If you are a serious mountain biker then you don't need to wait for the perfect day to get out and get some riding under your belt. Rain or shine you are out there on the trails having a good time. But what about riding at night? If you are a real mountain bike junkie then you don't even need daylight to hit the trails and are ready to go at a moment's notice. Plus if you live in a really hot part of the country then mountain biking at night may be your only choice if you don't want to get heat stroke out on the trail!
Exposure MaXx-D Mk8 Headlight
Reviewed by

Review Date: 06/19/2016
Product Rating
3 Star Rating: Recommended

IIf you are going to ride at night then you need to be able to see where you are going. This is where a mountain bike light comes into play. These lights are designed for use while riding and are not the same as strapping a flashlight to your handlebars! Bike lights are designed to put out light in a certain patterns where it will illuminate the trail to make it as close to riding in the daytime as possible. There are many (and we mean many) lights out there to choose from with prices as little as $25 to over $600 so it's easy to get overwhelmed by the choices.

This review is for the Exposure Lights MaXx-D MK8 Headlight which is on the higher end of the price spectrum and offers a lot of features but is it worth the money? The MaXx-D MK8 is a self-contained unit meaning there is no external battery pack required that you will have to strap to your bike or to your body. The MK8 puts out up 2600 lumens (only in boost mode) for its maximum output which is quite impressive for a light that only weighs 300 grams including the battery. And speaking of the battery it also has a pretty impressive battery life depending on the mode you use. For example you can go 36 hours on low but only 2 hours on the very high setting. There is also a medium setting that is available with certain modes.

Exposure Lights MaXx–D MK8 Headlight

Exposure Lights MaXx–D MK8 Headlight

Other nice features include the Reflex Technology which allows the light to get brighter as you are going faster and dimmer as you are going slower or stopped to improve battery life and keep the light cool. You need to have the light in the appropriate mode to take advantage of this feature. The Fuel Gauge is also nice because it tells you how much battery time you have left in the particular mode that you are in (i.e. high, medium, low). The Capacitive Switching function allows you to change output levels with a tap of the light in a certain area. The MK8 also comes with a handlebar mount for standard size bars but there is an optional mount you can get if you use 35mm bars. It also comes in a nice hard case to keep it safe while transporting it in the car etc.

Exposure Lights MaXx-D MK8 Headlight

We tested out the MaXx-D MK8 headlight at different times of the day on different trails on a couple different bikes. The build quality of the light is great and you can tell that its well made but for $400 we expected it to light up the trail like the sun was out but it really didn't. We read other reviews that rave about it but to us it was about average when it comes to how effective it is. It's hard to see how well it works (or doesn't work) unless you see it in person but here is a video we did while using the light.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that getting the right angle is very important otherwise you will either be lighting up the trail right in front of your tire or loosing light because it's pointing out too far and high. The low setting was pretty weak and should really only be used on climbs to save battery life. Medium was decent and high should definitely be used on downhills. We didn't really like the reactive mode because the high setting was not as bright as one of the other modes high setting and the light wanted to turn itself lower when we didn't really want it to.

The capacitive button didn't seem as responsive as it should be when trying to turn it on and off and change modes. There are no real instructions for setting the modes but we were able to find a video that showed you how to use the light. Better online documentation would be nice.

Once you get the angle right and use the right mode it provided decent light and was good enough for about any situation. We would have liked a more wide spread beam but only one of the 4 lights is used for a wide beam and the other 3 are for straight ahead. Battery life is really good and since you don't need to have it on high all the time you can get more than enough runtime out of if unless you are pulling an all nighter maybe.

The mount works well and they provide you with a rubber strip to put around your bars to protect them from the metal mount. You can have the light on pretty snug and still adjust the angle either with the set screw on the light or by turning the mount on the bars. 300 grams is a lot for weight weenies but you don't notice it on the handlebars as long as you keep the light close to the stem to keep things centered.

We had the best results when combining the MK8 with a helmet light to brighten things up a bit more as well as get a little extra light coverage. We used a 700 lumen Cygolite Expilion unit that will run you around $120. Exposure Lights also make smaller less expensive models for your helmet as well which are most likely better quality than the Cygolite.

Overall the Exposure Lights MaXx-D MK8 Headlight is a really high quality light with great features but lacks a little in the light performance category but if you are looking for something that will most likely last you a long time then you may not mind spending the $400 for one otherwise you should be able to get similar performance from something cheaper.

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