Exposure Six Pack - end of test

END OF TEST: Exposure Six Pack Mk 2 (2012 model), RRP £424.95
2000 Lumens, 362g, 6 x XPG LEDs



I've become very comfortable with Exposure's Six Pack, and I'm very sad to come to the end of the test and return the unit to Exposure. If the Six Pack was a car it'd be a Bentley. It's luxuriously over-the-top in all regards.

Like a Bentley, it feels big, and the 2012 Mk2 model that I've been using throughout the past winter weighs 362 grams, which might feel chunky on a road bike around Regent's Park. This unit is really aimed at the MTB/Downhill market. Second, you have to fit it at the right angle of deflection otherwise drivers start yelling because you're beaming straight up into their eyes. Third, there's the price, which is also top end.

But none of these issues, aside from the price, have been a problem for me during real world testing. In fact I've come to regard each of them as a strength.

I've been using the Six Pack for commuting on a Focus Mares cross bike. Whether to be seen or to see, the Six Pack exceeds its brief with bragging rights to spare. There is no light like it. It's so bright that you only have to run it on low beam, even on unlit stretches. That's how mentally bright this light is. It is the bike equivalent of a top-drawer BMW bi-xenon. If it dazzles someone at least that means they've seen you. I have always felt safer with this light than before, when 'before' meant the also-excellent Exposure Joystick. But a big light is sometimes better than a small light, and this is the way of the Six Pack. Once you've upgraded, you are unlikely to go back. When the chips are down and the rain is streaming down on a dark night, having a huge reserve of power is just thrilling. As I said in my original review, it is on occasions like this that you might throw caution to the winds and full-beam it. Believe me, there's a sense of occasion to this. It's like turning on the Christmas Lights in Regent's Street.

For the rest of time, running on low beam means infrequent re-charging. You can get about 18 hours out of one charge, allowing me to go for nearly three weeks in deepest winter. That is deeply practical and would amply cover any 24-hour Audax or enduro event, or even an entire Paris-Brest-Paris.

As for size and weight, it's not true that the Six Pack is too big for a road bike, and the 2013 model has dropped a significant 75 grams. Initially I wasn't sure, but even the heavier test unit I had would only upset the handling on a fully fledged racing bike, just as a large Garmin GPS unit starts to look out of place. For commuting, it's in its element, whatever your wheels.

If I was handing out ratings, I'd give this light 9/10, the missing point being the high price. So start saving now - it's money well spent even if it hurts.

UK Handmade Bicycle Show, 2013, Bespoked Bristol, PART 1

Bargain beauty: Lombardy fixie in Lombardy blue, frame by Taverna

UK Handmade Bicycle Show, 2013, Bespoked Bristol, PART 1

OK, so compared to last year, this year this event EXPLODED. I mean there were so many people there thirty minutes after opening, that you could barely move. The place was heaving with lenses, and every frame and lug was subjected to relentless scrutiny. It was a sell-out.

Secondly, I notice no shortage of galleries already up:


http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/bespoked-bristol-uk-handmade-bicycle-show-2013-gallery/014676

So you can see every wooden frame, bamboo frame, fancy paintjob and so forth.

I'm going to pick through a more selective report from this show over the coming days, but for now just a solo image of the one bike that I most wanted when I left. The one that I was still thinking about the day after. The one that gelled as a real 'maybe', finances considered as well.

It's by this quirky company calling itself Racer Rosa Bicycles. Bad name, great products. The founder, Diego Lombardy (what a name!) has all the Italian connections but is based up the road from me in a studio in Walthamstow, East London. He and a friendly Polish assistant called Greg Hawro take your measurements, and ten weeks later you get a beautiful, silver-fillet-brazed piece of Italian magic from the workshop of Antonio Taverna in Padua.

What I noticed was this: the complete bike shown above (lighting was making it difficult to show the thing properly-) costs £1,500. That's with Columbus Cromor. But for an extra £125 you can go up two levels and shed 500g, and get the fantastic Columbus Life tubing.

Best of all is the colour and the spec: a strangely seductive blue they call Lombardy - it was an error 'mix' but they loved it. The build of the fixie you see here is all Miche (pronounced Me-Kay) - simple but brilliant and correct, with the black rims the perfect counterpart to the blue (if it was Ferrari red, I'd go all silvery - different aesthetics demanded by different colours).

Finally, the bottom bracket is stamped with 'Lombardy' in a jaunty little font, whited out - and no other decals whatsoever. Now that's classy indeed.

I just think Diego should give up the confusing name (there's that German direct order company called Rose, and then there's De Rosa -) and call the company Lombardy.

Diego Lombardy (left); Greg Hawro (right). No photo captures the blue quite right.