bright white coming out the Ay Ups.
I was constantly turning my set off to conserve power, the Ay Ups were on the whole time even during deep and meaningful discussions comparing the stunning beauty of Liz Hurley with Penelope Cruz. At the end of the 2 hr ride my batteries were dead and the Ay Up were burning like they just came off the charger. My burn time doesn't even compare to the burn time of 6hrs on the Ay Ups.
G'day guy's, I received my lights as part of the defence order on Friday. Can't believe how impressive they are. I wrote a review on my blog so feel free to use any part of it.
See Ty's blog here
They are bright, they are super the light, the batteries last for a long time and the mounting is fantastic.
All this for a very good 'consumer' based pricing point.
The best bit though, is the after-sales service.
The Ay Up team are very professional, and have done an amazing job bringing this product to market.
By the way I received my new Cree LED lights today. Absolutely awesome lights. Definitely the best value for money LED lights you can get. Highly recommended for any cyclist. I will definitely be recommending them to my friends.
I went for a ride last night through majura pines (very tight and dark pine forest singletrack) and I found the lights went fantastic, I could ride at 100% of my daytime speed.
The lights are perfect for technical single track at night, so I'll keep my current combination and recommend them to all my friends.
Cheers!
Daniel OCDT, 18 Division, ADFA
Got mine this morning!
The lights themselves and all of the kit seems absolutely first rate. The light units themselves are gorgeous.. you just want to touch them! I They also seem bulletproof. Oh and TINY! At first the helmet mounting seemed a bit D.I.Y. but once you get it cable tied on it makes perfect sense.. I can't imagine a better way of mounting them in fact.
The light they give off is super white and seems very bright
Just wanted to say that they are awesome, the packaging is unreal you guys have put some great thought into that, perfect for storing with all my bike gear. The lights are great, really happy with my purchase. Can't wait to put them to the test in the Scott 24hr coming up in Oct.
Thank you,
Regards, Dave
Just got back from a quick blast with my new Ay-Up's.
I am really pleased with them. They do exactly what I hoped for. The light they give off has a sort of lilac hue, I guess this would be similar to all LED's? They are very bright, and do the job very well. It's true to say the beam drops off sharply at about 35 - 45 meters. I had previously read this in another user review somewhere so I was expecting it, to me It's not a real problem though. I'm sure HID's would be better at these distances, halogens too but personally I don't need to see that far.
This was the first time I have ridden at night with both bar & helmet lights (previously used bar only), and it totally makes sense. The ability to look around to see where that monster noise came from, or a quick glance down so check which chain ring I am on is invaluable, especially without loosing your forward beam. Even getting my bike out of the shed was much easier because of the helmet light. If you had to fix a puncture or do minor repairs it would help a lot too. I certainly wouldn't want to ride really fast down technical stuff with just the helmet OR the bars.. I guess that's why they sell them as a set. I'm not saying they can't be used individually, but you would have to ease off somewhat to do so. I plan to go out with my g/f later in the week and we will have one unit each, however we will be riding at low-ish speed around areas we know.
All in all, I am really impressed with them. They are brilliantly designed and built make and riding at night really fun. I can't really fault them, apart from the minor fact that the beam drops off at long distances..If you need that kind of range I think you will need to spend some more money. The robustness and the tiny package makes LED's look like the most sensible choice of technolagu to me. The Ay Up's are excellent, but again, I can't compare them to Hope's or USE's LED offerings, only Smart twin 10w halogens.. which now seem dim, fragile and heavy.
Just to let you know that the lights arrived yesterday and I wanted to let you know that they are brilliant - in both senses of the word! The photos on your site don't do them justice; they are smaller than I expected and beautifully made. I used them on my road bike for the ride home last night and they make my 2x10W halogens look bulky, heavy and dim.
Great product! Chalk up another happy customer. :-)
Ay Up!
What a great set of lights you have produced !!!!! Our team "Area 51" all used your lights at the 10 day XPD race in the Whitsundays and we were amazed at how well they went. They all seemed to go beyond the estimated burn times, and all produced plenty of light to make finding those check points so much easier. We had plenty of enquiries about the lights, and had no problems in telling people how good they are (especially at night, where they promoted themselves). We can honestly say that your lights made our job much easier at the XPD race, and we will be using them for any upcoming races as they give us an advantage over those who don't use them. The additional benefits of weight and size also have a big impact on your product being far superior than anything else in the market. Every person I spoke to about your lights had nothing but praise for them, and after watching them perform during the 10 dayer I can now see what every one is talking about. They truly are "the ducks nuts" in lighting systems. Thanks again for your assistance, and a great set of lights. This is what the adventure racing/ mtb’ing/ road riding community has been looking for... a great set of lights at a very affordable price, AND a local business as well.
Thanks again, Leon Colbert.
