Originally Posted by
ItsJustMe
That said, I do think there's a market for a cheaper light. These days you could build an equivalent to the 140L and probably sell it for no more than $60 or so. Just look at the Magicshine light; there's no reason in the world that the LED in that couldn't be red, and there's no reason that the controller couldn't have different flash modes. The LED change would actually make it cheaper. And you could probably drop two of the 4 batteries in the pack and for a taillight it would probably still run for 5 or 6 hours (lower power and flashing).
I actually think there is an apples and oranges thing here.
The 140R is not just a bright tail light, it's distinctive flash pattern is at least as notable. So, a functional equivalent of a Dinotte would require 2 red LEDs (or dual element LEDs) as well as a controller(s) specifically programmed to run them independently. I am not suggesting it would be prohibitively expensive, but I think that sort of sophistication puts you near, or over the $100 mark. More importantly, any incremental expense does not seem to fit the Chinese business model. They are simply assembling off the shelf parts in various configurations to make cheap - but bright - lights.
The the reason that so many of the Chinese lights STROBE insanely and flash "SO" (every one of them seems to be missing an S in SOS) is that none of them have bothered to invest in their own drivers or ones specifically for bike lighting. The myriad of flashlights are confined to about 5 main body styles for similar reasons.
The result of the Chinese model is a BLSF (Bike Light Shaped Flashlight) albeit a bright one.