dekindy

https://www.amazon.com/Vetta-TSL-C-Fl...owViewpoints=1

I hardly ever see this tail light recommended but it is the best value for the money IMHO. 4 AA's and 20 LED's for around $50 is a lot of light. I have used it for 2 winter of night riding with zero problems. Using the Vetta on high or low in conjunction with a Cateye LD600 in flash mode is an awesome combination. Vetta flash mode is powerful also. Some think the Vetta blinks too slowly but I think that it is effective at it's brightness level.

10 Wheels

This one is brighter then the Vetta:

ItsJustMe

I think about the best self-contained sub-$50 taillight on the market right now is the Radbot 1000. It's twice as bright as the Superflash (1 watt versus 1/2 watt).

'Course, if you're gonna have a headlight too, and go for the Magicshine, Geoman sells the MagicShine taillight for $29, same price as the Radbot, and that fries anything short of a Dinotte (it's the same brightness as the Dinotte 140L).

mechBgon

The Radbot also has a much wider beam. Unfortunately I'm 0 for 2 on them, they turn off by themselves. Even when soft-mounted to a bag. I'm tempted to send the second one back and ask them to give me one that's been field-proven to stay running on their own personal bikes

socalrider

I have about 6 rides with my Radbot, no problems with it switching off.. It mounts nicely using the topeak seatpacks, just clip and go..

Cyclist0383

This seems to be a problem unique to you. I ride over cobblestones every day with mine, and ever banged the hell out of them on a softcover book to see if they would switch off, and they don't, no matter how hard they are shaken of knocked around.

Contact PDW, they have great CS and will sort it out.

mwatkins

I've not had that experience -- dozens of rides since I started using the Radbot 1000 mid summer and not a single unexpected turn off. Does yours require that you press and hold for a couple seconds to turn it on? If not, you have an early model and may find the recent model solves your observed problem.

ItsJustMe

The newest Radbot apparently requires you to hold the button down a while to turn on/off, though I don't know if interrupting the battery will cause it to turn off.

mechBgon

That's the one PDW sent me to replace my faulty first-gen unit, and it turns off by itself too. The guys at PDW wanted to help, but the lights aren't cooperating.

harshbarj

My bicycle came with this. I am going to upgrade it though soon.



I am going to replace it with the busch & müller 4D-Lite Plus. Both are fender lights and run off the front generator. the 4d-lite plus is B & M's best rear light (it has a stand light!!).

Cyclist0383

Once again; this problem seems unique to you. What did PDW say when you contacted them about this reoccurring problem?

mechBgon

cycocommute (spelling?) reports the same thing. PDW said the problem was the contacts on the first batch of lights, and offered to replace it (I bought it directly from them). I waited a couple months, then asked for my replacement. It does the same thing. I wish they were working out for me, because it would be a great light if it would stay running.

Cyclist0383

Contact them again. By all accounts their lights are now solid. What does griping about it on the internet solve?

It's quite clear that it's not a common problem, and that they have top notch customer service. It's almost as if you don't want to fix the problem but instead bad mouth them out of some form of retribution.

mechBgon

After waiting a few months for their lights to become "solid" before taking delivery of a replacement, and getting one that turns itself off while sitting on top of my refrigerator overnight (not to mention when it's supposed to be protecting my life), I'm calling it like I see it. Out of curiosity, have you conducted any reliability research, such as a poll? Or sold a few dozen to your customers?

What I'll do, to give them a third chance, is ask them if they'd like to send a prepaid call tag to pick up the replacment they sent me, so they can examine it and figure out why their taillight doesn't stay on.

Cyclist0383

Why are you bad mouthing them on the internet when they're more than willing to accommodate you?

As I said before, this seems like a unique issue for you. There are plenty of people with this light here on BF, and the vast majority report it as being solid. I know the two I use are.

mechBgon

I'm not badmouthing them. In fact, I did the opposite: I said that they wanted to help. But the facts are the facts: both of my Radbot 1000s failed.

And if you had your way, you'd silence those of us whose Radbots are NOT "solid," so that we don't disrupt the harmony for the rest of you. Think about it. This is supposed to be safety equipment; it's not a service to anyone to hush up the failures.

Cyclist0383

Do you think that's indicative of their lights in general? I've seen you post this time and again.

Yet you don't want to find a solution to your problem, you simply wish to spread fear and doubt about a product that the vast majority (actually everyone who has one but you as far as I can tell) finds to be reliable. What's your motivation in doing that, especially if the company is willing to make good and give you another light?

Every company has a bad item or two slip thorough quality control, it's how they handle it that makes all the difference. It doesn't seem that you are willing to let PDW make it right for you, and instead with to exact some sort of revenge on them by bad mouthing them on various forums.

Why are you taking that road as opposed to letting them actually solve the problem?

mechBgon

By that logic, anyone who makes repetitive remarks about a product is either a shill (for good remarks) or on a vendetta (for bad ones). I suggest you stop taking it at a personal level.

Cyclist0383

What else am I to think if you refuse to seek solutions?

mechBgon

Let me put it this way:

You're a skydiver. Your main parachute fails. Fortunately, your reserve chute works. You contact the company and of course they're eager to help. They send you a replacement chute. It fails too. You double-check to make sure you're not overlooking anything, but it continues to fail and force you to use your reserve chute.

At this point, no matter how eager the company might be to give you more new chutes, are you going to keep entrusting your life to their product? How many times before you say "enough?"

As for "solutions," I invested in a DiNotte 300R. Solution reached.

harshbarj

I for one am glad that people like mechBgon share their bad experiences with a company. While it seems they are willing to try to help, they replaced a defective product with another defective product. As a taillight is an essential (not to mention legally required) nighttime safety device that is inexcusable!

As for him "refusing to seek solutions", he asked for a replacement and was given another defective unit! I really don't see what more should be expected of a consumer. Should he continue to ask for replacements until he gets a good unit? Personally I think he made the right choice by going with a different company after receiving another defective unit.

Cyclist0383

Wow, what a dreadful comparison. Death isn't certain if you don't have a light whist riding at night.

Anyway, as I recollect you didn't want to replace the first light you got from them with the known bad contacts, even though you knew they would replace it. You simply wanted to complain on various forums. I suspect that for whatever reason you don't want a solution so you can continue to gripe about a product that you felt 'did you wrong'.

socalrider

All I know is that I have a Radbot 1000 and it has been working fine.. If it had problems, I would let people know..

Cyclist0383

Things slip through quality control with all companies, it's how they react that matters, and mechBgon is more interested in dragging the company through the mud in threads that they are mentioned in than actually doing anything to change the situation.

Personally it seems to me that he has some sort of grudge against the company as he started to complain about them before he even tried to contact them to make things right. How odd to take it to the internet before trying to find a solution.

mechBgon

You'd better not! Someone might take offense!

Your opinion is incorrect. I think you're just having a defensive reaction because you like your Radbots a lot. I'd like mine too, if they'd behave.