what REAR light?

I got one of these last January, as my blackburn mars starting giving trouble.

Its USB rechargeable, so I can charge at my desk in work. The batteries are standard rechargeable AAAs, so can swap them when they die. Its much brighter than the mars. There are two half-watt LEDs, each with a different lens, so has good visablilty. The only negative for me is that it feels a bit brittle. However its still going strong unlike the front leyzne superdrive that had to be replaced after 6months!

I use the same Smart Lunar R1 that Jawgap uses, very happy with it. I have another, cheaper Smart light just above it on my seatpost, for extra light but also to discourage it from jumping out of its mount.

I use this one and I am very happy with it. Superb light, very strong and versatile.

As mad rear lights go, this one is actually not so daft. You get as much power as you could sensibly use, built into a sturdy light unit that will fit almost any bike, can be recharged while you work and is impossible to ignore. It's a reasonable price too, around £35 if you shop around, which brings it close to the likes of the Cateye TL-LD 1100 which is utterly feeble by comparison.

Hope Red Light District to match the front? You can use the one power source to power both lights. Its super bright and well built, bit pricey but worth it in my opinion.

deandean wrote: »

Like many cyclists I have spent hundreds of Euro on front lights. Recently I worked out that my Hope 4 LED light was worth more than the bike it was attached to.

I reckon from a safety point of view that a rear light is as important as a front light, perhaps more so. While you can see ahead of you, you have no control over the learner driver/drunk idiot/hockey mom on her mobile phone in a people carrier behind you, a good bright red light in some cases the only 'defence'you have.

I have not had good luck with rear lights. First I purchased about 10 rear lights from dealextreme in the premise that they are so cheap, if anything goes wrong I replace it. However every time I went over a bump with one of those lights it would turn off (there was some problem with the battery connection I could never get to the bottom of), fiece dangerous situation with me not knowing I have no rear light. There is hopefully a picture of that light attached, I cannot manage to insert into the text.

The best rear light I have come across is the cateye that costs about 25 Euro, it looks like this
https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/328127/223208.jpg
it quite reliable and has a good light output.

Anyone got recommendations for good, bright, reliable rear lights?

Thanks!

I use 2 lights front and rear once the nights close in, since I haven't found bicycle lights in general to be fantastically reliable over the years. On the rear, I carry a Cateye TL-LD1100 (as per feck sake lads) backed up with an older Cateye TL-LD600, both seriously good lights IMHO. That said, I've had to waterproof the switch on the TL-LD600 because the rain was playing havoc with it. But the fix has lasted well and the light is otherwise performing solidly.

deandean wrote: »

Like many cyclists I have spent hundreds of Euro on front lights.

Well, if you're happy spending that kind of money on lights and you really want to go the whole hog with your rear light, I very much doubt that you'd find anything brighter than this Dinotte.

Some lights are very bright. A select few are extremely bright. But I would descibe the Dinotte as violently bright! I caught up with a guy using one of these on the way home one night and felt like I was hallucinating by the time I managed to draw alongside. I've never seen a rear light on any road going vehicle anywhere near as bright as this thing. It was ridiculous, TBH.

I'm using a Moon Shield at the moment:



Pros:

• USB Chargeable. I plug it in once a week and away I go!
• Rubber mount means it can fit all seatposts without any fiddling with clamps or adapters
• 60 Lumen output at its brightest setting

Cons:

• Rubber mount means its slightly elastic, the light can end up pointing at a less than idea angle on bumpier roads
• Relatively expensive

I've spent some time researching rear lights in the last week and come to the conclusion that the marketplace for bike lights is now completely bonkers.

A couple of years ago there was a special offer on Smart 1/2W rear LED lights (around a fiver IIRC), and a bunch of boardsies piled in. The consensus at the time was that 1/2W was just about perfect for a rear light - bright without being blinding, and decent runtime. Those Smart lights were perhaps putting out 30 lumens.

Fast forward a couple of years and we have the Shield 60 (60 lumens), Exposure Flare (75 lumens), Exposure Blaze (80 lumens), Hope District (105-135 lumens), all the way up to the Dinotte 400R (400 lumens).

The Hope District is almost €200. A fiver. Two hundred euros. Haven't we done well?

Here is a video of the Dinotte:



What possible justification is there for a bike light like this? If cycling continues to "normalise" as an activity the city streets are going to be filled with these cretins.

Some of the commentary around these lights includes assertions like "they're not blinding if you point them down at the road" and "I use them in daytime to make myself more visible".

Great, so we're now competing with the sun, which apparently produces around 400 billion billion billion lumens. Plenty of scope for upgrades.

And don't get me started on strobing 1000 lumen+ front lights...

It's not like night time cycling presents any particular hazards that justify this. It's an extension of the "cars are going to kill me" paranoia behind hi-vis, but somehow these lights have dodged the stigma, perhaps because there are gadgets involved.

All I want is a well sealed USB-rechargeable light with the same brightness as a 1/2W removable-battery light, that attaches quickly and securely and doesn't look hideous. There are almost no lights which meet this criteria.

I ended up ordering a Shield 60 on Dirk's recommendation. It's probably too bright so I'll run it on low.

Anyway, I found this which may or may not be useful as it doesn't cover a lot of the current most popular lights...

http://bicycles.blogoverflow.com/2012/03/tail-light-review/