bentstrider

I currently have this Trek brand LED blinkie that has steady and flash.
When I first got, it had a rear clip for sticking to anything(yeah, right) and a standard seat-post clamp.
Since I have a bag on top of the rack, there was almost no use for the seat-post clamp.
The post-clamp nearly worked by keeping it attached to my U-Lock, and securing the U-lock under the bag. But the God awful ruts around here snapped the clamp bracket in two.
Next thing I did was jury-rig the mounting bracket clip onto the existing reflector holder.
This held the light until I accidentally snapped the light clip during battery change.
Now it stays on due to a nut/bolt/washer combination that involved drilling the boltscrew through the back of the light. This works for now, but the bolt screw shoves the AAA battery out a few millimeters.
And battery changing is pain in the a$$.

So, does anyone know of any rear LED lights that are rear-rack reflector mounting bracket specific?
Because I don't really feel like having to bust out the magic bag after buying another light.

HardyWeinberg

I have my cateye held to the end of my rack by jury rigging 2 right-angle brackets so that the light points backward. General road vibrations have snapped the one bracket twice, now. I have depleted one LBS of the 'good' brackets, and am on to flimsy ones from subsequent LBS's. I like the system a lot less now that I get the jawharp sound w/ my latest bracket, but I really like the relatively blinding tail-light, so I live with it for now.

mechBgon

Get a Cateye LD-1000 and bolt it to the rack. What exact rack do you have? If it has a welded plate for the light, that's what you want.

Before bolting the LD-1000 on, put a washer over the head of the bolt so it doesn't penetrate too far into the hole and cause a bulge in the battery compartment.

littledog

I gave up on trying to get a blikie or rear light to stay on my rear rack for the reasons already mentioned. I had the rear light on my tool bag which I carry on the rack for awhile. It kept sagging downwards so it couldn't be seen which of course made it useless. So now I have a Planet Bike rear light with a bracket that mounts to the seat stays. Also I wear a fanny pack and put a blinkie on that.
littledog

threephi

This has always perplexed me... why don't any of the light manufacturers make a rack bracket? There's huge demand for it and absolutely zero supply.

And before someone mentions it, yes home-made rigging is fairly straightforward, but I'd far prefer something that looked engineered instead of jury-rigged.

mechBgon

There's no standardization in rack design, so making a bracket to fit 100% of the racks out there would be nearly impossible.

Many racks do come with reflector brackets using the industry-standard two-hole design. They're fine for holding a 20-gram reflector, but as we all probably know, they're often not strong enough for a light as heavy as an LD1000 (example: the little L-bent ones that come with many Blackburn and Blackburn-knockoff racks).

schorschi

I gotta shill for these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ance&n=3375251

Harness the power of magnets!
Seriously, I love 'em, and I like never having to think about my lights. They run night and day, and never run out of batteries.

HardyWeinberg

That looks cool but also looks like it would conflict w/ my rear-angle-mounted kickstand, which I love. How bright is the reelight? I really like the cateye (LD1000 is it? 10 bulbs anyway). Blinding, close as possible anyway. I would put 2-3-4 of them on the back if I had room.

mechBgon

If you want the power of 2-4 LD1000's, consider a red Nova BULL. I posted some pics in post #10 in this thread comparing it to an LD1000. You like?

Size-wise, it's the same size as an LD-1000, but you do have to concoct a mount for it. More pics here: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...highlight=Nova down at the end.

HardyWeinberg

That's *exactly* what I want. But, uh, how do you power it? The pix at the strobe.com link show wires leaving the light, as if they are to be wired into a car (or locomotive) electrical system. I like the options suggested by the double bezel mount!

And, back on topic, it seems like this would require (and more than merit) some reasonable fabrication, or at least drilling, skillz to get it onto a rack w/ stability.

Mariner Fan

Tubis racks have lights that attach to them.

mechBgon

I power mine with a 9.6-volt NiMH rechargeable battery pack I got at Radio Shack (RC car battery). It goes about 10 hours on flashing before it's time to recharge. I put the battery pack in my rack-top bag that I seared a hole in the fabric to let the wires out.

Yeah, it's not as simple as bolting it right to a reflector mount. But if you want this level of power, it's available, and would cost you less than you'd pay for four Cateye LD-1000's Here's a pic of it at 200 meters in sunlight (camera is zoomed in, it's farther than it looks). If you need to be spotted () from the greatest distance practical, such as on tight 2-lane highway, then something like this would be a good start. I'd still combine it with neon-lime outer clothing such as an ANSI Class II vest, plus reflectors and whatever equipment is required in your state laws.

badger_bike

I have/had a vistalight taillight and a delta universal megarack; the delta rack had holes in this sort of ... in the back was a drop piece, with holes in it, and the light had a screw mount. So just screwed the light to the rack, no prob. Unfortunately had to order a new light recently because the red plastic part came off the light somewhere in the wilds of cambridge; different brand.

chocula

Planet Bike makes a "Rear Rack Bracket" that, according to the Web site, is compatible with four of the company's lights. It's on this page, scroll down a bit:

https://www.planetbike.com/rearlights.html

I've not had experience with this bracket, so I'm not sure how compatible it is with the wide variety of rear racks on the market.

