I bought the 150. $7 is not enough of a difference to warrant stepping down to the 100. Not that the 100 will be chopped liver.

I called REI and they said these lights should ship in the last week of sept.

The Cateye seems to clamp on to the seat post right? Is there an angle in the mount to take care of the angle of the seat post?

There is not, but if you clamp it so that the bottom part is on the seatpost collar, it gets it nearly vertical.

I saw over on the MTBR forums that some people have already received their Cygolite Hotshot Pro 150. It sounds like a promising light.

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My cygolite 150 arrived at the local REI. I'll pick it up in the next few days. $40 shipped, which isn't too bad.

I just ordered a Hotshot Pro 150 from Modern Bike for $45. It got me free shipping on another item I was ordering so I said what-the-heck.

Question, does the Hotshot Pro come with the rubber seat post mount? This is for my e-bike so I want something that can be quickly removed.

I have the Hotshot80 and I expect the 150 will have the same mounting system. It came with a plastic mount that can be attached to either the seat tube or seat stay and is screwed on. The light itself then snaps into the mount and can be quickly removed by holding a tab that keeps it in place.

I have the 150 and its what you say. Not a rubber mount. The light is very bright even in daylight as I rode it this weekend with plenty of sunshine.

Does anyone know if it will work with Cygolite's rack mount?

Edit, Cygolite support says the Hotshot Pro 150 will work with the existing Hotshot rack mount.

I got the cygo150, and tested it against the solas30 around sunset. About 150 feet away, the cygo is clearly brighter, with a much larger circle of light. The difference is more pronounced the farther away you are. The closer you are, the less noticeable the difference. Any driver will be able to see you at least a football field's length away.

Unfortunately, the 150's side lighting is mediocre. Clearly inferior to the solas30's. I haven't had a chance to do any daytime testing, but I expect the 150, again, to be superior straight on, and inferior from the sides.

I don't know if there are multiple brightness levels in flash mode. There is not. There are multiple brightness levels in steady mode.

Three mounts: chain stay, seat post, saddlebag.

Solid light, great on axis, mediocre or a bit worse off. Will give a rating after testing during the day.

I'd prefer a solas150; assuming the side lighting will be better, and on axis lighting very similar. It's too bad cygo can't get their side lighting sorted.

According to Cygolite it comes with a helmet mount as well, is this not true?

The side lighting I don't understand that either, Cygolite made their Metro headlight with side illumination, so they understand the benefits of having side lighting yet they can't seem to put that into their rear lights.

Niterider seems to make a really reliable head light yet their tail lights don's seem to hold up as well as Cygolite's, according a review on Amazon for the Solas 150 there's already been one issue of one that stopped working after just 10 days, sure it will be warrantied but the warrantied one was also defective, so quality control is suspect. The Solas Sentinel is also not very good, the laser lane marker is so dim it can barely be seen, which would be the case because if it was very bright it would burn the battery fast, by fast I mean within 15 minutes!, so it's a complete waste of money. I know this 15 minute thing is an estimate and that time is based on someone I know who hot rodded a laser pointer and he gets about 15 minutes of burn time, and that's putting the laser into just a pinpoint of light not a more power demanding double line.

Actually the Hotshot 150 is designed to be seen from the side. The lamp body is translucent and uses what Cygolite calls, "specially treated internal body that disperses a radiant glow". Previous original Hotshot was not near as visible from the sides as the new 150. Still the "internal glow" only works when using the steady modes. Max output on steady mode is 90lm ( according to Cygolite ). The highest (150 lm ) output is only obtained from some of the flash modes. I measured the "Steady with pulse" mode and found the steady is about half of max, while the pulse hits the highest output levels. "Steady with pulse" is my "Go to" mode, ~ 70 lm steady with 150 lm pulses that are adjustable for timing. Should get about 5-6 hrs in this mode.

In my review of the Solas 150; I filmed it side by side with a Hotshot PRO 80. Directly behind;
the PRO 80 seems even brighter than the Solas 150. But at the sides; the Solas is much brighter.
28 second mark:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8560/2...4d85e44688.jpgBrooklyn Bike Rave by 1nterceptor, on Flickr

OK, tks, that was good info.

