01 CAt Man Do

Interestingly in the segment with the Fly6 I happened to notice that as you pass some road signs that I could see a very bright reflection from the rear light. I'm just wondering if that was from the Fly6 or was it from the DShine?

Phlorida

I am running the new Bontrager Flare R and really like it. The manufacturer says that it can be seen in daylight from 2km away - it is really bright. I previously had the Light and Motion Vis180 and really prefer this one.

01 CAt Man Do

I just took a look at the Bontrager Flare R over on youtube. I'm really impressed with the design of the Flare R. In a nutshell it looks to have the output of the Performance Axiom Pulse 60 but with more features. I particularly like the flash pattern of the "Daytime flash". Very impressive. The mounting system looks very nice and looks to be very functional. Not only does it incorporate a quick release but the rubber strap system is adjustable as well, very well done.

The lamp body is also made to be viewed from the side, also very well done. Battery charge indicator, well made USB door flap, extra large bag clip, this lamp seems to have it all. Two things put it over the top though; first when the lamp begins to run out of battery power the lamp will automatically power down to a special "low power" illumination mode. This gives the rider two extra hours of run time. Secondly, you have the option to buy an upgraded model called the "RT" ( I think ). This works with a very nicely made compact "wireless" remote for mounting on the bars and allows the user to change modes on the fly, once again VERY WELL DONE!

Both the Axiom Pulse 60 ( which I own ) and Bontrager Flare R are going to be daytime visible since both have about the same maximum output....BUT....the DiNotte and D-shine lights will still be much brighter. Still, for the relative small size/weight of the lamp, excellent run time, extra features and lastly the relatively low price, I think the Bontrager Flare R is looking like a great all-around value.

I'm so impressed with what I'm seeing on the video ( as far as features go ) I just might have to try one of these myself before they up the asking price.

Phlorida

An excellent overview and comparison of the Flare R, a few observations to share based on my experience. Positive: when the light is turned on it comes on in the mode that it was last in. I really like that feature and have never had a light that does that. For example I need to push the power button on my headlight four times to place it in strobe mode. Negative: the USB port cover is poorly designed and has never closed properly after the first use.

Richard Cranium

That's an awesome rear light array. I have been using something similar for quite a few years. (10 wheel)

As far as the original question - I have a couple of reminders.......

If you just "gotta be safe" - then mount any $50 LED "blinky" head light facing to the rear. We all know there are dozens of obnoxious lights that will "mark you" from three-hundreds yards or more.

If you want to be politically correct - then have several red lights - and make sure at least two of them use differing power sources.

And last of all - realize there is no one perfect set up for all occasions - if you ride with other cyclists your lighting priorities need to consider their eyesight. Typically this means you need lighting with differing mounts or directional capacity.

That is all.

ItsJustMe

That's the designshine. I don't bother running the lights on the Fly6, they wouldn't be really visible next to the DS.

01 CAt Man Do

Quick question; I have to ask this since I've never owned a sport video camera....When you play back the video can you pause the play and more importantly, are you able to read vehicle license plates?

ItsJustMe

On the rear camera license plates don't enter into it.

As for pause/play, it's a video file being played on a computer, sure you can pause it, single frame, etc.

License plates is a tricky one. Even on the better video cameras I've had, if a car is passing me a lane over at 60 MPH, it's almost impossible to read the plate. If the car is going < 20 MPH it's very easy to read the plate even on a $30 keychain camera.

I don't think it's necessary to get the plate numbers on high speed vehicles; more likely you're looking for evidence of exactly what happened in a lower speed situation and the car driver is already known.

For high speed hit and run, I suppose plate numbers would be helpful but I haven't seen very many cameras even at high prices that can reliably get that.

The problem is bitrate. You need bitrate way more than you need resolution. I think the ideal camera for this situation would be 720p but use 20 or even 30 mbps bitrates. With lower bitrates, things that are moving fast get blurred by the compression even if the sensor is very high resolution. In fact higher resolution sensors are MORE likely to blur at high motion subjects because they're generating more data and the compression has to throw away even more data to fit in the bitrate parameters.

01 CAt Man Do

Okay, thanks for the explanation. Some of the videos I've viewed on Youtube tend to look a little grainy when looking at detail so I figured as much. At least in the event of some type of accident you should still be able to I.D. the type of vehicle and color which I suppose is better than nothing.

jawnn

The bicycle industry does not care about lights for day time usage, most of their videos use trick photography. I had to get a truck tail light, because I live in the pacific north west where people are half asleep in the dark winter.

