Hiya Folks,
I'm upgrading my lights and I'm looking for a battery powered (AAA or AA) rear light that puts out 100 lumens, or thereabouts.

I'm looking for lights for daytime in London with possibly occasional short night journeys.
So far I've tried a couple of front lights and I quite like the Moon Meteor, and one rear light: Sigma Buster RL 150.

The Moon Meteor day flash seems quite good, though I would like a slightly faster flash. The runtime is excelent.
I'm thinking a rear light that runs for more than 40 hours would let me recharge/replace batteries every time the front light indicates it's required.
From looking around the only rear lights with that runtime are AAA battery powered.

After a couple of failed buys I may have the last retail Niterider Cherrybomb 100 in the UK on it's way to me
That claims 100 lumens and 96h runtime, but I haven't seen one yet.

So does anybody know an alternative rear light that's 100 lumens for 40 hours ?
The cherrybomb is a few years old so there should be an alternative.

Moon Meteor
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Sigma Buster RL150
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Niterider Cherrybomb 100
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Do you ride continuously for 40 hours?

I've been very happy with my usb rechargeable lights for daytime use. There is so much stuff I carry now that has a battery. And I prefer units with rechargeable batteries. Plugging in all of them after a ride has become SOP. Though the lights and other things are actually capable of performing several of my 90 - 120 minute rides before charging.

I was using some really cheap lights USB rechargeables with 4 leds each which it turns out run for 15 hours.
£12 in Nov 2021: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0882YB97G



I recharged them about every 4 outings (approx 10 hours) - no battery indicator.

All my TV remotes / shaver / etc run on rechargable batteries so I've got no problem swapping batteries when required.
I just need some warning.

I do not know if these are sold in the UK or not. Less lumens.
https://www.planetbike.com/superflas...ke-tail-light/

That light has very wide coverage, not just straight directly behind you.

For touring, I have two taillights on my bike. A regular Superflash and the Superflash 65. For straight roads, I use the plain Superflash that has a very narrow focused beam. For hilly or winding roads where the traffic is often not directly behind me I use the Superflash 65.

Foggy or overcast conditions, I use both.

Both take two AAA.

Cheers, I had spotted the Superflash but that's "7 lumens" so I ignored it, the Superflash 65 is just about possible.
Announced Nov 2017

They've got a really annoying web site.
All tail lights with replaceable batteries: https://www.planetbike.com/bike-ligh...able+Batteries
And the most expensive is the Superflash Turbo which is 20 lumens, most powerful is the 65.

Mine are the Bontrager ION Flares. Very similar to these the list today... https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/e...olorCode=black

However I didn't pay anywhere close to that much for them back when I got them about 2018 or just before. But they've worked well for me. It'd be nice though to have lights I can control with my Garmin Edge. My son does, and when I ride with him he is able to easily change settings. Such as dim and change to a steady rear light instead of flashing when I'm behind him. Or brighten the front light if we get in a very dimly lit area at dusk.

So if you have a GPS/cyclometer with such capability, it might be worth it to pay extra for lights capable of connecting to it. Though there have been issues. But I think that was with earlier implementations and they've since worked out a lot of the kinks.

I stopped using disposable battery powered stuff like 15 years ago and have not looked back at all. I think I replaced a warranty light and kept it in the package and didn't use it again. USB or Dynamo is the way to go.

I'm not using disposable batteries.

I use Panasonic Eneloop and Duracell rechargeables.

Edit. There's actually a slight green advantage to (rechargeable) AAA powered lights.
The built in li-ion batteries slowly become less efficient and you end up throwing the light away after some years.
With AAA battery powered lights you just replace the battery,

I hadn't seen that range.

If I read it correctly the rear light is Trek Flare RT rear bike light: https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/e...olorCode=black
Under "Product Details"
..

I used Eneloop, but several years ago started instead to use Ikea Ladda Low Discharge AA and AAA. That said, all the Eneloops that I bought are still in use.

I have not bought any disposable AA or AAA batteries for about 15 years.

For some uses, I am experimenting with Lithium Ion 1.5v AAA and AA batteries. They put out a constant 1.5 volts. For example they work great in my kitchen scale. But when they run out of power, it is very sudden. I would not recommend them for taillights, as you would not know when they quit.

When on a bike tour I use my dynohub to charge my powerbank, then use that to charge my NiMH AA and AAA batteries. Have not bought disposables for about 15 years.



The Superflash is on the left, the Superflash 65 is on the right. The dyno powered taillight on the fender is typically off when touring, as I am charging batteries instead.

Cheers, I've got a radio controlled mantle piece clock (inherited) that doesn't like rechargeables.
But it does run for about 1 year on 1 standard disposable AAA, sounds like one of those might work.

I'm finding it quite difficult to compare lights.
My current scheme is to put them 6" apart and back off 50 feet.

There's probably a way of using neutral density filters and making a video so see which is the last to be visible.
Or maybe just dark glasses.

The ones I got have the recharger circuitry inside each battery. There is a port to plug a USB-C cable into the AAA or AA battery. I have also seen ones with a Micro-USB port instead of USB-C, so decide first which you think you want if you try them.

I was curious, so I checked. When I plugged the USB cord into the battery, the battery contacts had over 4 volts, so remove the battery and charge it when they are outside of the clock or other device so that you do not overload the circuitry.

