Is this the rear light that is mentioned in this thread?

http://www.officerstore.com/store/pr...d_light_baton/

No....the correct URL is: http://www.flashbakonline.com/ . I've been watching cyclist as I travel around for work, and I have seen a growing number of these FlashBak lights on riders. I'm also beginning to think amber is a better color for cyclists rear lights to use over red. Amber seems to be easier to see than red at long distances.

Pretty nifty, but one might want to verify the legality of rear facing amber lighting in their area.

Also, I noticed it says 250 peak lumens....that would have to be a cumulative total of all the lights together. Looks as though there are 10 total.....that's 25 lumen per light. It would be interesting to see how that compares to one of the half-watt or 1 watt rear blinkies. Reason I mention is because it says visible up to 500 yards. That's 1500 feet. That's less than a third of a mile. The Superflash for example says it is visible up to 1 mile. That's quite a difference. I'm not saying having 10 lights like that in sequence is not going to be very eye catching (an entire row of lights usually is), I'm just trying to make a relative comparison. For $50 (the cost on the website for the flashbak), I could put two Superflashes on my pack and be visible from a further distance (and be proportionately brighter as the distances decrease), use AAA batteries (lighter, cheaper), and have the versatility to use one as a permanent mount on my bike in addition to one that clips on. This thing looks somewhat cumbersome and uses 3 AA's. Plus it says nothing about run time, but I'm guessing with that much total output it's going to drain three AA's much quicker than two AAA's (Superflash can get you 100 hours in flashing mode....and just to be clear I am aware that I am comparing one with one now). And, regardless of the impressive cumulative lumen output, it evidently doesn't show up any further down the road than an individual 25 lumen light. What do you think?

I also was not impressed with their comparison rhetoric in the "product advantages" section. It states:

"A standard bike light can be seen for approximately
50 feet, but the FlashBak can be seen from a distance
of 2000 feet or more."

What kind of standard is 50 feet for "be seen"? That really serves to undermine their credibility with such a ridiculous statement. Not to mention they went from posting that their product is visible "up to" 500 yards (1500 feet) to 2000 feet "or more" (how much more???) in separate pages on the same site. Which is it?

One more thing.....a 30 day warranty? Are you kidding? Superflash has a lifetime warranty.

Really, I am not trying to gratuitously bash this product. It could be a very good one for a particular niche. But I felt like some of these things should be pointed out. Nor am I trying to build up the Superflash (any more than it typically is). I don't even own one......I'm just using it as an example. I also understand the two products are not exactly apples to apples since they are different in their construction.....but they do serve to provide the same end result, illumination for rear safety.

I agree. A 140-lumen DiNotte taillight should be "visible" from over 4 miles in darkness*, and can definitely command attention from more than 1 mile (according to a co-worker who overtook me on a long straight section of highway at night). If their light array is really producing 240 lumens, it should be visible from a heck of a lot farther than 500 yards. I have little bar-tip blinkies that are visible from well beyond 500 yards, to say nothing of mainstream ones like a SuperFlash, premium ones like a DiNotte, or homebrew alternatives like a Nova.


:roflmao:

good catch ccd ;)


*if anyone's wondering why I pick "4 miles," it's because I can see car taillights at that range on a very long straight section of Highway 195 in the dark countryside, and the DiNotte has at least as much power as a car's full brake light

Yeah, saying that an average blinkie is visible for 50 feet is kind of silly. I guess if you buy the cheapest light you can find at the dollar store then your average may be 50 feet. But many laws require 500 foot visibility, and I know that people at work have said they saw me from over a half mile away, and that was when I was running SuperFlashes. Now that I have a Dinotte 140L, I've had people say that they were able to see my light even when we were both heading into the sun and they couldn't see much of anything.

lights always seem brighter when they are not on the bike. maybe because when you are moving you need to see further down the road than when you are standing in your office or backyard. when I first used my magicshine I thought dim would be adequate but as soon as I got one the road I left it on high and that's how I use it. from what I've read, 2 lights are ideal 1 on bar 1 on helmet and of course a rear strobe

Certainly the claims on the FlashBak are outlandish. I guarantee my PBSF, which pales in comparison to my DiNotte, can be seen for significantly more than 50 feet. That being what it is, the FlashBak seems like a good idea.

I did some digging around on the net, and found in Oct 09 it was $32 if it was ordered from their website. Now, 6 months later, it is $45 from their website. I wonder why the steep price increase?

I would take a chance on it and buy it for $32. There's no way I'd pay $45 for it without being able to see it/handle it myself. The reason is because the DiNotte is so bright, my PBSF is rendered virtually useless. I'd like to know if that would be the case for the FlashBak as well.

There is NO way that this can outperform a PB superflash or Mars 3.0.

It claims 250 lumens, but that is almost definitely due to cumulative addition of all the low-powered lights. Each of those lights is going to be a fraction of 250 lumens. I'd be surprised if it even reached 50 lumens per light. The only way this could possibly compare to the superflash is if the batts on the superflash were really run-down and near-dead.

