Seat tube rear lights?
 

Hey - I saw this kickstarter for a seat tube w/ a built in light strip. Seemed like a good idea to me (so I backed it) but it isn't getting much play. Curious what your thoughts are on it?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...tegrated-led-b

seems like a nice idea but I think with real life usage it might be a pain to deal with.

Meh. Much better choices out there. Looks like Kickstarter backers feel the same way.

J.

See: Serfas Thunderbolt. Alternatively, Knog Blinder 4V.

Here's a question - how do they charge that? Do you have to remove the seat from the bike? Do you have to have power near the bike and plug it in?

Question 2 - I don't see how one stated feature - lighting even if you have a saddle bag - is any different with this than with a Thunderbolt or Knog. You can slide either of those anywhere along the length of the seat tube.

In order to make my light visible with just a wedge bag, I had to make an extender. If I had an actual saddle bag, or a rack trunk, the entire seat post would be obscured.

This is the only way I got significant visibility from a seat post light even with a wedge pack:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:65732

As you can see in that photo, if I had a light like in the Kickstarter, only maybe less than 2 inches of it would be visible, the rest of the light (and battery power) totally wasted behind the bag.

Yes - it does not seem to be winning a lot of backers. :)

I dig it because I just like the notion of less stuff hanging off my bike. Living in NYC, I always feel like it's pretty easy for these little bits and bobs to be grabbed by someone walking by - so having the lights integrated seems super easy. As for charging, I'm not 100% sure... I don't have quick release on my seat, but I believe in addition to usb charging (for those that do just pull out their seats when they park) one will be able to pull out the batteries.

But definitely will have issues for those with anything hanging off the rear of their bike!

Reinventing the wheel, great. Any of the popular, proven commercial taillights are probably a better choice, for numerous reasons.

I've started to think Kickstarter is a site crackpots use to promote half-baked solutions for problems that barely exist.

it looks cool in the pics but that's about it. It'd be a good look for a concept bike at a show. But in the real world over time I can think of about 15 reasons why this would be a fail. (some mentioned already above)

I shall choose not to kickstart.

Too many limitations for a commuter IMHO.

Swobo used to have a seatpost with an integrated blinky. Good design,but you had to have at least a certain amount of post sticking out. Same issue I see with this Kickstarter deal,although it would prolly work pretty good for mini velos and folders.

Bianchi used to have a seat with integrated lights,but they were pretty dim and the weird flashing pattern wasn't effective. I always thought that if they'd just used some proper output red LED's with a regular blink pattern they would've had a neat item.