Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets - Cateye Tail Lights LD1000 vs LD1100 **PICS**

I bought a new LD1100 for my new bike. I previously had the LD1000. I'll probably use both of them on my night rides. I found that leaving the older 1000 on steady, and the newer 1100 on blink works best. Together, the lights shine VERY bright even all the way down the street. The light is very directional, but is still bright nonetheless.


This is the LD1100 on blink
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv326/atxlatino/000001.jpg


Here's a side by side, with LD1100 on the left:
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv326/atxlatino/000002.jpg


LD1100 VS LD1000
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv326/atxlatino/cateye-side-by-side.jpg

LD1000 is on the top
LD1100 is on the bottom

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv326/atxlatino/000015.jpg


http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv326/atxlatino/000017.jpg


http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv326/atxlatino/000020.jpg


Shining Together
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv326/atxlatino/000024.jpg

Wow nice photos. I can't believe how--clean the shoulder of the road is that first picture! Where's all the road debris?

Well it's a residential street with no houses facing it on the right side, only the left. Maybe that's why? I never really noticed the debris since we're on wide tires and really thick tubes.

I run 2 LD-1100's on my bike. I run one light solid and one flashing. I wish I could get the flash mode to synchronize (There are two rows of LED's on each light. Each is operated separately by its own switch).

I find that having one light on solid makes it easier for divers to get a fix on me, while the flashing light gets their attention initially.

Someone please rate these for solidness of construction. I've had it with cheap Bell blinkies from MallWart. I've had those fall apart on me twice; once from vibration on a trail and once from the plastic cracking in cold weather. I'm currently thinking of getting an LD 1100.

Someone please rate these for solidness of construction. I've had it with cheap Bell blinkies from MallWart. I've had those fall apart on me twice; once from vibration on a trail and once from the plastic cracking in cold weather. I'm currently thinking of getting an LD 1100.

They are very solid when bolted to the bike. The belt buckle is kinda loose(lost mine once).

You can get one of these for lower cost, and it's brighter. Just don't put the batteries in backwards and leave it that way.

http://www.vetta.com/product_show.asp?ptype=whole&id=60

You can get one of these for lower cost, and it's brighter. Just don't put the batteries in backwards and leave it that way.

http://www.vetta.com/product_show.asp?ptype=whole&id=60

That's a totally different light with a low strobe and a separate battery pack. It's not even close to the lights in the OP in terms of function.

Anybody care to comment how this Cateye compares to a PBSF or Mars?

Vetta Left / PBSF Right:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh187/10wheels/Lights/VettaPBSFDistance.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh187/10wheels/Lights/VettaPBSF.jpg

Vetta requires two mounts, one for the light and one for the battery pack
Vetta only blinks on the low setting. It is bright on High Steady.

Anybody care to comment how this Cateye compares to a PBSF or Mars?

Brighter than the PBSF and much more visible in the daytime, but it's dependent on getting the mounting angle just right. My TL-1100 broke (I dropped it on a cobblestone road) before I got my Mars 4.0, so have no idea about the two of them.

Anybody care to comment how this Cateye compares to a PBSF or Mars?

They are all about the same brightness with fresh batteries. The cateye outshines the other two after 12hrs (AA batteries FTW).
All three seem to work well. The differences in beam and flash patterns are quite useful for wasting hours on the interweb but not so significant in the real world.
Here is the 12 hour beamshot from my comparison thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?545024-Blinkie-testing-PBSF-vs-MARS-4-0-vs-Cateye-LD1100&highlight=).
http://idisk.mac.com/timonz/Public//CPF/Blinkie/Blink12.jpg

10 wheels you keep posting those pics in threads that don't talk about the Vetta. You know what I see? I see an orange vest on the left and a yellow on the right, then an orange helmet, then the safety triangle, then a couple of lights that look about the same brightness. Then I see an identical photo below. You need to up your shutter speed so the lights look red instead of saturating the camera. Once saturated a larger light will look brighter.

Seeker there is a little button at the top left which lets you start your own thread. Maybe you could call it Vetta TSL-C is betterer than your blinkie , some runtime tests and a big warning about the lack of battery polarity protection. And people can come and post random pics of other lights.

Check Post #8 Vetta

Unfortunately, this shot isn't necessarily indicative of the taillights' actual "brightness" in the normal sense of the word...

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv326/atxlatino/000024.jpg

All we're seeing here is CCD signal clipping due to the inability of the camera to process the intense point source of light. For that reason, the "hot spot" isn't directly related to the lights' out put at all — it wouldn't matter if the light was pumping out 40 lumens or 90 lumens — this pic will look (relatively) similar in both cases.

In fact, most comparo pics of bike lights throw and spill etc are fairly suss for this reason — a digital camera simply isn't the best tool to record accurately what the human eye will perceive on a trail at night. Our eyes are infinitely more sensitive, with far better visual acuity, than even top quality CMOS sensors.

The LD1100 is a cool concept. But the blinkies go out of sink. There are videos out there showing PBSF has WAY more visibility at a distance. However, the side blinkies are cool. So this has become the blinkie I hang off my backpack.

The Radbot 1000 is the new king of the basic blinkie roost.

That's a totally different light with a low strobe and a separate battery pack. It's not even close to the lights in the OP in terms of function.

Once again, you demonstrate a lack of knowledge in a very public manner.

I dismissed your previous negative comments as a language translation issue, but you seem to take personal issue with some of my posts.

If you would actually try the Vetta light, you'd see that what I wrote is true. It's ot only brighter, it has the additional advantage over the Cateye LD series of not occasionally hitting your legs/arse as you pedal since it's narrower. It is the brightest taillight I've owned next to the Dinotte, and is less costly than the Cateyes.

Try it or not, but don't dismiss other's constructive comments outright when you clearly haven't tried the product yourself.

You are comparing apples and oranges. From all I've read here the Vetta flashes on low mode, not high, and it has an external battery pack. Is this not true? That's quite different from the two Cateye lights that are being discussed here. As for hitting the Cateye with your legs, I have no idea how that could happen as it's mounted on the back of the seatpost, not the side. It certainly hasn't happened to my wife or me when we were using the TL-1000 and TL-1100 on multiple bikes.

As for language, English is my mother tongue, so you can drop that goofy line of thought. As for personal issues with your posts, I have no idea who the hell you are, so get those paranoid ideas out of your head.

It's great that you like your Vetta; start a thread on it.

Lol!


vetta sells them directly for less. Got mine for $25+5 s/h, on "sale".

http://www.vetta.com/product_show.asp?ptype=whole&id=60

the run-times are actually much shorter than claimed, btw.

I think i know why they're on sale now.


don't install your batteries backwards.

i accidentally reverse-polarized mine the other day. That night i discovered the light's battery holder body melted/distorted. Unable to remove batteries due to distortion. The heat generated even left a faint dimple in my sks fender that the light rested upon.

I had to saw it in half and beat it apart with hammer for the autopsy.

Batteries installed backwards. No other apparent clues to failure.

I had done this before but had discovered it right away as i was heading out for ride and had to turn light on. In this final case, i installed batteries (backwards) and came back to ride hours later, damage already done by then.

Imo these things should have rp protection in the control circuit. Can't cost much, and it's not that hard to throw batteries into these holders backwards.

:popcorn