Anything new/interesting in the world of red tail lights?

[dawgie]

The weak link for many tail-lights seems to be the mounting systems. I do not understand why tail-light designers find this concept so difficult. Most are designed to mount to seat posts, which is useless for many cyclists who use seat bags to carry tools, etc.

I have 4 different taillights that I use regularly. All have their pros and cons.

- Dinotte 140 is the brightest by far, and I use it for commuting. It has a separate battery pack, which holds 4 AA batteries. Designed to mount to seatposts only, so I have devised a mount using 1" PVC pipe attached to the rear rack bolt on the seat stay of my frames. The biggest drawback is the battery pack, which needs a separate means for carrying, such as a pocket in your trunk or seat bag.
- Light & Motion Vis 360, which is a front and rear helmet lighting system. The helmet mount gets around the seat post or frame mounting problem inherent with many taillights. Not as bright as the Dinotte but brighter than most taillights. I also tried a L&M Vis 180, but could not figure out a way to mount on my bikes and returned it.
- Portland Designs Radbot 1000 is my brightest inexpensive blinkie with a nice fluctuating pattern. Also has a reflector in case your batteries go dead. Can mount to seat posts, stays or rear racks. Only drawback is that the batteries (2 AAA) do not last as long as other blinkies I've used.
- Planet Bike Superflash, the old standby. Not as bright as my other taillights but has the longest battery life by far. I wish PB would make a rechargeable version of the Superflash Turbo; I would buy that. Can mount to seat posts, stays or rear racks (same mounts as Radbot).

[Lewis Moon]

Originally Posted by BdaGhisallo

The Exposure Blaze has everything you're looking for but the replaceable battery.

http://www.amazon.com/Exposure-Light.../dp/B00AAV3JRA

...at $165. Don't get me wrong, it looks like a great light, I just think the price is WAY out of line. Different solar system out of line.

I get that it's a cheap price to pay for safety, but I'm pretty sure about 30% of that price is there to draw in the Rapha wearing, bespoke coffee cup crowd.

[saab2000]

Originally Posted by simonov

Out of curiosity, what don't you like about the mount? I've been using a Vis 180 for a few years now and have been very pleased. No complaints on the mount, either.

The rubber strap has to be pulled really tightly to keep it solidly attached. It's good light, but I really wish it came with the option of a more permanently attached mount.

And the excess strap just sort of hangs there, flapping around. I've tried to move it but on round tubes it's hard to tuck the excess away. On my Giant, with it's aero seatpost, it's much easier to install cleanly.

The light is great. I'd give it a B+/A-. I wouldn't mind it being brighter still or I'd give it an A. The rubber strap mount gets a C-. I'm a pretty loyal L&M customer with a number of their lights and think they make great lights. But I'm not too hot on any rubber strap mount. My old Cateye taillights had a bolt-on bracket that was light and tidy and the light would easily clip in and out. And if I wanted to remove the bracket it was a 45-second task. This should be possible for L&M too.

[FastforaSlowGuy]

Originally Posted by Lewis Moon

...at $165. Don't get me wrong, it looks like a great light, I just think the price is WAY out of line. Different solar system out of line.

I get that it's a cheap price to pay for safety, but I'm pretty sure about 30% of that price is there to draw in the Rapha wearing, bespoke coffee cup crowd.

^^ I wear Rapha and drink expensive coffee, and I don't want to get squashed by a car, but I am also not in the market for a $160+ tail light. To my mind, it's one of the highest-wearing electronics on my bike, so no matter how good it is, it's gonna get broken. That said, I have an Exposure front light and it is stellar.

[bluesea]

Originally Posted by dawgie

The weak link for many tail-lights seems to be the mounting systems. I do not understand why tail-light designers find this concept so difficult. Most are designed to mount to seat posts, which is useless for many cyclists who use seat bags to carry tools, etc.

Dinotte 300r and/or Niteflux RZ8.

[11.4]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

i dont own one, but i've heard really good things about exposure tail lights. i just purchased a nice dinotte set-up here on the forum, or i might spring for one of these:

I've been riding these for a couple years. It's a superbly compact and self-contained light and has amazing output. It focuses the light quite a bit -- some lights get rated higher but diffuse it broadly so it doesn't have the same impact. Gorgeous manufacturing. Just a beautiful piece of bike equipment.

