Below; Said by me about a year ago
[B] Originally Posted by
01 CAt Man Do 
... I'd consider using one of my Gloworm X2's ( pointed to the rear ) and using the beacon mode. Yeah, it's going to be 1500 lumen of flashing white light but on a dangerous road in the daytime...WITH NO SHOULDER AND VEHICLES ZOOMING BY AT 50+mPH....I would consider it... if you truly are going to run any of the super bright ( RED ) LED rear lamps AT NIGHT...THEY WILL BE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO SEE.
Seeker333 response below:
Originally Posted by
seeker333
I think you're on to something there... run something like a Magicshine or greater (>600 lumens) on flash mode pointed rearwards during day in high danger areas. I don't think this would probably blind anyone whose eyes are already adjusted to the light of a sunny day and >100 feet away. Maybe a cop would pull you over and tell you to stop.
As far as using a DDR or DS500 at night, these taillights are so bright that you have to turn them way down or you ARE going to blind someone. As I mentioned before, the DDR can't be turned down at all on flash mode, but the DS500 can.
For those who haven't seen this thread in A&S, here's some Real Serious Taillights spotted by Redflea:
http://www.bikeforums.net/advocacy-s...l#post17577077
Update response: I'm still thinking about the idea of turning a high powered bike light backward on my helmet ( as I mentioned before ) in order to draw attention on a really dangerous road in the daytime. Just a couple weeks ago I received a Gemini Duo ( with wireless remote ) for review purposes. Since I've been using it on the helmet along with the included 2-cell battery it occurred to me I could very easily reverse the mount and battery set-up and turn the lamp backward
set on slow flash.
The updated Duo-R is now has close to a 1500 lumen output. There is also a very nice "slow flash" mode that is very easy to access when using the lamp. In the state of Maryland ( where I live ) it is now very common place to see bright white strobes being used on the rear roof panels of both School and commuter buses. These white flashing strobes are very visible from the rear but are also omni-directional.
The way I figure it, "Good for the goose, good for the Gander". Since the Duo-R uses a wireless remote I could also very easily turn it on and off without even having to remove my hands from the bars. I also have some pieces of translucent amber plastic sitting around so if I wanted to I could very easy make an amber lens for the lamp. Tonight just for the heck of it I cut out a lens just to see what it might look like. Even with the added lens it is still bright as all get-out. I suppose I could also make a red lens for it but likely the darker colored lens would cut down much more of the output. Anyway, can't wait to try this outside in the day just to see what it looks like at distance.
Of course I have no need at the moment to use the lamp in this fashion but it's an interesting option if I ever decide to commute on the dangerous road that I mentioned before. For my night time road rides I'm now still using two lamps; the Performance Axiom on the seat post but have now chosen to use the Gemini IRIS for my rear helmet light ( formerly used the Cygolite Hotshot on the lid ). The IRIS has a much wider beam pattern than the Hotshot so it should make an excellent helmet lamp. Output on the IRIS can be varied ( programmable ) five ways ( from 10-30-50-100-180 lumen ). Run time on the 100 lm level is listed as two hours so the highest ( 180 ) output is likely not going to see much use.