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Old 08-07-16 | 04:19 PM
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VegasTriker
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 2,946
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From: Sin City, Nevada

Bikes: Catrike 700, Greenspeed GTO trike, , Linear LWB recumbent, Haluzak Horizon SWB recumbent, Balance 450 MTB, Cannondale SM800 Beast of the East

You bought several of these? The Dinotte site lists the price as $189 each but I saw one place that would sell them at $154 with the trade in of an older Dinotte tail light. Seems like a new arms race toward the brightest lights one can find.

I've tried a couple of the new chip-on-board LED lights available but buying them from China instead of the US. One is sold here as the Blitzu Cyborg which sells for around $25. It's really a Raypal RPL-2266 with the Blitzu brand name added but sells for under $11 postpaid from China. It's 168 lumens versus the 200 for the Dinotte. Both are USB chargeable with internal Li-Ion batteries. Also bought a Paypal Comet RPL-2261 100 lumen light for $7. Both are plenty bright. What I learned is that the effectiveness of a tail light is based upon two factors. The first is brightness. The second and more important is how large is the lit area and how directional is the light. You don't get much side lighting from most commercial tail lights. These are all "compact" tail lights with not much visible area.

I ended up making my own DIY LED lightstick which operates using an inexpensive 12V rechargeable Li-ion battery or alternatively off three 18650 Li-ion batteries. The lights (81 LED red strip) are wound around an 11" long 5/8" diameter plastic tube. It's visible in all directions and while the lumen output is probably less than the 168 lumen Raypal tail light it is far more effective. Has the same steady, blinking, and strobe functions of any the other lights. Run time is more than 8 hours on strobe for two lightsticks joined together.
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