Tail light mystery: red + some blue or purple
 

Weeks ago I spotted a bicyclist with taillight that was unusual in that it had a distinct blue or purple light emitted in vertical fashion from the center, surrounded by predominately red light. Anyone care to guess at the identity of this taillight? Thanks in advance.

maybe he hacked his own unique thing?

https://www.instructables.com/id/CyG...ghts-Workshop/

Must be an old hotrodder. Blue dot lights are a thing in rod world.

My Nightrider Solas lights each have a blue LED that indicate not very low battery, I reckon a little work with a soldering iron could get it to illuminate while main light is in use.

Blue is reserved for law enforcement.

Depending on where you live the local police might not be too happy about blue lights.


-Tim-

Probably cheap.

I bought one from China (was about the cost of a loaf of bread). Thin strip of red LEDs as thin as a credit card. What's not to like?

Well, the gel filter strip was red, yeah. But the diodes underneath were white. And not just any white, but a cold blue/white.

The thing about colour filtration is you can only let red pass through if there's any red light to actually pass through... but these LEDs don't work like glowing hot metal, so it doesn't matter how much red filtration you cover them with, any direct light making it through is still cold - usually an off-purplish colour light, with only the filter material itself glowing nearer it's colour by the non-directional light.

Actually, depending on where you live, blue may or may not be exclusively reserved for law enforcement. Here in Parts Unknown, bicycles may show blue lights, provided (at night) they have a white light to the front and red light or reflector to the rear.

I bought this nice chip-on-board (COB) $12 bike light on eBay early last year. It has a white center light and red and blue surrounding the white center. I was intrigued by the fact that it runs off a 1200 mAh 18650 li-ion battery (not removable). I disabled the blue light portion of the light (illegal in NV) and used the red flashing light as a bright taillight. It has a decent mount instead of that wretched o-ring mount that you get on even some of the expensive lights. It's available in both a square and rectangular design.

$11.67 postpaid https://www.ebay.com/itm/20w-COB-LED...IAAOSw8Wdbg2VB

$11.99 postpaid for the square version https://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Brigh...js:rk:125:pf:0

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a357d91b69.jpg

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...094be65bc3.jpg

I bought some wheel lights from one of those Chinese web sites. They alternated red and blue lights. A car coming in the opposite direction pulled over to the side. I decided I better not use those lights any more.

but tom that is a great way to clear the road and make the ride better. ;)

Mystery solved: it was a discontinued Thor Fire model purchased from Amazon.

I've seen a couple people over the last year or so using these multi-colored rear LED lights on bikes. Mostly I've seen them sold on Amazon, Ebay or the cheap Chinese websites. Then again I've seen some of the more expensive / brighter versions being mentioned here on Bike Forums ( although I forget the brand name at the moment ). I don't know what would motivate someone to want something like that on their bike but personally I could care less. What is more concerning to me is that I'm seeing more people use these "Blue LED" lights on automobiles that I KNOW ARE NOT COPS. I had one of those behind as I was driving down the road just the other night ( steady blue light on dashboard, non-flashing ) and when it passed me I could tell it wasn't a cop.

Thank you. This convinces me not to use those type of lights. The only blue i have is part of a rainbow sculpture mounted on the back of my bicycle.