Commuting - Cateye TL-LD1000: Too Bright?

I was shopping for tail lights last week and decided that I wouldn't be cheap and i got the top of the line Cat Eye LED model. It has 10 LED's and is visible from the side. I had read good things on here.

It arrived today and I quickly threw the batteries on and put it under my desk (it's kind of dark there). Wow. This thing is REALLY bright. My concern is that it might actually be too bright, if you can believe that! Has anyone with this light had any complaints from drivers? I imagine it's less obnoxious if I put it on steady, but then I get less battery life!

Its a lot less bright than motorcycle and car tailights. I still want brighter.
Al

no compliants from drivers. I run top row steady and bottom side to side. I agree with noisebeam, it's barely bright enough. You have to gauge it's power in the urban night mix of lights from 1/2 a block away.

I have a 19 LED niterider light. It's just about as bright as one of those small motorcycle rear LED clusters. No problems here. The more the merrier.
If you wanna know how bright your blinker is, leave it on a tree or something, then bike about 500-1000 ft away and look at it, it's not as bright as you thought it would be now is it. Consider a car coming up on you at 80-90 feet/sec. You'd want to give at least 6-10 seconds for the driver to figure out what the hell you are, your direction, how far you are in the road, and what their course of action is.
At 500 ft, your blinker's just a dot of light.

I got it for my commute last fall/winter season with great success, it has like three settings to choose from and bright as hell. If safety is your concern, go get it!

Corsaire

I love mine. particulary the ability to bolt it onto a reflector mount so I can just leave it attached. I don't think you could ever get too bright. After all, think of all those dweebs with the portable Sun headlamps in the luxury cars that blind you as they pass. Nope, I don't think it would be possible to get a bike taillight that was too bright short of having a bottle cage nuclear fusion generator. :)

I run dual TL-LD 1000 on the seat post one flash and one steady. I like them.

I run dual TL-LD 1000 on the seat post one flash and one steady. I like them.


I forgot about the 2 vistas on the back pack. Can you see me now!

I've bought a 56-LED truck tail/brake light from SuperBrightLEDs.com - Betcha it's brigher. And it's what the trucks are using, so I wouldn't worry about blinding anyone.

I run that and the Performance nuclear blast (Whatever it is, it's bright) job. They work great. I worry that once you're bright enough some drunk is going to fixate on it and run me over. Damned if you do....

I'm sure it's saved my life more than once. On my century last week through the mountains it was raining and lots of fog and every driver saw me. When I stopped at a rest stop I asked if they could see me and they said they saw my tail light from a mile away. Good stuff.

I've bought a 56-LED truck tail/brake light from SuperBrightLEDs.com - Betcha it's brigher. And it's what the trucks are using, so I wouldn't worry about blinding anyone.

Do they make anything that runs on batteries?

No such thing as 'too bright'.

I'd rather they complain to me that it's to bright rather than explain to the cops that they didn't see me as my body is being bagged up.

A short list of your priorities:
Your saftey- top of the list
Driver's momentarry inconvience- bottom of the list

I'm sure it's saved my life more than once. On my century last week through the mountains it was raining and lots of fog and every driver saw me. When I stopped at a rest stop I asked if they could see me and they said they saw my tail light from a mile away. Good stuff.

Which light are you running?

Do they make anything that runs on batteries?

I assume you mean INTERNAL batteries; not that I know of. This thing draws about 750 mA in its brightest mode, so with my HID (abt 1.2 amps) on a 4500 mAH bottle battery, I should still be good for work and back again (40 minute commute).

Is there anything that is too bright? No it's not too bright but it may be brighter then you need; have you seen the Cateye LD600? Plenty bright and visible from at least 180 degrees if you mount it vertically, and cheaper.

On sale this week at performance for $25.

nite rider trailrat with a red glass filter on it would make a d--n good taillight....probably too bright though.

A short list of your priorities:
Your saftey- top of the list
Driver's momentarry inconvience- bottom of the list

Sorry drivers inconvenience doesn't even place on my list :D