Trek930

I use Planet Bike's BRT7 with the seat stay brackets. Got two going sideways on the back. Nice and wide with the two on there. They include rubber strips and it gives it a little cushion for accidents. Layed down the bike a month or so ago and only ground a little plastic off the light. I have a Trek rack.

threephi

Ahh, many thanks, I've just ordered one. I'll report back when it arrives.

chocula

Please do. I imagine I'll want to order one, too, when my attempts to fabricate something fail.

threephi

Well, my package just arrived today, and no rack bracket. The invoice has a line written through where the rack bracket is listed with the hand-written notation "out of stock". The website still lists it as in stock however. It would also have been nice if I was told of this before they shipped my order. On the plus side however, they ended up not charging me for shipping (nor the missing part of course), and the BRT-7, which I ordered at the same time, looks extremely bright if a bit fragile.

This is quite frustrating. My job takes a late-spring/early-summer hiatus and has just started up again, so I am back in the saddle after a few months off. The hours are long and I'm going to need that bracket as the days keep getting shorter. I just wrote to Planet Bike to ask them what's up with the bracket, hopefully it is still for sale.

xB_Nutt

Here's how I did it. Couple of right angle brackets and "Adel" clamps from Lowes. Overkill, but I am an engineer so I tend to get a little carried away sometimes...

Juha

That light looks a lot like a Busch and Mueller 4D Toplight. Most if not all Busch and Mueller rear lights are designed to be permanently attached. I'm sure there are others as well.

--J

n4zou

autolumination.com has LED lights not normally found in your LBS or internet bike supplier. Here is the direct link on their site for the lights your looking for.
https://autolumination.com/bike.htm
Be sure you look at the entire page. They start out with standard Blinker lights with seat post and handlebar mounts and continue to lights that mount with screws or sticky two-sided tape.

I do a lot or riding at night on both regular bicycles and I have a Chinese bicycle engine on an old Raleigh Newport cruiser that becomes a Moped. I use it when the trip is longer than I really want to do on a bicycle, yet short enough that the automobile would be wasteful. Alabama requires a headlight be on all the time on a motor driven cycle and also requires a brake light. The little engine has a 6-volt wire for powering a flashlight bulb but it wont supply enough current to power a typical brake light. I use a bicycle light on the front powered by the little engine but on the rear I use the "13 LED Utility, Auxiliary, Turn Signal & Brake Lights" with red LEDs. It attaches with four screws to a flat surface. I simply cut a thin peace of aluminum sheet metal obtained from the local sheet metal shop to fit the light fixture and the rack reflector bracket. I use a 4.2 AH 12 volt SLA battery to power it and control is just a small toggle switch on the handlebar. When I need to come to a stop and have someone behind me I simply toggle the switch for the bright lead on and when I get stopped I toggle it off. At night I switch the low 12-volt lead on and when stopping toggle the switch from tail light to brake light and back to tail light when I get stopped. I simply recharge the SLA battery once a week.

I also have another of these lights on the bicycle I ride at night on the rear and a 3-watt LED light on the front powered by the same 12-volt battery I swap from the motorbike. There is a separate headlight toggle switch and tail/brake light toggle switch.

blwyn

I attached the Planet Bike BRT7 to my rear rack with the regular attachment hardware that it came with. The attachment loop cranks down to a pretty small diameter.

schlaefer88

According to Blackburn's customer assistance, their Mars taillight comes with an L bracket allowing the tail light to be mounted to the rear rack.

NeezyDeezy

I had a LBS attach my LD1000 to my rear rack, they did it in 2 minutes and for free. (I also bought an allen tool at the same time).

moxfyre

Hey guys, this thread got me thinking a couple weeks ago and I've come up with my own stupidly simple way to attach a light to a rack. Requires nothing but a dead inner tube, electrical tape, and a seatpost blinkie mount:
* Cut a footlong section of inner tube and wash off the slick talc powder from the inner tube.
* Wrap the inner tube TIGHTLY around the back of the rack, until it's about 1" thick
* Cover the inner tube with electrical tape so it doesn't unravel
* Attach the seatpost-clamp blinkie mount to it

Here's what it looks like. It bounces because the blinkie mount is so flexy, but it doesn't shift at all. It's nice because you can angle it upward to make it more visible to motorists