Strengths: Very light weight The light produced is very bright Loads of burn time No cables Clever helmet mount
Weaknesses: 6 hour charge time, my five hour HID battery charges in only 3.5 hours. The beam pattern is fairly small. Not cheap
Overall: I currently use a flood HID light on my handle bars and was looking to make myself a helmet mounted light, however I saw the Joystick in my LBS and thought it would do exactly what I was looking for. First impressions are very good. I was surprised that the light produced is brighter than the bar mounted flood HID, however it is produced in a very concentrated area. IMHO the beam pattern is too small to use this as your only off road light, however in conjunction with another light it works exceptionally well. Bar mounted I think this light would only be suitable for road use. The helmet mount is very simple, it does work best on helmets with central vents. I have used it on a Giro Xen and a Giro Animas helmet, it works much better on the Xen were it can be mounted on the centre of the helmet. The fact there are no trailing cables is a major bonus, also the light is very light weight, so you really don't notice it on your helmet Burn time looks good so far. The fact it is easy to switch modes means you can get five hours or so out of the battery and still use the high mode when the going gets technical. Charging is straight forward, with the light flashing to show it's current charge state. However the addition of a faster charger would have been nice.
Strengths: Nice build quailty, tidy welds. Climbs well, and seems confidence inspiring on th edown hills. The tubing seems fairly tough.
Weaknesses: Paint finish is very poor, even slight knocks chip bit of paint off. The back end is fairly harsh, using a carbon seatpost seemed to cure this.
Overall: Having ridden this frame for nine months, I guess it time to leave some comments. I have used this bike for just about everything and have probably clocked up 2,000 miles or so. It has pretty much taken everything thrown at it in it's stride. xc racing, trailquests, Afan and just general riding. With the right components it is easy to build it into a nice light weight all day frame. The one thing that lets it down is the paint finish, every time something touches the frame a chip of paint disappears. With hindsite I should have covered it in helicopter tape when I first got it. The frame has proved tougher than I was originally anticipating - I guess the hydroformed tubes are strong in the right places.
