Thanks for tuning in this is The Sweet
Cyclists. Today we're gonna be looking at
the Light & Motion Vya Switch bike
taillight. Here we have the new Light & Motion
Vya Switch taillight, this is part
of Light & Motion Vya series of products
which include headlights and taillights
with smart features. With te Vya Switch
they've actually modified this to have
less smart features and more user
control. If we look over the specs, this
is a $40.00 taillight and it's similar to
the Vya Pro taillight. However it's 20
dollars cheaper, but has the same 100
lumen output and instead of it
automatically turning on and off you
have a user controlled button with three
different modes. There is one constant
mode and two SafePulse modes.
You actually get higher runtime than the Vya Pro taillight
on the lower SafePulse
mode. Also you get a lot of the same
features, the USB receptor is
built into the light itself.
If we go ahead and start opening the
packaging,
I'll point out that its packaging
really well done very minimal waste.
I want to thank the Light & Motion for
being more environmentally responsible,
you don't have to fight through multiple
layers of plastic and struggle
with opening them. Here's the light
outside of the packaging, it is very minimal.
You get a user manual,
and the nice minimal packaging again.
You get the tail light, which you
can see has a very unique form factor
with one LED on the rear and a big control
buttons on top, and then the mount itself. You
also get a rubber strap for attaching
light to a seatpost.
Light and Motion also offers GoPro adapters
and seat rail adapters for an additional
cost.
Now let's take a closer look at the
Light & Motion Vya Switch taillight, as I
mentioned the Vya series product from
Light & Motion are very innovative and
unique. Many of their headlights and
taillights have smart features such as
ambient light and motion sensors, as well
as a very unique form factor with the
USB connector directly built-in. With the Vya Switch
they've added user control back so
instead of the light determining which
mode to be on based on the light
conditions or automatically turn it on
and off the user has control. They've
retained the same design
as the Vya Pro taillight. However
without the light sensors or motion
sensors this is an opaque design. If we do
a 360 around, here you can see
there's a single LED emitter with these
vertical deflectors. If I mimic it being
on the mount with my hand, you can see
the beam pattern is very horizontal
and that's for better visibility on the
road. It also helps with the side
visibility as well, and with the side
visibility you can see the lens actually
protrudes slightly outside of the body.
That is to help get more than
180 degree visibility. If we go
around the side
you can see the molding lines on here,
that makes the light look a little
less professional.
However Light & Motion describes the
material of the light to be bio
renewable, and that means it's not
plastic or metal. The result is that the light
has a rubber feel to it and with the
opaque design it looks good from a
distance. Up close as I mentioned
there are little imperfections on the side
here. Near the actual USB you get these
little half circles indicators,
these are alignment indicators and this
is one part I don't really like about
the light. You have to line these up and
then do a quarter turn to mount it. This
is not very intuitive so if you were to
walk up to the light and put it in
this way you'll see it won't actually
rotate. Although really
want to like this mount, because of the
integrated USB which doesn't need cables,
it's just not very intuitive.
I feel like I could also possibly break
the light if I really rotated it very hard.
I think I would suggest the alignment
indicators to be a little brighter more
obvious or a different mounting style to
avoid this kind of confusion. The USB
connector is a really interesting feature I haven't
seen before, being
actually built in so you don't need a
cable and you have a little o-ring on here
to ensure water resistance.
The light itself very simple
and has a very elongated design. If we take a second
to look at some competitors,
here's one from Topeak, Magicshine Seemee 60
and the Fenix BC05R. You
can see the form factor is very
different, the BC05R from
Fenix is very small so they're
actually pretty close in terms of dimensions.
Well this one has a USB cable instead of
the USB connector built in however the
form factor with this kind of elongated
horizontal design kind of makes a light
protrude out. I'm not sure if that is
that positive or negative but it is
unique and it makes it stand out a
little bit more more traditional lights.
The Seemee 60 has a Cobb LED
design now with a larger
surface area but in terms of
visibility it's kind of hard to say if
one's better or the other. I think with
the SafePulse and the 100 Lumens on
the Light & Motion it's plenty bright
what's more interesting is compared the
Vya Switch to more traditional
AAA battery powered light. This is a
Topeak Redlite Mega, a really
bright light with five LEDs built-in. You
can see the more traditional lights are
a lot more heavy verses the
Vya Switch, and then in terms of profile
a lot larger as well so it takes up a
lot more space on your seat post while
the Vya Switch can mount very easily. Let's
also take a second to look at the mount
itself a little bit closer. This is
an interesting design and it
feels plastic like or rubbery. You
get the little strap with a lot of
adjustability. They do offer optional
accessories for GoPro mounting or seat
post mounts however with the one
included you just have this
rounded seat post mount. It is angled
upward which is interesting as most see
post kind of tilt backwards
and this is compensates for that. You don't
have any adjustability otherwise to use
it it's very standard rubber post you're
supposed to just simply pull it over
these little posts and then flip it on
top again to get this a little extra
security here inside. It looks really
basic and what I think it does basically
it applies pressure to the light itself
so when the light is not attached to the
mount. You can see it won't actually stay
on it's not until you have it in the
mount and locked in that the
light turns on and remains on. That's
a nice feature so if you leave this in
your backpack and it keeps hitting the
button nothing will happen.
Here we have the Vya Switch mounted onto
my Specialized Roubaix this has a
standard seat post you can see it's very
easy to attach. It's this basic rubber
strap provides enough security that
doesn't really flop around and you can
use the different mounting holes to get
a tighter or looser fit. What's
interesting is the mount actually has an
angle to it so that results with the
light being more parallel to the ground
if the few post is at the correct angle.
You don't have any adjustability as far
as up and down and you don't get the
additional kind of aero seatpost option
that you'd get with the Magicshine Seeme 60.
However the design is very unique you
see it kind of sticks out of the bike
for more of like visual prominence with
it on you also get this side visibility
as the lens kind of sticks out. You
have basically three modes that you can
cycle through and a long press to turn
it on and off.
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Now let's take a look at the light
output of the Vya Switch which has three
modes: SafePulse medium, SafePulse high and constant
mode. With SafePulse medium you get 12 hours
of runtime and 50 lumens. On high you
have 100 lumens and 6 hours of runtime.
While constant mode is 25 lumens and only
4 hours of runtime putting the lights.
Side by side you can see SafePulse has a
very distinctive flash. Now let's go over
the pros and cons for the Vya Switch. I
think one of the pros is the unique
form factor, it has a very distinctive
design compared to other lights on the
market. The integrated USB connector are
really nice touch you don't need an
additional cable and you can plug it in
anywhere as you need it. Finally the
tail light has excellent visibility with
the hundred lumens on the safe post
flashing mode it's a great light for
both daylight and nighttime riding. Some
of the cons I think are the visible
molding lines it looks a little bit
unfinished and also the non intuitive
low battery indicator. The only way you
know the battery is low is with a
special lower safe pulse mode which is
very difficult to distinguish between
the other modes and lastly the unclear
mounting alignment marks I find myself
putting it in incorrectly all the time
since it only goes in one direction. Now
that we've gone over the pros and cons
let's give the Vya Switch a rating out
of 10. I would give it a 9 I think it's a
very unique and bright light. I really
like the form factor and the 100
lumen output with the different SafePulse
options is a really great for
visibility. I also like this as an
addition to the Vya product line as a
non smart light which gives the user
more control. Thanks for watching this
review don't forget to like and
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reminding you to enjoy the ride!
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