(Area 51 - XPD)
G'day Andrew / Ay Up,
Did the Scott 24hr again this weekend and just wanted to say how stoked I was with my new AyUps. I ran my new Cree's helmet-mounted and a mate's Luxeon's bar-mounted (both with 3-hr batteries) and it was a very novel and enjoyable experience to complete my three night laps being able to see where I was going and with no worries about lights running low, swapping batteries or recharging. I was also able to confirm they were lighter, brighter and just as long-lasting as some mates' bigger, heavier and more expensive HIDs, and far better than a multi-LED headset another bloke was running.
Now I just need to get faster!
Thanks again,
Brian
Ordered mine yesterday and arrived first thing this morning with courier - how good is that?
Nice packaging and very compact
My lights were waiting for me when I got home from work last night. Impressive units light and bright.
I put the first battery on charge and went off to do the dishes. On my return I noticed no lights on the charger. It should have had either a red charging of green charged light.
Spoke to Ayup this morning and this afternoon took delivery of a replacement 240v adapter and charger. Great to service and great to see a company that truly stands behind the product they sell.
First ride, very happy, very bright and I really like the fact there is both bike mounted and helmet mounted. Riding at night is more fun than riding in the day, scared the crap out of a couple of roos though.
They are bright
, they are super the light, the batteries last for a long time and the mounting is fantastic.
All this for a very good 'consumer' based pricing point.
The best bit though, is the after-sales service.
The Ay Up team are very professional, and have done an amazing job bringing this product to market.
Ordered my Ay-Ups Friday lunchtime (for delivery to my work address) and got them today, so thats a single working day delivery time! Great looking lights, very professional presentation - looking forward to trying them out but they're certainly bright enough in the daytime. Recommended...
I took my Ay-Ups to the Sunday section of the 6-forests ride from Yaraman to Linville. Had the lights and batteries mounted on both bike and helmet. Rode 85km through conditions ranging from hot and dusty to dirty and pouring rain. The lights are still working.
Just took my lights out for the first time, they are fantastic. I can't believe how small/light they are. Can't wait to take them out on some single track
Folks, I've literally just received my Ay-Ups this morning
First impressions when opening the box is everything is well packed in the sausage neoprene pack with everything you need.
I bought the red bullets and the solid gunmetal grey...they look great. The build quality is superb and I can't get over how light these babies are. The lights themselves are even smaller than I thought they would be. You can't imagine how much light something so small could put out.
The batteries appear to have some charge in them (they maybe full I guess) and just tried plugging them in for a quick (daytime) test, and immediately they look bright in a darkened (kind of) area.
I'm looking forward to getting out and giving them a test.
Thanks to the Ay-Up guys for a quick and easy service.
Well, took them out for a ride last night.
It was one of those rides where you almost can't describe how great the feeling was - good company, good pace, good times.
But anyway, the lights were fantastic. Didn't feel any weight in the helmet (but then, I'm used to wearing a heavy helmet anyway) and they lit the track up fantastically. Couldn't differentiate between hard track and soft track at times though, so there was some unintentional drifting around a few corners. They were that bright that Doggy turned his lights off when I was riding behind him.
First ride report.
What a fantastic night it was last night. Full moon and good company albeit at hammer pace (for me).
Daisy was like a normal Saturday morning with the number of night riders out there. Hi again Outdoorgaz and friends.
We started at Underwood road and did 2nd cummin back up to the step over. The lights are very white and cast a good wide beam which I needed to adjust to get into the right position.
Noticed the throw was not quite up to my 10 watt Vista light but really that was a pencil beam and an overkill in useful distance but good for spotting Koalas up very high trees.
The Ay Up lights still had the Vista problem with making the ground look flatter but this is just night riding and every light I have used suffered from this (or is it just my eyes and brain).
The white beam was effected by the lighter soil colours and large amounts of dust in this area in that the ruts were not as evident but still not a real concern with the dual head and helmet lights making riding at a reasonably fast pace still safe enough.
In terms of the dust they performed better than the Vista probably due to the shorter beam length (so less dust to light up).
The fastening system which is simple but at the same time brilliant worked a treat with no movement at all despite being mounted on slippery shiny carbon bars that are tapered where the zip tie is located and some large hits during the night.
The best part of the lights is the confidence they give as I was always worrying about the Vista battery popping out of my camel back and turning the lights on and off to save power or waiting for the inevitable dulling and limited ride time available. 2 and a half hours the lights were on for (6.30 - 9) and no difference in light output from the moment they were switched on.
In terms of running out of light at speed the light throw seemed more than acceptable with a near normal day time run speed down the two dippers heading to Nirvarna (48 kph) with no problem.
The lights performed well through Nirvana with the darker (red) soil not throwing up as much dust and seemingly easier to pick up the ground level differences.
My head did not get as hot either with the Ay Ups cooler than the temperature from the 10 watt Vista. I did not have any adverse effects on my neck from the weight of the lights and battery on the helmet in fact it was hard to pick any difference.
The lack of wires running around your body and bike was also good. I need to take off my front wheel to put the bike in the car and I could still put the bike upside down without the Ay Ups getting scratched on the ground so that was a bonus (something I could not do with the Vistas).
about the purchase at all.
By the looks of the number of Ay Ups out there and the comments from others it looks like everyone is happy with their set.
