Originally Posted by
noglider
The light arrived in the mail yesterday. I opened the package. When I run the magnet past the sensor back and forth rapidly, the light does light up. It also produces a rattle inside the light which I can hear and feel. I'll attach it to my bike to try it out as soon as I can.
Originally Posted by
01 CAt Man Do
I look forward to your review of this rear light. Recently I've been seeing these on a lot of websites but most notably on Amazon. I'm doubtful that they are that bright but that remains to be seen. Still, I'd like to see bike manufacturers supply these as standard OEM equipment ( front and rear ) on all new bikes. Of course if they did some people might think that everyone is going to see them at night and that would be a bad thing. At least they should be better than standard reflectors but all depends on how they hold up over time.
Originally Posted by
RichSPK
I got one of the blue/red variants of this light. I haven't taken it out on the road yet, but I installed it last night. I won't write a review until I've had it on the road, but I can share some pictures and unedited video. Also note: it was too thick to mount on the seatstays of my Klein Performance; it hit the spokes. I was able to mount it on the rack legs. And it doesn't light up when you're standing still, so I wouldn't recommend it as your only tail light.
Stills, as installed
Video, with lights on, from the rear, compared to my alkaline-powered NightRider tail light
Video, lights off, from the rear, compared to NightRider
Video, lights off, from the side, compared to NightRider
I think it would be brighter if I could mount it closer to the magnets. Not that it's dim (as far as I could tell in my basement), but it's clearly not as bright as the NightRider.
I had a couple of evenings to try the Lykus light last week. Busy since then due to a family illness. Hoping to finish my impressions, video, etc., this week.
Overall my experience matches Richard's video. However I want to reshoot my video. I used my Ion Speed Pro bike camera and it has poor dynamic range, high ISO noise and the ultra-wide angle lens doesn't quite do justice to the comparison. Bright red tends to bloom and oversaturate many digital camera sensors, obscuring apparent differences between lights.
On a scale up to 5 being the best, I'd like to give the Lykus a 4 based on convenience as it would be ideal for my errand bike. It's not terrifically bright, but it's roughly equal to my Planet Bike and older VistaLite VL-300 rack mounted taillights.
However the mount, as currently provided, limits the utility and convenience, which the folks at Lykus acknowledged -- they're planning an easier to use mount.
The Lykus and provided rubber band mounted fairly readily to my Univega with conventional diamond frame geometry, stretching around the rear rack supports. The light is fairly normally oriented, not aimed up or down. The magnets produced no significant drag on that bike's wheels and 700x42 tires.
However it cannot be mounted as-is to my errand bike. I'd need to improvise a mount to make room for my panniers to use the eyelet where the rack mounts to the chainstay. If I mount the light to the seat stay it aims upward because my errand bike's compact frame has a continuous slope between the head tube and rear hub. There's also too much clearance between the stays or rack supports and the rims, out of magnet range. So my improvised mount will need a spacer to set the light closer to the wheels. I'll probably use heavy duty Velcro tape, which I've already used to mount my much heavier video camera to my helmet, with a couple of zip ties as safety straps. And the magnet drag would have even less effect on this bike, with heavy wheels and tires that weigh 1,100g each!
The Lykus mounts pretty much as-is to my old style road bike, but I wouldn't keep it on that bike. While the Lykus magnet doesn't produce significant drag on my heavier bikes/wheels, I wouldn't want any additional drag on my road bike. When I mounted the Lykus and spoke magnets on the road bike and spun the rear wheel, the magnets did eventually drag the wheel to a stop. It would be roughly comparable to a slight drag from a misaligned brake pad. And I was really finicky about setting up that road bike's tightly spaced sidepull brakes to avoid any drag, and even clipped the vent sprues (those zillions of tiny rubber "hairs") from tires that rubbed against he brakes and fork.
Clever doodad and a good value. With a more versatile mount it'll be just about perfect, and more cost effective than those frog lights using button cell batteries.