Commuting - Cateye el-300 rattle noise.

I just bought the 5-LED Cateye and like it a lot. One problem: it makes an annoying little rattle noise when I'm on anything but the smoothest of roads. Anybody else hear this rattle? The light seems fine in every other respect. At first I thought it was the batteries bumping around, but now I don't think so. Seems to come from deeper within. I hope my light isn't defective somehow.

Originally posted by astrapi
I just bought the 5-LED Cateye and like it a lot. One problem: it makes an annoying little rattle noise when I'm on anything but the smoothest of roads. Anybody else hear this rattle? The light seems fine in every other respect. At first I thought it was the batteries bumping around, but now I don't think so. Seems to come from deeper within. I hope my light isn't defective somehow.

I can't say I've noticed mine rattling. Have you taken it apart - it's all accessible as far as I recall.

Thanks Richard. I haven't taken it apart, but I'll try tomorrow. Hopefully it's just a loose screw or something.

I've just dug my EL200 out of my desk draw (emergency summer light) which apart from the LED arrangement is pretty much the same and I can't see anything likely to work loose. They're pretty simple inside if there is movement you can probably pad it with a small piece of paper. I doubt it's anything to worry about, they're pretty robust.

I have a Cateye Opticube which is a 3 LED light.

It rattles so badly it was driving me crazy.

The problem on this one is that the light doesn't fit snugly to the bracket. There is at least 2mm play between the surfaces.

I have stopped the rattling temporarily by pushing a small plastic wedge (designed for use when tiling) between the light and bracket.

Grab the light when it's mounted and see if you can get it to move around. It could be a similar problem.