knog frogs any good?

souter

Yes, I know the hipster cysts are one of bike snobs running gags, but was wondering if they were any good?
Was thinking about getting a few to increase my lateral visibility e.g. on the front stays, (have panniers on the back which are a PITA for mounting lights - spent a large part of last night ironing reflective patches onto them).
I assume the coin batteries don't have rechargable variants, but I could probably scavenge quite a few from various pointless remote controls.

Home:Ballyhoura

They are good enough if all you want is to be seen. They will not light up the road ahead of or behind you but definitely improve your visibility by some degree. The design is very good in my opinion, very easy to use and neat. Quick installation and removal from one bike to another, and small enough to leave on 24/7 or just leave in the bottom of the bag "just in case".

If you are prepared to wait 2-3 weeks (rough estimate of shipping times from DX) you can get these copies from DealExtreme for a fraction of the price and are 95% as good as the originals (more modes though - a few different flashing patters. I have both so could compare them side by side).

If you search CR2032 in eBay you will come up with results of hundreds of those coin batteries which the Knog Frogs use (and many other things too, the most common coin battery in my experiences) - you can get 10 of them for around €2 which isn't bad. Plus you get hours of operation time anyway as they aren't exactly energy guzzelers so you won't have to be replacing the batteries too often - unless you accidentally leave them turned on or they get turned on in a bag (actually now that I think of it, the original ones I got came in little plastic cases which would be perfect to prevent this from happening!).

Hope this help, best of luck!

jimshady101

the copies on DealExtreme look like really good value!

NeilMcEoigheann

jimshady101 wrote: »

the copies on DealExtreme look like really good value!

the brighntess is just as good but the led's break off from the main part and they turn on easier in your bag. i have a pair of DX lights both leds severed connection in the first week but i had a solder so it was ok to fix

souter

cool, I like the idea of going straight to the far asian source with dealextreme Just one further question, my bike is specialized tricross i.e. fat aluminium tubes, any idea if these will wrap round say the crossbar?
btw, it is only for visibility - I commute on lit roads and have a fenix up front (ld2 I think, the wannabe model as opposed to the legendary tk11), don't have any immediate plans for night spins. Have some of the aldi flashing armband which I butchered into the kids halloween costumes which I may duct tape to my helmet.
Next idea is getting some xmas lights and stitching them in to my panniers somehow. It's all doable, just the power up, power down sequence is a PITA.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

blorg

May be of interest while we are buying crap from DealExtreme. IIRC when I saw this idea last whoever was selling it was looking for a lot more than eh $3.71

souter

ok, you topped me with garish lighting. I have a vague memory of a wheel based LED that could display arbitrary messages but can't find it. Failing that, the reelight.com system is really what a parsimonious Scotsman would choose. If only the f**kers would build a wire to mount outside of the hub.

btw, blorgs candelbra set up is becoming a bit of an internet cliche. Who can put more lumen on their bike, plus points for ingenuity and artistic endeavour?

BostonB

souter wrote: »

`...the front stays, (have panniers on the back which are a PITA for mounting lights - spent a large part of last night ironing reflective patches onto them).
...

+1 on the pannier. I put one of those red knog lights on the carrier where the side bars meet. Its not my main light, tbh I dunno why I bought it. Rack is proving hard to get lights to fit. My CatEye won't stay tight on it at all.