Helmet mounted taillight
 

I was thinking about adding one more taillight to my commuting setup on my helmet, in addition to the two PBSFs mounted on the rack. A helmet light would be helpful for a few places on my commute where cars may not notice the lower lights . . . mostly for right hook avoidance where overtaking cars cross the MUPs.

My helmet headlight already adds some weight, so a low weight taillight would be great. Also, easy mounting is important. Brightness is not critical, and USB rechargeable would be good, but not absolutely necessary. Any suggestions? I have an LG vented helmet.

I use my Niterider Sola on my helmet. Not sure how it compares to anything else with respect to weight. It is USB rechargeable, and mounts on my helmet very easily (on the rear plastic strap that tightens around your head). Also, at 2W, it's nice and bright.

I put a nylon tie wrap on the back of my helmet and hang a regular blinky on it. Work great.

I have done the electric nylon strap on a saddle bag with poor light mounting option, with great success (never lost the light and it stayed pointing on the right direction). Never thought of doing it on the helmet. Great idea! I can see a"Hot shot" on my helmet in the near future. Double O

German B&M make a nice tidy 4 red LED set, each on a wire that lays in a rear vent hole in your helmet ,
with the coin battery compartment on the strap. ..

low fred setup.


But if it rains helmet covers dont have capacity to fit lights too..
so your head gets wet..

don't forget your Towel !

I have that on my helmet, the B&M Topfire. It weighs less than 20 grams, I don't notice it at all.
I wouldn't use it as a substitute for a real tail light, but it makes for a nice complement that gives me some vertical size in the dark.
My fredliness is so massive, that the Topfire does nothing to diminish it:p

I use a Viz 360 on my helmet, and don't notice any difference due to the weight. But I'm used to wearing a motorcycle helmet, and it still feels like I forgot to put my helmet on most days when I ride.

Already have a super bright headlight for my helmet, but the Viz 180 Micro might work for the rear. http://www.lightandmotion.com/bike/vis180micro.html

The headlight isn't bright enough to compete with my other lights (magicshine and some xml flashlights), but it is enough for when I'm just taking it easy.

I really like the lights Serfas puts out. They don't have super long run times, but they are USB rechargeable so I think they are great for commuting. I use the Serfas USL-5 in flash mode on the handlebars and a Serfas TSL-500+ on my helmet in constant on mode. For tail lights I have been using a combination of the Serfas USL-TL60 on my saddle bag/backpack and a Serfas UTL-6 Thunderbolt on the seat post when not using a saddlebag. I have been wanting to put a tail light on my helmet for some time and was searching high and low for a good tail light that I could easily mount on my helmet. Then, I realized I could put one of my Serfas UTL-6 Thunderbolts on my helmet. I love it! It is super secure, the light is very bright, and it is not directional so you can easily see the light even if you are night directly in the line of fire. The only issue is I have to remove it to charge it, but it only takes me about 10 seconds to remove it and about 30 seconds to put it back on.

Note: I did get longer straps for the light. Serfas sent them to me at no charge.
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=340942http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=340943

I put one of those little knog lights on my helmet and it works perfect! easy to put on and take off with not much weight

I run the Princeton Tec Swerve on my Bell Citi and Metro helmets. The light has two half watt leds and those helmets have a built in holder for the light clip. The one thing I particularly like about the Swerve is that the on/off/blink switch is easy to change on the fly. I like to have it blinking on the MUPs and solid on the roads.

Speaking of.. I haven't looked in awhilebut how come more helmets dont come with LED's mounted in them? makes sense to me.

I found one of these on the street. The rubber straps were worn out, so I used cable ties to fasten it to the lower rear strap on the helmet. Works great.

I have thought about getting the updated version of this (has memory feature), but I really don't ride that much at night currently to justify the expense. Vid also gives you an idea of how well a PBSF would work.

Knog Blinder V4 on the helmet, mounted sideways, very bright and noticeable.

However, there is a problem with this set-up. I wear a backpack, and when I'm in the drops or otherwise pretty low, I fear that the backpack may block drivers' view of the helmet taillight.

I have rationalized the situation by figuring that if I'm in the drops, I should be going fairly fast, but that sounds stupid even as I type it. Well, I have a blinky on the bike as back-up, and do monitor my helmet mirror constantly.

I have a set of Blackburn Fleas on my helmet. Super bright(not just for their size),almost weightless,and easy to mount. Only complaint is the front runs down quick(about 4-4.5hrs);if it only had 3 LED's it would still be plenty bright,but the batt would last longer.

My Bell Metro had a little tab just for mounting the light. I slid a Planet Bike blinkie on it. It's removable. :D I don't notice the weight.

I use a velcro strap across the rear vents

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_0764.jpg
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_0762.jpg

My wife has a Bell Muni with the built in rear light mount and a Blackburn Super Flea rear light. It is an outstanding setup! The super flea is bright, very compact, long run time, and usb rechargeable. The mount on the Bell muni is rugged and well designed. I don't know why more helmets don't have the rear light mount, because I don't care for the fit of her helmet on me, but I would pay $20 more on any other helmet I like to have that mount. If you haven't checked out the Bell helmets with the rear light mount you really should, I can't recommend them enough.
-Bruce

I highly recommend a helmet taillight. I believe that it's gotten me noticed a time or two.

I run a cygolite hotshot on my helmet(my favorite light, usb). As dumb as it is, that light doesn't come with a helmet mount, but I got one (cygolite brand) off of amazon for $2.99. Works smashingly well.

Just in case you wanted to go that route.

1. Light malfunctions, then you've got it's weight plus the weight of an external light- if you can mount the external one where it is the most usable.
2. Damaged helmet, then you've got a helmet and a perfectly good light that you can't use.
3. The built-in light may: be too bright, not bright enough, or have the desired flash pattern.

But if you want to pony up the dough for a helmet with integrated light(s), check out Lazer and Torch.

All very good points but, I guess I was thinking more in terms of auxiliary lights just to be seen not a primary light.

A velcro strap like that looks like it would work great with most lights out there that have a clip mount. Much better than a zip tie.

I've been using zip tie for two years now with no problems. I leave the tie on the helmet and I can clip/unclip de blinky in a flash if I need to.