bikemig 

So over in the commuting forum, there have been a number of discussions about daytime running lights like rear blinkies. I'm curious whether anyone uses one in touring. Planet bike claims that its superflash turbo gets 100 hours on 2 triple A batteries. That's not bad. Depending on how long you stay on the road, that will get you somewhere between 4-5 days of bike riding. If you're conservative and throw out the batteries after 4 days, that is a small cost to add to your trip expenses.

Edit: you could combine this with a hi viz mesh vest which is pretty cool on all but the hottest of days. Many of those take a rear blinkie. I'm thinking this may not be a bad idea in our era of distracted driving.

jefnvk

I generally don't run daytime lights, as I stay off roads whenever possible, but I'm thinking about it next trip. My panniers have a loop on them specifically for hanging a rear light.

Where I think they really come in nice is any sort of inclement weather with limited visibility: fog, rain, etc. My helmet has one built in, that I really only use in those conditions.

10 Wheels

They only seem to be Bright for 8 hour's.

indyfabz

I got one of these last year from Amazon:


https://www.rei.com/product/776955/p...y-5-rear-light


It attaches easily via mounting hole on my rear rack, which means it frees up room on my seat post for my bag. It also supposedly lasts for 100 hrs. in blink mode with 2 AAA batteries. The thing is pretty darn bright. However, I don't always turn it on when I tour. I will only use it if light/weather conditions seem to warrant it, like in fog or darker conditions caused by a storm. (I do use it regularly when I commute/ride in the city in the dark.) I recently got some Watson rechargeable NiMH batteries, so that's what I use in the light.

thumpism 

Last tour I used an original Vista blinky on the rear rack but did not go to the trouble of engineering something for the front (too much stuff to work around). My bro-in-law used blinkies both front and rear, and on tour we saw many other cyclists doing the same. We were often on some narrow, winding, shaded roads where any conspicuity advantage was welcome.

bikemig 

This is a good idea. I'll bet it runs longer than the planet bike superflash turbo on batteries. I may use this for daytime riding and save the superflash turbo for low light conditions or the sun is low on the horizon.

Snuts

I have three rechargeable tail lights. Two always hang on the back of my Panniers, or city bag. Easy to stop and arm them as conditions warrant, one or both. Tunnels come to mind, from experience.
I have been thinking of a real bright, soft pulsing tail light for this summer.

As for hi-vise vest. I used to wear suspender style strips/straps at work. I will be wearing a new set this summer on tour, again at my discretion.

Hope this helps.



-Snuts-

pdlamb

For most daytime riding (like touring), my experience is that bright clothes make a rider more visible than blinking lights. That said, for fog, rain, or heavy overcast, I'll ride lit. My preference is ultra-reliable dyno lights. For touring, I prefer AA to AAA to rechargeable for minimal fuss and longer ride times. Problem is, it's getting hard to find AA blinkies, especially water resistant ones for riding in the rain!

Doug64

All of the touring bikes in our family have tail lights mounted on the rear racks. We only use them during periods of poor visibility: darkness, fog, rain, and don't forget tunnels. Sometimes in really heavy traffic we will turn them on for a little extra insurance.

Snuts

See, we all have different opinions. From my own experience, I rode with my sister the cyclist when I was in Alberta last summer. She armed her rear blinky as we shoved off out of her drive. It looked o.k. But once on the hi-way, I was 200' behind, useless in the daylight. Week batteries. After spending the previous three weeks on my bike, with 3 full charged blinky's each morning I formed a preference. I carry 2 re-charge USB batteries, and 2 solar panels. Easy to keep tail, and head lamps topped up on the "fly".

But, I expect my next tail lamp will use AA batteries, which I can now re-charge Ni-Mh from a 3.7V USB port.


-Snuts-

Carbonfiberboy 

I use blinkies both front and rear, Dinotte in the rear and Serfas in the front. The Serfas is also one of my headlamps. I run them day and night.

J.Higgins 

Are the Busch & Muller any good? I'm eyeing the toplight rear...

