Rear light recommendations please!
 

I've been using the $5 Nashbar Blinkies (http://www.nashbar.com/results.cfm?c...ry%3A%20Lights) for a couple years and they're surprisingly good. The problem is that the mounts suck and they will eventually break or bounce off when riding over a bump.

I've decided that I'm being penny-wise, pound-foolish to use these... and I want to find a more durable tail light. I need something that will attach securely to the back of a rear rack. And cheaper is better. Nashbar and Performance have absolutely nothing that fits the bill, quite disappointing.

What do you all use?

PS- What's the deal with the racks that include "rear light mounting brackets"? (like this one: http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?c...cat%3A%20Racks) Do they actually make it any easier to reliably attach a normal clip-on/clamp-on type tail light?

The favorite of probably 3/4 of the people on this forum is the Planet Bike Blinky Superflash. I'm not sure that it will easily mount to your rack, just depends on the rack mount but it is very affordable and very bright. You can't beat it for the price.

This is a good guide:

mechBgon's page on cycling visibility

Planet Bike Super Flash.

Not the cheapest, or most expensive. But I think the best bang for the buck. I'm very pleased with the performance of mine, as are many others on the forum. It's been my experience that PB backs up their products really well.

http://ecom1.planetbike.com/3034.html

It does not come with a rear rack mount, but you can buy one from them for $5, free s+h, on their website. (link below)

http://ecom1.planetbike.com/3108.html

Thanks for those links! The taillight rack bracket might be just what I need. But how do you attach THAT to the rack? Do you need one of the Bor-Yueh-type racks with the mounting bracket on it?

How much are you willing to spend? How bright do you want it?

If I had $130 (batteries not included) this is what I'd get.

http://www.dinottelighting.com/images/TAIL_3_large.jpg

I'm actually perfectly happy with the brightness of the Nashbar 5-LED blinkies. They're quite good if you get rechargeable AAs and juice 'em up every few weeks.

What I need is better reliability... I haven't yet figured out a rock-solid way to attach a rear light to a bike with a rack and no space on the seatpost to mount the light. So I keep breaking and getting new blinkies every couple months. :(

I suggest you e-mail them and ask them. I have, and they respond promptly and professionally. PB is doing a good job taking care of their customers

I have both the PB superflash and the Cateye LD1000. Although both work fine and neither attaches directly to a rear rack right out of the box, I think the LD1000 provides a little better visibility.

If you want to take it up another notch or two, it is hard to beat a xenon strobe.
http://www.lightmanstrobes.com/xenon.htm

You get a good powerful tail light for one reason and one reason alone: for motorists to know you are there and to avoid hitting you at all costs. With a dinotte tail light, you won't get the same effect, at least not always as you would with a pair of Superflashes by PlanetBike. With a dinotte light, motorists may still drive up close to you or even hit you! Supeflashes, this won't happens, motorists will think you are an emergency vehicle and avoid you at all costs. It really gets some serious, "OMG watch out for that thing," reaction. If the Superflash costed $100 each, and the dinotte light costed $20, I would still buy the Superflashes X2. I actually care about my safety. If you wanted the dinotte light, you MUST ABSOLUTELY buy two Superflashes anyway. You don't have any superflashes? Don't ride at night!

AND NO! I don't have any shares or financial interest in PlanetBike. I bought a headlight from them and returned it because it is a piece of crap! Don't waste your money on headlights from PlanetBike, ripoff! Would I type that if I wanted to support the company?! You want to be safe cycling and return home to your friends and family without scrapes, broken bones, broken collars, deep gashes cuts, or bashes? Get a pair of Superflashes! And yes, I am preaching! I BELIEVE IN THIS PRODUCT SO MUCH that I would actually preach it online!

+1

I use a Cateye TL-LD1000 as my primary with a TL-LD500 as a back up and a Mars 3.0 on the back of my helmet. One bank of the 1000 is in flash mode, everything else is steady on.