A statment like this must be a fantastic exaduration: "manufacturer says that it can be seen in daylight from 2km away"

People should comapair their lights to a truck tail light.

01 CAt Man Do

Personally, I never trust videos put out by manufacturers. "Buyers" on the other hand that post videos usually aren't trying to deceive. Regardless, most video's really can't demonstrate what the human eye can see particularly when viewing from a distance. That's because the human eye is much more sensitive to light than the standard consumer based video camera.

I'm sure your "Truck LED Rear Lamp" is bright. Problem is that it has numerous problematic bike related issues; First and most importantly it won't have a normal mounting solution. Second is that it likely requires a 12 volt battery which I'm sure will be quite heavy. No doubt run time might be an issue as well depending on how much power it eats.

I suppose if you are mounting the truck lamp to a set of panniers or on a backpack it could work. Still, my guess is that the weight would not be to most people's liking. Then again if it helps you from becoming two-legged road kill none of that is important.

Actually it's not that fantastic of a claim. They just left out the phrase, "under ideal conditions". Not to mention that there are various degrees of daylight depending on time of day, time of year, weather conditions and location.

I look at it this way, if I see your rear light before I recognize that I'm approaching a cyclist than the rear lamp has done it's job whether it be day or night. I should also probably add to that thought that in order to recognize a bike lamp at distance as a "BIKE LIGHT" the light has to have a conspicuous flash pattern. If it doesn't it's just a bright red light that could be anything. Now if it's the only light around than that's not so important but it amazes me how inconspicuous a single non-flashing rear lamp is when surrounded by other non-flashing rear lights.

rekmeyata

A lot of truck tail lamps are not that bright at all, in fact most are dimmer than most modern car tail lights, the truck tail light you show I've never seen on the road that I can recall though I have seen some bright ones but they're too expensive for most fleets to pay to have them on their trailers thus leaving just owner operators using them, and the only ones that use them are the ones who like to drive customized trucks which means the brighter tail lights are far and few between.

Even if you could hook up a battery system that would power such a light you still don't need a customized truck light to ride at night, that's just pure nonsense fueled by fear. And a brighter light like those truck lights shown...still get rear ended anyways!

As far as some lights making claims that their lights can be seen from 2km in daylight are probably over exaggerated especially by those cheap made in China lights advertised on Amazon and E-Bay, however there are bright ones like the Light & Motion Vis 180 (not the Vis 180 micro) like I have that can be seen in bright daylight that a cop told me that it looked like a road safety flare, which obviously means that some of the more expensive ones like the Dinotte are also easy to see in daylight.

Athens80

Could you enlighten us by comparing the bicycle lights geared for daytime use (e.g. Dinotte and DesignShine) to a truck tail light? - brightness, flash patterns, levels, weight, mounting, power supply, aerodynamics, weatherproofing, reliability, run times, quality, long term durability, etc.?

I'm pleased with the daytime usefulness of my Dinotte 300R and it's been succeeded by two brighter models. Could you show me how my lighting would be better if I shopped at AutoZone instead of Dinotte?

tdperry

I've seen a couple of comments on the Orfos Flare 360 and the Bontrager Flare R.
I've got the Orfos mounted on my wife's recumbent and the Bontrager will be going onto my Catrike Road when I get it in.
I did a quick down & dirty video the other day of the Orfos next to the Flare R (the Flare R was in it's daytime flash mode and the Orfos in the medium then high modes).
I'll be doing some better ones in the future, but I've been rather busy setting up some servers and web sites lately. Both have amazingly good light output to the sides, well over 90°.

Fog_Man

My daily 20 mile ride is in the full light of the morning. I've been happy with the Niterider Lumina 750, which I purchased as a package with Solas 40 rear light from NB. Less happy with the attention grabbing of the Solas 40. I set both front and rear on flash mode.

I have been considering the purchase of a second Lumina 750 for the rear, placing over the lens a piece of red transparent tape or cut out Acrylic from an old tail light. Set it too in flash mode. Since I already have the Solas 40, fwiw it could serve the purpose of wide dispersion light, with the Lumina 750 focused straight back.