£195 with universal mount, twin battery endurance set up £30 more
Weight: 299g/Contact: Hope 01282 851200

Following the success of their HID stem mounted light, the CNC wizards have come up with an LED version. Two 5watt LEDs are mounted in a single head unit, featuring plenty of machined cooling fins for temperature regulation. Face-plates are available for FSA, Thomson and Hope stems. For anyone using another stem, a new universal mount is available. This offset, aluminium clamp keeps the light centred on the stem but, if your bars have any sweep next to the stem, it is difficult to get the beam dead ahead. A helmet mount is included, along with the extra cable to use the battery in a backpack or pocket. All connections on this, and standard cables are threaded and waterproof to IP67 so moisture ingress is not a problem.
With a 1hour 45 minute run time on a single battery, run times are OK and the beam is good and wide, with very even spread of light. Overall brightness is as good as the best LED lights we have tested. Tight woodland trails are not an issue, and twisty middle ring singletrack is almost daylight fast. The only time we found them lacking was on fast, open, sections, where the LEDs’s did not have the range needed to really crank it. To be fair that’s a criticism of all LED lights, not just the Hopes.
There are similarly priced systems out there but, few will look as good as the Vision LED when attached and, at less than 300grams, the light is barely noticeable.
We would like to see a longer life single battery option to save the faffing of a trailside swap, and a lateral adjustment on the universal clamp.

MBR rating: 8/10