But does the 180 come with a helmet mount?

So, steady with pulse gives you best of both worlds? Highest output during pulse, and better side lighting with steady?

The side lighting is not what I had hoped for, but at $40 shipped with tax, I still find it to be a pretty sweet deal.

It looks like you'll need to trade off on axis vs. off axis lighting, unless of course, you decide to use both the solas and pro on the same bike.

Cygolite 150 definitely does not include a helmet mount.

^ In fact two of any decent taillights angled toward left and right at 45 degrees or so likely have better side visibility than the side visibility of one expensive taillight facing straight backward.

Btw noticed all the light descriptions at Cygolite have this footnote: "*Features and specs are subject to change without notice.":rolleyes:

Yep, pretty much in my opinion. If you want more side light you might have to go with the Solas 150 although once again there is going to be a trade off likely. My school of thought on using rear lighting is to use a lamp that gets you seen at distance. The more intense the throw the sooner it may draw attention from motorists at a distance. Anything else it provides is icing on the cake. Of course if you use more than one rear light ( which I do ) you can use two different types. I use the "thrower" ( Cygolite 150 ) on the seat post and a wider beam pattern lamp coming off the helmet. Now if you use side lighting on your frame or use wheel lights then you don't have a pressing need for more side lighting. Some people just like the super bright omni directional rear lights because they are so bright from the sides. I run wheel lights and a helmet light so I don't feel the need for a rear lamp that emits a lot of side light. I will make one thing clear though; No matter how good you think your lights are there is always going to be some numbskull trying to rush through a light who will act as though they don't see you. Be careful at night and ride defensively. More light is better but it is not a guarantee that everyone is going to see you.

I'd rather have the light throwing behind me than to the sides. At a certain point side visibility just ends up "throwing away" light IMO. That said, the Hotshots I've seen out in the wild have incredibly narrow beams so I'm hoping the Pro 150 is wider. My Axiom Pulse 60 beam pattern is plenty wide for traffic approaching from the rear. My friend was testing my e-bike on the street and I could easily see the Axiom from the sidewalk 20-30 degrees off-axis.

For me, the torture test for any rear light is how visible in bright/direct sunlight. If it washes out in those conditions it's not doing its job IMO.

I did a quick and dirty test midday. Which tends to confirm my sunset testing: the cygo15o, as expected, is far brighter than the solas30. At least on axis. From the side, in just about every setting, the cygo remains a noticeably inferior performer. It's not a huge gap, but it's easily noticeable.

The side light performance gap is puzzling, and disappointing, since this is cygo's top of the line tail light, and also because cygo has promised to deliver better side lighting performance.

It seems as if there is something about the cygo tail light housing which is responsible for this performance deficit? The solas has "smooth" sides with a few horizontal-ish ridges. The cygo's side casing encompasses the light in a semi-circular case, which may focus the light forward.

With cygo and solas, you can't get the best of both worlds. You either get superior on axis performance, or significantly better off axis lighting.

I'm now curious about a/bing the solas150 with the cygo150, although quite frankly, it'd be easier on my wallet and more convenient if someone else did.

Unfortunately, I can't really give the cygo150 better than a B rating. It's great straight on, and pretty mediocre and unimpressive off axis/to the side. At the price I paid, I suppose a B+ might be warranted.

What mount do you use for either tail light on your helmet? I've tried using a cree flashlight front of the helmet, but the weight is quite bothersome. I'd want a much lighter headlight as well. The magic shine clones are an option, but then I'd have to stow the batter in a jersey pocket, and it's likely the sweat would destroy that thing in just a few rides.

I agree, simply angling out the tail lights would provide far more side illumination than any tail light currently on the market, even if you didn't go that extreme of an angle and placed them at 20 degrees you would still do a lot better from the side plus cover the rear in a swath of light.

Most people don't want to bother with two tail lights.