I did lose one with some lost luggage and had to replace it, then the airline returned the luggage. I have an extra one with one charge on it and less than a couple hours of riding. If anyone is interested, ping me. It's absolutely worth it.

[simonov]

Originally Posted by saab2000

The rubber strap has to be pulled really tightly to keep it solidly attached. It's good light, but I really wish it came with the option of a more permanently attached mount.

And the excess strap just sort of hangs there, flapping around. I've tried to move it but on round tubes it's hard to tuck the excess away. On my Giant, with it's aero seatpost, it's much easier to install cleanly.

The light is great. I'd give it a B+/A-. I wouldn't mind it being brighter still or I'd give it an A. The rubber strap mount gets a C-. I'm a pretty loyal L&M customer with a number of their lights and think they make great lights. But I'm not too hot on any rubber strap mount. My old Cateye taillights had a bolt-on bracket that was light and tidy and the light would easily clip in and out. And if I wanted to remove the bracket it was a 45-second task. This should be possible for L&M too.

I've never had one break from pulling it tightly and I just trim the excess off so it doesn't flap around. I could see why you wouldn't like it, but in practice I've never had any issues. You reminded me of the CatEye mounts I used to have on Strada Wireless computers and I had on a couple of their headlights. It was a plastic psuedo threaded thing that was easy to take on and off, but felt really secure. That was a good mount.

[bluesea]

^ Designshine uses cateye mounts. I prefer to install/remove the whole mount for each use, so there's that plus I hate rubber linings which are cumbersome.

[hockeybike]

Do any of hte mentioned rear lights do much to disperse light in an arc? I've got a planet bike blinky, but after a SUV nearly threw me onto a curb after driving behind me for a bit, I'm thinking I need more light. Also, fewer SUVs, but I'll focus on what I can buy, first.

[Pyramor]

Originally Posted by bluesea

^ Designshine uses cateye mounts...

That is one of the reasons that I really like the Designshine lights. The Cateye mounts are very inexpensive, less than $5.00, a plus for me since I use them on 3 different bikes. It takes only a few seconds to mount or dismount the light and they can be attached to seat post, seat stays or racks and are very secure.

[mcteague]

This link may have been posted but it looks useful.

http://www.bikelightdatabase.com/best/taillights/

Tim

[SlowPokePete]

Originally Posted by simonov

Out of curiosity, what don't you like about the mount? I've been using a Vis 180 for a few years now and have been very pleased. No complaints on the mount, either.

Seems to function fine, and I like that the light clips to it securely, but feel like that rubber strap's going to dry out/crack/fail, makes me nervous to stretch it tight, and b/c of this less likely to be switched to other bikes.

But I love the light...

SPP

[fiamme red]

Originally Posted by dawgie

- Planet Bike Superflash, the old standby. Not as bright as my other taillights but has the longest battery life by far. I wish PB would make a rechargeable version of the Superflash Turbo; I would buy that. Can mount to seat posts, stays or rear racks (same mounts as Radbot).

Rechargeable Superflash (not Turbo): http://ecom1.planetbike.com/3034_4.html

[saab2000]

I just took this pic of my Vis 180 rear light and the associated strap. We can see from the elongated holes on the strap that it is pulled really tightly. We can also see from the shape that without a strap, I probably couldn't mount the light on this bike. The seatpost is not round. It is aero in nature, which increases my speed immensely.

The strap is replaceable, so that's a good thing. I think it's basically a good light but since so many people have garbage landfill filler lights I rarely get to see what this looks like from behind.

I think it's a good, but not a great, light. Certainly above average and the quality is great.

That said, and I've said this before, the Dinette is in a class of one. That Exposure looks great though too. I'd certainly consider that as well.

We have a busy road here in VA Beach that I would mostly like to avoid riding on but sometimes we will ride it on weekend mornings early. Anyway, I saw a rider on it a year or so ago with a Dinotte and he was CLEARLY visible from 1/2 mile back on a sunny day. There is no doubt that his visibility was vastly improved by using a really bright light. As nice as the Vis 180 is, I don't think it holds a candle to something like the Dinotte on a sunny day or on a busy road.

But back to the point of the rubber strap - it has advantages and disadvantages. The clear advantage here is that I can securely attach the light to a non-round seatpost. Sorry for the blurry pic.

[AngryScientist]

and here is the Vis 180 micro on my Bridgestone seat stay. works great in my experience.