I also saw ones that came with a charger box that you put the batteries into the box and plugged the cord into the box. I wanted small and portable for bike touring, I wanted to avoid a large charger box, so I got the batteries that directly plug into the cord.

My clocks seem to be happy with NiMH batteries.

I look at the lights from about a 100 yards away during daytime hours to see how bright they are. I do not compare lumens, I just look at them.

I also look at the light beam inside the garage when it shines on the garage door or wall to see if it is a tightly focused beam, putting all the light in a small area or not. The plain Superflash has a tight beam, so I make sure that I have them well aimed straight back from the bike. But as I noted earlier, the Superflash 65 has a wider beam so I use that when on winding roads.

A tightly focused beam that is well aimed does not need very many lumens.

A friend of mine wanted a really bright taillight for bike touring about a decade ago. He bought the one that had the most lumens, was USB rechargeable And he was really disappointed that it only ran about five hours on the bright flash mode. On a bike tour you usually are riding more than five hours a day. I have had some 14 hour days.

On a bike tour, I recharge the batteries in my taillight flashers once a week, even if they still look bright. They might look bright when only a few feet from your eyes, but once the batteries start getting low they are dimmer from a distance.

Ikea used to make some AAA rechargeable NiMH batteries that were rated at 900 milliamps, but they no longer sell them. Now the highest rated AAA they have are 750 milliamps. I use the 900 ones in my taillights on a bike tour.

Interesting.

Eneloop AAA Pro 930mAh
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Photoolex AAA Rechargeable Batteries
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I may have to try some.

Edit. Done while you were posting.
Seems to me 1300mAh + 1.5v is going to be a lot better for bike lighting.
Now I have to check if I can use the same charger ...

Edit2: Further down the Amazon listing: "not compatible with NiMH or NiCd chargers".
But more investigation to be done.

Edit3: definitely the last edit
If you buy the 8 pack for £19.82 it comes with a charger.
Now to check out other brands.

Edit4: Read the add more carefully the Photoolex are 1300 mWh not 1300 mAh

Thanks, I was not aware of the high output Eneloops.

Keep in mind for taillight use, you have no idea if the light quits working. Unless you mounted it on a seatstay so you could look down at it every few minutes. Otherwise, it could go dark and you would not know that.

I am not going to try the Lithium Ion in taillights for that reason. They try to maintain 1.5 volts and when they can't, they go to nil.

I like that they keep putting out constant voltage for my kitchen scale, that keeps the backlight nice and bright. And when they run down, in less than a minute or two the scale stops working. I keep a spare set sitting on the shelf ready to swap into the scale.

I have no clue how well they would work in a low current flow device like a clock, there is only one way to find out. If the electronics in the battery have a minimum amount of current need to keep the electronics alive, the battery might not last very long in a clock.

I plan to try them in my GPS. I use a general recreation GPS, not a cycling specific one. It takes AA batteries.

It is my understanding that NiMH batteries are much less efficient for recharging than Li Ion are. Meaning if you put a watt hour into a Li Ion battery, you will get almost a full watt hour out of it. But not so for NiMH.

When I am bike touring with my camping gear, I try to be self sufficient for all electric needs with only my dynohub as a power source. Meaning that I do not want to waste even a little bit of power, so battery recharging efficiency can be a big deal to me.

My current plan is the front light (day flash 40h runtime) shows how much battery it has left (red flash = 20%).
And then I recharge the front and replace the batteries in the rear (96h runtime).

I'm not saying the spec numbers are accurate, but I can find out by trying it.


More battery news tomorrow - Eneloops are not the highest output !!!

And here's the results of some battery research:


Apparently there are other factors than just mWh/mAh, such as internal resistance, build quality, etc.
I've never had a problem with Eneloop / Eneloop Pro but I have an 8 pack of Photoolex arriving today.

Let us know how they work out. And a report after several weeks to a month or two would be great too. I have not seen anyone else on this forum document any experience with the 1.5v Lithium Ion AAA/AA type batteries. As far as I know, you are only the second person trying them after me on this forum.

Mine have the charger circuitry built into each battery instead of the charger box that yours will use. Thus, there is less room inside each battery for the actual power producing media in the ones I have, mine have a 1100 milliwatt hour rating, which is less than yours. But I made that choice when I ordered them. Instead of the charger box you are getting, I got a cable with a splitter so that I could plug several batteries into the same cord for charging at once. That was my preference.

And being early February, I am not doing much bike riding this time of year, it is minus 14 degrees C outside right now as I type this. So, any battery testing I do on a bicycle will have to wait for a few more months. But I suspect you have more bicycling friendly weather than I do right now.

I can see advantages to the USB charging battery - touring for example.
But I'm going to be cycling from home.

It is warmer here, but parts of the country have had rain every day for the last 37 days.

I have had 2 Cherry Bombs die as the metal clips that connect to the battery broke.
Got them warreneed, but just decided to go with the Planet Bike Super Flash.
Brighter than the Bomb and sturdier (my opinion)

Was that "Cherrybomb" "Cherrybomb 35" or "Cherrybomb 100" ?
Those seem to be the 3 variations historically, and the "Cherrybomb 100" is the only one on their site currently.

Cherry Bomb 100 were the 2 that broke. Though I did like the flashing setup

Cheer Bomb 100 were the 2 that broke. Though I did like the flashing setup