Big Lew

As a former commercial truck driver and someone that's toured many roads between
Fairbanks Alaska and Yuma Arizona, I prefer cyclists wear high visibility reflective vests
all the time, and good bright blinking lights in low light conditions. I always wear a vest
even in the heat of summer and haven't had any issues with heat buildup or discomfort.
Now helmets are another matter. Although I always wear one, I've had heat problems
during long climbs in the summer.

Machka 

Yes, I bring a red rear light, but I usually only use it if it is gloomy, foggy, or heading toward darkness.

And I often ride with a hi-vis yellow jacket or vest.

Not a tour, but last Sunday we decided to cycle up one of the local mountains as a training exercise. A lot of tourists drive up there and the road is quite narrow. I opted to wear a hi-vis yellow jersey in the hopes of being more easily seen.

Doug64

My wife and I both use B&M (made in Germany) taillights. They are only a "steady" mode light, because blinking lights are prohibited on bikes in Europe. It has been on my touring bike since I bought the light in 2011. It has had some rough usage on tours, and I use it every morning in the winter riding to gym in the dark.

They are dependable, tough, well built, and bright. They are about 5 3/4" x 2 1/2", and will fill the width of most rear racks.

Ty0604

Maybe I'm missing something here but how does 100 hours equal 4-5 days? I'm assuming that's 100 hours of run time so unless you're biking 20+ hours a day you'll get a few weeks out of it. Please clarify.

I have a cheap Bell Arella light. Runs on two AAA batteries. I run it all day on the fastest blink setting while riding, 6-8 hours a day. Only changed the batteries once while on tour last summer. Using two Duracell I picked up from Dollar General.

bikemig 

Correct, assuming 100 hours that's easily much more than 4-5 days. I think that's called a mistake,

Ty0604

haha Okay. I was just confused what you meant

Western Flyer 

I pretty much keep a daylight visible rear light going most of the day while on tour and other times too. It’s a moving target as to the best on the market as batteries and LEDs continue to make rapid improvements. 70 focused lumens is probably the minimum for effective daylight visibility but it depends a lot on the lens as to how far away it will catch a driver’s eye. I currently flash with a Cygolite Pro 80, but I see they have come out with a Pro 150 for less $$$ than I paid for the Pro 80 a couple of years ago. Most of the time while touring I set it to a slow steady blink (about 30hrs burn time), which I think is a friendly non-emergency looking attention getter. At night or poor lighting conditions I change to a faster pulsing mode that is claimed to best inform drivers as to your speed and distance.
My Li storage battery barely measures the amount of electricity it takes to fully recharge the Pro 80 from a flat battery.

My proof of effectiveness is the number of drivers, including a few with blood/alcohol levels way over the legal limits, who have stopped to tell me how far away they could see me. I mount the light on my helmets, which increases visibility distance and side to side range. I do the same with my headlight, which I don’t run all day while on tour.

BikeLite

The Arella 100 is AAA lights.

jefnvk

FWIW, I passed a cyclist on this rather foggy, drizzly morning. Saw the lights well before I saw their light colored clothing, it cut through the fog much better. Just another tool to be seen and identified as early as possible.

cashen

I use these and they work great. Used for 2 years now. If I went on longer tours I would get a Dynamo Hub and charge a power bank.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S6V9X8A/

bikemig 

I agree that they are very good lights. As your pictures show, they are very, very bright in darkness. They're not quite as good though I think in low light situations. If you look at the 2d row of the pictures from this website, you can see the difference between darkness and low light situations with this light:

Busch & Muller LED Line Permanent Taillight ? TheTouringStore.com

Of course the light has a full reflector which helps. The other light that has a very good reflector built in is this cateye rear blinkie, TL-LD560-R | CATEYE

pdlamb

We'll never know, but would an impartial observer have said your blinkies were any brighter from the same distance? I've found little correlation between what's visible from a distance and how bright a light looks from the back of the bike -- it has a lot to do with the angle between the light and the observer.




Do you bicycle tour for the scenery, the people you meet, the joy of the ride? or to exercise all those electronics?

pdlamb

In a word, yes. They are steady lights, but they are visible from a good distance (says my wife who passes me occasionally in her car), reliable, and when all my blinkies short out in the rain, the B&M taillight just keeps going, and going, and going...