Axa Spark steady

On the main page I wrote:

23 August (2011): The Axa Spark steady looks a bit ugly, but perhaps they've done 'light up the whole taillamp' in a better way than Spanninga with the Plateo.

But after a bit more thinking when looking closely at the pictures before I got the taillamp I concluded it probably shines in a cone shape. And when I got it this was confirmed. Disappointing!

Specifications:

StVZO approval no: K826
Mass: 44 g (without nuts, I bought the OEM version, perhaps they are included in the retail version?).
Size: 105.5 mm width, 55.6 mm height, 23.1 mm thickness.
Light source: 1 red LED.
Mounting method: On the rear rack, 50 mm or 80 mm bolt distance. You can adjust it yourself by opening it up, which is possible if you are careful by using a screwdriver and carefully apply a bit of pressure diagonally to the 2 retention bits.
Cabling/connectors: There are 2 clamp connectors for bare cables.
Construction: Plastic, with galvanised steel bolts.

Price: ca. € 8,-

Pictures:

Experiences

Tested from: 2012-1-5

The lamp looks better than I expected, I thought it looked rather ugly on Axa's pictures, but I don't have that feeling at all when I look at the real thing. The lamp has a single LED, some of the light shines through the reflector and the plastic, but there is no collimating optic nor diffuser so a large part of the light shines as a point source, as I already expected a while back when looking a bit closer at the picture on Axa's website. The illumination of the entire lamp is very weak, far dimmer than the Plateo. The point source is too bright at short distance and makes estimating distance impossible.

There is no provision for 2.8mm connectors which is a shame. The clamps to hold bare wires are quite poor, it's easy for cables to get loose.

Beamshots

See the camera settings page for more on the setup and settings to make pictures of the beams of taillamps.

Out of a corner (showing how much light is cast upwards, forwards and to the sides) [ F3.9 & F1.8 ]:

Wallshot (showing the beam pattern):

Visibility from various angles (0°, 45°, 90°, 135°) [ 0.5m, zoom x3, F3.5, ISO80, 1/250s & 1/60s ]:

Comparing taillamps

Design- and thus review considerations for taillamps

See Theory for taillamps.

Conclusion

In its original form I cannot recommend it due to the point source of light which is annoying, antisocial even and doesn't allow following traffic to estimate distance. It can be opened up and modified, therefore I will experiment with it by dimming the direct light from the LED.

The clamp connectors are also rubbish, so all in all: Not recommended.

Last modified: Tue Feb 26 19:37:56 CET 2013