Old 03-21-16 | 06:29 PM
  #7  
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RNAV
Flyin' under the radar
 
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 830
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From: O'Fallon, IL

Bikes: '15 LeMond Washoe custom painted, '06 LeMond Croix de fer custom painted, '18 Specialized Crux

Originally Posted by JBHoren
A couple of thoughts (and I've actually been thinking about this, the past few days):
  1. Even if you mount the tail lights at the bottom of the seat stays, the maximum distance between them is only going to be a little bit more than 130/135mm (5") -- is this enough for a following driver to perceive your distance from them? would they even appear as separate light sources?
  2. The LEDs (or the light from them) on seat post/tube-mounted tail lights are angled "up", so that it's visible to drivers to the rear; but mounting those same lights on the seat stays would have the LEDs/light angled too far up, making it invisible to following drivers.
Given the (approximate) 30-degree difference between a bicycle's seat post/tube and seat stays, I question the efficacy of mounting a tail light on either of the seat stays, unless it is specifically designed to be mounted there.
You're touching on some concerns I have as well. For that reason, I was primarily looking at Fibre Flares:


I was thinking something like this would address the angle issue, plus would afford visibility from the side. As far as the efficacy of having two light sources separated by ~130mm, I would think it would offer some benefit (but only up close).

Anyways, I was hoping to go uber-ebay-cheap on this since I'm testing the waters, but wanted some feedback in case other forum members have gone a similar route with their lighting.
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