Hope’s flagship light is a serious, beautfully constructed piece of kit that makes the most of the company’s legendary metal carving skills.
The big broad head uses four top LEDs behind clear lenses, but puts the bottom four behind an opaque diffuser lens. That concentrates the 3,000-lumen power output in a relatively focused side-to-side beam with a fairly sharp edge. The amount of light intensity from the front tyre to way down the trail is outstanding, making it a no-compromise night blaster.
The three power level sequence has no flash element to worry about, and the main switch turns a different colour for each output. The thermal throttle soon kicks in, but unless it’s proper cold or you’re riding fast there’s still plenty of power in the medium setting.
The Hope R8 pushes enough light down the trail to make visibility outstanding
The head unit twists on and off the metal bar bracket easily – but you’ll need a strong neck to use the helmet mount.
The new battery gets a machined alloy case with Hope’s signature green rubber bumper caps and a push button life indicator to help ration power. It weighs a ton though, and it can be hard to mount securely to some frames, so the smaller plastic battery (or the R4 Lightweight) may be more practical for most riders.
