British lighting manufacturer Exposure has just unveiled the latest in its range of single-can off-road headlamps, the £449.95 Reflex Mk 1.

The flagship of the 2013 Exposure range the Reflex Mk 1 puts out a claimed 2,200 lumens from its three XML LED emitters – more than the previous top-of-the-range Six Pack –  but at 252g weighs less than 2012’s number two model, the Maxx-D.

But more light and less weight isn’t the whole story, welcome though that is in any light. Exposure has built two very clever new features into the Reflex Mk 1.

The first is Reflex Technology, which uses a combination of accelerometers and temperature gauges to estimate your speed and therefore how much light you need. Because the Reflex has an aluminium body that reacts quickly to cooling from air flow, John Cookson of USE says that this gives a usefully accurate indication of your speed.

“There’s been lots of product development time in this,”  John tells Bikemagic over the phone from Exposure HQ in West Sussex. “Lots of test runs with a back up light on the handlebars just in case.”

“We’ve now got it working really well, to the point where you almost don’t notice it happening as you ride. You crest a hill and start to accelerate and the light just brightens so you can see where you’re going. Get to the bottom and slow down and it dims to conserve battery power.”

As well as reacting to your riding speed, the Reflex Mk 1 can be set to behave differently according to the type of riding you’re doing. Exposure calls this Optimised Mode Selector (OMS) and it provides no fewer than 11 different modes that give run times from 2 to 36 hours for a range of uses from commuting to dark-of-the-moon off road night riding.

To set the mode, “you don’t need a USB cable or anything like that,” says John. Instead, you switch mode with a single button on the back of the light, and a numerical display tells you which one you’re in. You don’t need to remember what they are or carry round a manual either as there’s a simple list printed on the underside of the light.

Initially, only the Reflex light will get Reflex Technology, according to John. “It will no doubt
filter down the range in the future,” he says.

Most of the 2013 Exposure range will get the OMS function though. “This will be in the range right down to the Joystick,” says John. “It’ll raise most of the maximum outputs by 25% and provide a better output selection to make the lights more adaptable to a number of potential uses.”

The Reflex Mk 1 will be available at the end of August.

For more information see Exposure Lights.