carless

https://www.mtbr.com/reviews/Lights/product_22215.shtml

$60 tailight
$150 battery

Basically a car tailight. I ride to work and leave it on for 8 hours and ride home. It can be set for flashing, I leave mine on continous.


Niterider w/ HID battery.
Will charge in 4 hours
lasts infinity (I ran a test and stopped at a week)
Waterproof
mounts on bike, bag or helmet with zip ties or hardware.
close to 360 viewable
Led sealed
no moving parts

I'm not thrilled with the headlight but the tailight is excellent. Other than DIY lights this is the "Chris King" of tailights. As for the cost, compare the price of batteries and blinkies, and how many years you ride.

mechBgon

The taillight is exellent, yeah. On top of what else you said, it doesn't experience much battery-sag dimming since it's using a NiMH battery, unlike standalone blinkies that drop in output as their alkaline batteries get middle-aged.

(for readers who don't have a NiteRider rechargeable system to power the NR taillight with, consider a Planet Bike SuperFlash or a Cateye TL-LD1000. They rival the NR for brightness (with fresh batteries or with Lithium batteries) and are stand-alone blinkies. The Cateye also has dedicated side-firing LEDs. No matter what "superblinkie" you get, mount it rigidly to the bike or your rack, and aim it carefully so the hotspot is aimed where overtaking traffic will be.)

As for Undisputed Best Taillight, maybe you meant Undisputed Best Off-The-Shelf Bike-Specific Taillight? See pics below... the NiteRider is about equal to the one on the left there. The one on the right is a Nova BULL with three 1-watt Luxeon emitters and a wide-angle lens.

*moths, flame, etc*

DataJunkie

What headlight are you not thrilled with?

mechBgon

oops, double post

carless

NR HID headlight, worked great for a year then bulb replacements X 2 @ $129. They currently need 2 more bulbs!

mechBgon

BTW for those interested in getting the NiteRider taillight, this is still the best price I've seen new: https://aebike.com/page.cfm?PageID=30...ils&sku=LT9030. $46 + s/h

I asked NiteRider and they said that it won't work with the new MiNewt systems, in case that helps anyone out.

/me waits for 2manybikes to post obligatory pic of... "it."

carless

My rationale was a car replacement bike with lights. I consider this a car tailight. Most drivers never wonder if people can see their tailights and I wanted the same thing.
The bike-specific question = yes. I imagine you can do dive lights, home brew projects and get a brighter light. But without researching heavily, comparing tech specs and testing this works as soon as you charge it.

banerjek

That's the NiMH battery for the 12 volt systems. You can use one of NR's 6 volt batteries (such as the ones used by their cheaper halogen headlights) as well. The tail light will be every bit as bright.

The NR tail light is my favorite, but I can also vouch for the Cateye T-LD 1000. I have one on my trike. It's a really good value and incredibly bright. Blackburn also makes a decent blinkie (I haven't tried the PlanetBike so I can't comment on it). However, most AA powered lights are junk.

CigTech

Have you guys seen this tail light? https://www.reallite.com/details.htm

mechBgon

I-Like-To-Bike has some of those, I think. Maybe he can give the lowdown on them. What I heard is that they go through batteries awful fast, and that's a set of 4 AA's.

You can also wire up a connector of your own and power it from some other type of battery, such as an RC car battery or whatnot.

2manybikes

You beat me to it again ! But only by about 60 min. Where's slvoid?

I have a Realight too, it does burn up batteries. The Cateye is brighter,smaller,cheaper,lighter,uses less batteries, and the Realight has to come off the bike and come apart to change batteries.
Once upon a time it was the best, that time has passed. But it is a good light.
When I first bought the Nightrider taillights over ten years ago, they may have been the brightest at that time. (They never changed the ad copy). But time has changed that too. But it is also a good light.

I would say that the Dinotte tailight is the brightest that is made for bikes? Yes ??
Much brighter than car or truck tailights.

Then there is the mechBgon "RED BULL" tailight, not made originally for bikes, but...practical and effective to use and own.

Then we leave the world of practical and sensible far behind...
drum roll please...................................pretty please?...... aww c'mon.....
the......DEATH STAR...

mechBgon

2manybikes

slvoid

Eh I've been spending time with my parents, quality time..

BTW in case anyone's wondering ,that's a 16 watt HID tail light.

2manybikes

That's a good thing. I should be doing that.

The "Death Star" is only avaliable from 2manybikes.
With the BikeForums member discount it's only $1501.oo

slvoid

Wait wait... so it's a $800 light with a $701 red lamp shade? I think not.

BTW: carless, I got my NR tail light on sale for 18 bucks, rigged it up to a 9.6V battery pack consisting of 8 1.2V cells. And the lamp itself burns brightest at around 12V or so.

2manybikes

I knew you would ask.

Edison 10 plus shipping and insurance $1000 (handling too)
Red lens from $1 blinky from Dept. Store $1 (including travel costs)
Arbitrary profit margin $500 (why not ?)
______
$1501 total

Free shipping !!

karmalaundry

Did you hotwire an airliner's landing lights to your ride? Oh it's a tricked out front light.... On that note, my neighbor knew a guy in France that actually did that in the trunk of his Citroen for tailgaters, but I digress...

ItsJustMe

Hm. The entire light fixture, bulb and ballast from TrailTech is only $120. I wonder if the TrailTech bulb would fit; I thought they were all Welch Allyn bulbs anyway, and BatterySpace sells replacement bulbs for $85. When my bulb burns out finally, if LEDs aren't ready to step up yet, I might look at their 30W HID.

ken cummings

That quip about airliner's landing lights brought back fond memories. Of the headlight I used in Denver and later. 6 volts, 100 watts, needed 12 gage wiring and a battery that would start a small car. The airport store that sold it to me said the last 12 had gone to Hawaiian Airlines for wing tip landing lights. A GE PAR36 bulb with a shielded filament. Half the light was lost but the rest went out in a tight beam that lit up things a half mile away. "I HAVE THAT POWER!" (quote from Masters of the Universe). People on night rides could feel the beam when it hit them,