I do like the more "human" shape of the lighting - that's a plus. But I'll take a Mars 3.0 any day over this thing. A single spot uber-bright source that's visible from further away (like a superflash) is more useful to me than a wide spread of low-powered lights that you might not notice until you're right behind.

I guess this thread should read "How much light is enough 'for the road'?"

When I ride...it's usually a short commute to work...or just trails. I don't feel like I need much light riding to work b/c my streets aren't terribly busy, I can bunnyhop over on to the sidewalk to dodge drunk traffic.

On the trail at night? As much light as I can get. I'm currently running around 1200-1400lm from a couple of P7's. I'm in the process of building a triple R5 for another 900-1100'ish. Technical trail riding can be done with a 140lm Coleman flashlight. (my light died so I had to Zip this to my helmet) You just have to go slow. It's much more fun to burn a hole in the night and go as fast as you would in the daytime.


Just my opinion though. As much as possible.

FlashBak is proving itself...to others besides me now.
 

Update on FlashBak Rear Light. I still love my light and I keep finding more and more reviews of the light online. It seems that every review I've stumbled across is positive in their findings. Several of the sites, even said that the FlashBak is the brightest light they have tested...and their testing included the Mars and PB SuperFlash. I'm attaching a few links to the web sites who have reviewed and tested the FlashBak. Check 'em out.


http://bicycledesign.net/2010/05/flashbak/

http://www.bikecommuters.com/2009/11...-safety-light/

http://www.bikehacks.com/bikehacks/2010/06/fb.html

http://austinontwowheels.org/2009/10...-the-flashbak/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cargonistas/4149030890/

the challenge is getting headlights with good beam shape and cut-off. It's easy to pack a lot of light in a reflector but a powerful cone shaped beam wastes half the light off the road and into others eyes.

Well for me to coexist means I have to first exist. If I want to stay alive on the dark rural roads I ride on a bright light is a must. I'm not the fastest in the world but do get to speeds over 20 mph for short distances on pretty much every ride. The roads I ride have little or no shoulders so the margin for error is quite small. Add in the raccoons, porcupines and skunks that I have to dodge and you'll understand the need for bright lights. Not to mention the occasional moose, they tend to not show up well even when I'm in my car. They also could care less about moving for a car, much less a little ol' biker. So put me dead center in the class of those that believe that there is no such thing as too much light:thumb:

Yuppers.

Quick, name five such lights. Bonus points if they're not made expressly to abide by German regulations.

If the light is entirely, stupidly installed...as in flat level to the road and aimed into infinity...maybe some is wasted. But I see very few people that have lights so aimed. It only takes a few rides to notice that the light isn't hitting the ground and is being wasted. Most of us have our lights pointed at the ground at some point in front of us. Aiming the light is a much simpler process too.

Given that the light coming from a parabolic reflector leaves the light in a conic shape, there is only a finite amount of spread to the vast majority of the light being output by the lamp. There is some scatter but even shaped beams with cutoffs scatter some light.

The beauty of lights is that you can see...and get instant feedback...on where the light is going and can adjust accordingly.

^^^ There's a big difference between scatter and direct light. Crouch down in front of a car headlight to see what I mean.

I see plenty of people on rides that have good lights and they are aimed 50 yards down the road, making the light pretty useless..

I use 2 lights and stagger them.. My thrower is aimed about 15-20 yards and my EDC-MCE light is aimed about 6-10 yards in front of me, so I have good vision of what is in front of me and down the road if an obstruction is in the road..

The amount of light needed is also dependent on how fast you prefer to ride at night..

So which two lights are you specifically using?

I disagree about 50 yards being useless. I don't want to be right on top of an obstacle before I hit it. This is what I consider fairly good lighting:

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...chBgon/035.jpg

Deer, skunks, porcupines, lumber, rocks... yeah, I'd like to see that stuff with 5 seconds to spare at 20mph.

Do the same with a light that is putting out less than half of what a car does. What's that prove? I agree that there is a big difference between scatter and direct beam. The complaints about bicycle lights are be about scatter, not about the direct beam. Why else would the highly focused beam crowd use the old saw of '50% of light from conical beams is wasted'? Wasted where? To scatter...or so they think.

50 yards is totally useless unless you have a very bright light, most people do not have lights that even exceed 200 lumens.. My thrower is good enough for 100 yards if I needed it, but that would not be proper use of that light..

My closeup light is Elektrolumens EDC-MCe light and thrower is a custom 5x Alpha G8 LED.. Combined output is close to 1900 lumens.. Most of my rides I only use the Elektrolumens which is 700 OTF Lumens. On dark stretches I will turn on the thrower.. The pic below is the Elektrolumens EDC-Mce light beamshot.. The other pic shows the 5x Alpha G8 on the left and EDC-MCe on the right..

Youtube link below shows beamshot of 5x alpha light.

What is very nice is that the Thrower when aimed at 20 yards is 2/3 the width of a car lane and perfectly fills the entire bike lane for seeing debris down the road.. When you aim an MC-e or P7 light down the road is normally when I would get drivers flashing me with there lights because of all the side spill these lights produce..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHll1wa27qY