Dinotte has a sub machine gun style flash mode which really catches attention. I find it is alot brighter then the superflashes and can be seen very well in the rain and during daylight. The extra lumens help lightup everything around you to the rear aiding in all around visibility. I had an old trailer LED tail light that tractor trailers/busses have but carting around that 12V battery and huge light was a pain.

As grun suggested I actually use both though. 2 Superflashes and a dinotte. For me though the superflashes are backup, and cheaper then a 2nd dinotte. I always have a backup light especially in the rear! You can easily tell if your front light goes out. Of course with 3 mirrors (2 bar ends and a eyeglass one) I can easily see my lights drowning the whole area behind me in red.

Could you get a suitable sized piece of PVC/dowell/??? and putting it on/under your rack then connect the seatpost/chainstay mount to it? My dinotte is actually mounted on a helmet mount which is then double ziptied underneath my rack but on top of my fender.

+1

I like it better than the Cateye LD1000 which is also good but doesn't seem as bright and it's heavy.

I have a homebuilt thing. it's a 12V amber strobe, $25.

Extremely noticeable. 100,000 candlepower.

If you're willing to go 12V homebuilt, there are many products available for you to build a great system using the internet.

Lightman is very bright, too (I have both, mine's brighter than the Lightman, but it's also heavier.)

But for $25, how can you beat that? (If you already have a 12V system to hook it up to.)

I use Cateye LD-600 as it happened to be on-sale at LBS when I was getting set up to Bike-The-Strike a couple years ago. I then discovered the Cateye online small parts store which has clamps for every conceivable size of frame and seat post that you would ever want, which was great as I could now move the light from one bike to another without reinstalling. Got some rechargeable AA and haven't yet had a problem.

This is very similar to what I currently do! My rack is made of thin tubing so I wrap rubber and tape around it to make it thick enough for the seatpost mount to grip it. The problem is that most blinky light mounts are frustratingly flimsy and being right above the rear wheel is a particularly brutal place for absorbing road vibrations. So the mount will brake or the light will bounce free... this has been a problem with all of the blinkie lights I have used :(

Peter White sells the 4D Toplight Permanent which attaches to a rear rack via a strong aluminum strip that you actually have to drill and screw to the rack. My coworker has one and it's sturdy. But it has no blinking mode and is not as bright as the $5 Nashbar blinkie :mad:

I think the best bang for the buck is Performance's annoyingly named Viewpoint Flashpoint. It is very bright, operates on AAA, has a reflector, and costs only $15.

http://www.performancebike.com/produ...-NCL-ANGLE.jpg

I have both, and don't think 4 Superflashes will come close to matching 1 Dinotte tail light. The difference is stunning and as far as I know, the Dinotte tail light is the brightest, and safest tail light on the market. While you are correct that 1 or more superflashes are necessary for basic safety, 2 superflashes won't touch the Dinotte.

Mod note: edited out beginning of flame war

My thoughts exactly.


Mod note: edited out flame war

Agreed. It's well-built and attaches very study to a rack with a light mount, but it's very dim. Absolutely not worth $30+, which is a shame.

Cateye LD1000

after installing, I noticed that cars passed me with a notable increase in distance as compared to my standard cheapo planet bike 3 led flasher.

Liked it so much I put one on my commuter bag too. I think there's a new model coming out so the 1000 is/was on sale at several spots.

+1 PB Super Flash.

I like the Blackburn Mars 3.0. Very attention getting strobe pattern -- amber sides to the bezel for some side visibility -- not too expensive ($15-$18) -- comes with a mounting bracket that would easily attach to a rear rack (even one w/o the built-in bracket).

I have also used the Cateye LD1000. A lot of people like these because they have two separate rows of lights, each of which is separately controllable so you can, for instance, set one to constant on, and the other the strobe. I thought it was good, but very expensive for a blinkie ($40) and about the size and weight of a beer keg.

Never tried the PB Superflash, and somehow have managed to survive years of commuting.