Exposure’s complete range of off-road riding bar- & helmet-mounted lights gets across-the-board upgrades to light your nighttime trail ride longer and farther. Start with more light output – now up to a max of 6000 lumens, much faster USB-C charge times, and easier-to-see mode & status with new low-power OLED displays. Plus, improvements to their hands-free Reflex automated light output control, more button-free Tap-tech mode control on your head, and an extra 30 minutes of reserve illumination from every light now.
On the outside, the self-contained LED lights still look mostly the same as we’ve always known from Exposure. But inside, these premium race-winning bar & helmet lights continue to evolve, lighting the trail ahead as brightly as you could ever need.
2025 Exposure MTB riding headlights pack upgrades inside
We’ve been following & reviewing Exposure lights for something like 15 years now, and a few things haven’t changed in all that time.
These are all UK-made lights with industry-leading light output, tough machined aluminum housings with self-contained batteries & controllers, and long-life & serviceability that really help justify their premium pricepoint. Plus, Exposure more or less updates them every year, as LED and controller tech continue to evolve.
One of our first Exposure reviews was the 2011 Diablo mk3, after having ridden with the original mk1 for two years prior. That also happens to be one of the lights updated here again. Although now, the 2025 Diablo helmet light is in its 15th generation!
And Exposure is calling this their “biggest advancements in a decade“!
World Cup DH-capable mountain bike lights?
Oh yeah, and if you combine the brightest 6000lm Six Pack Mk15 on your bar with the 2360lm Zenith Mk4 on your bar (and the all-new 210mm travel Scott Gambler downhill bike), surely you’ll be able to bomb the Fort William World Cup DH track in the dark like Brendan Fairclough too, right?
Across the board updates
A few updates apply to all of Exposure’s mountain bike lights now, making them all more user-friendly. Every one is now USB-C rechargeable. That, of course, feels like a given in this day and age, but it also means a big usability boost.
Going USB-C means 50% faster charge times for the thinner, lighter helmet lights and even better, up to 70% faster charging for the bar lights, still ensuring premium battery protections. With the shift to USB-C, the new lights are all now able to be powered by external power banks (or even output power to recharge your GPS or phone), extending their usability to ultradistance racers and multi-day bikepackers, too.
All bar & helmet lights now get max 36-hour runtimes in their lower power modes for your longest rides when you don’t need max brightness. And every mountain bike light now includes a ‘reserve’ mode that will guarantee another extra 30 minutes of low-level lighting to get you out of the woods once your batteries eventually do run out.
They almost all get more peak light output too, but let’s break that down light-by-light.
Upgraded Exposure Zenith 4, Diablo 15 & Joystick 18 helmet lights
Power-wise, the new $305 / £280 / 280€ Zenith 4 now boasts 2360lm output (up 7% from 2200lm in mk3), while increasing battery capacity 20% to 6000mAh at the same 150g.
The $260 / £240 / 240€ Diablo 15 still puts out 2000lm of light, but is now a touch lighter at 118g while doubling its max runtime with a 14% higher capacity 4000mAh battery
The $215 / £195 / 195€ Joystick 18, though, gets the biggest functional upgrades. Yes, there’s a small 4% output increase to 1200lm, and an extra few grams to 105g to fit a 14% larger 4000mAh battery. But the big change is that the Joystick finally gets the TAP tech of the other two helmet lights.
Tap-tech means you just have to tap anywhere on the light – or even just on your helmet – to change modes while riding. No more fiddling to find a tiny control button in the dark on the trail with gloves on. And you can adjust Tap sensitivity to prevent accidental light changes if needed.
All three deliver 6 customizable light output modes, easier to understand LED status indicator lights, CNC-machined 6063 alloy housings, IP67 waterproofing, and versatile strap- & screw-on helmet mounts.
Updated Exposure Six Pack 15, MaXx-D 17, Toro 16 & Race 19 bar lights
The power output increases are less dramatic for the updated Exposure mountain bike handlebar lights. That’s mostly because these things already put out so much light that adding 200 lumens extra might not be noticeable. In fact, the Race even decreases peak light output, but extends runtime with the same size battery. The outgoing Six Pack 14 was already, and still is, one of the best and brightest models you can buy
The biggest upgrades are the new second-generation OLED displays on the back of each light that are 70% bigger and now in bright color to make it much easier at a glance to see what mode you are in and how much battery is remaining. The USB-C upgrade also cuts charging times a lot – now just 5h22m for the huge Six Pack 15 vs. 8 full hours in the previous generation and just 2h1m for the new Race 19 vs. a full 6h for its predecessor.
All 4 lights also get refined Reflex 2.0 controls that learn from your riding and automatically deliver the ideal brightness for your ride and longer burn times. More brightness on the steepest, fastest, and most technical sections. Automagically reduced brightness on the slower, smooth and steady climbs. You pick the runtime you need, and Reflex meters out the light output to get you back to the trailhead. No manual button pressing required.
Bar light pricing & details
The new $540 / £495 / 495€ Six Pack 15 puts out 6000lm of light with a 20,000mAh battery, at a claimed 403g (up from 5800lm at 386g). The new $485 / £445 / 445€ MaXx-D 17 delivers 4850lm of light with its 16,000mAh battery, at 326g (up from 4800lm at 310g). The $385 / £355 / 355€ Toro 16 cranks out 3850lm with a 12,000mAh battery, at 260g (up from 3800lm at 236g). And the $320 / £295 / 295€ Race 19 reduces a bit to 2650lm of light with the same 8000mAh battery, at 195g (down from 2800lm at 186g).
All four deliver 7 light output modes with 3 Reflex modes and easier-to-see color OLED screens – “a single press of the function button, the full colour OLED screen informs program selected, run times in that program and battery charge level“. They get CNC-machined 6063 alloy housings, IP67 waterproofing, and standard 31.8-35mm bar mounts plus optional stem faceplate or top-clamp mounts, and include USB chargers.
All 7 new lights are available now, direct from Exposure and from their partner retailers.
