westsam

Dinotte Tail Light is very pricey but would be worth it if it saved my life. Saying that i have several questions for you experts. [1] is this light overrated? [2] are some of these cheaper light just as effective? [3] how is the unit powered? and [4] will it fit on the back of my rack?
thanks for the usual good help

Editz

The DiNotte website can answer most of that. There are a handful of videos on YouTube showing off the brightness of Dinotte lights as well. I'm contemplating a tail light myself, but the O-ring mount system may pose some challenges for my rack. I've seen some interesting solutions on Flickr.

evblazer

Everytime I look in my rear view mirror and see cars move over far far behind me into the inside lane of a 4 lane road it is worth it. Everytime someone stops at a light beside me and says they could see me from at least a mile away no matter what time of day it is well worth it, now whether it was really a mile is another matter but I never got _any_ comments like that with other lights I have used.

Dinotte Lighting should be able to answer all your other questions. There are AA Rechargable and Lithium-Ion Rechargable models, sometimes mounting can be tricky but a solution can be found in almost all situations. What worked for me for a while on my rear racks was to use their helmet mount and ziptie it to the rack and then use the o-rings for the dinotte to tie it into the helmet mount.

flipped4bikes

+1. The Dinotte tail light is not overrated. I love mine. If you are on a budget, the SuperFlash is perfectly fine. However, if you want more of a presence than a blinkie can provide, the Dinotte is the way to go. 99 bucks right now w/o NiMH batteries or charger.

Speedball

99 bucks, Yikes! wish I would have waited but at 140 which is what I payed it is worth every penny. Not over rated in any way shape or form. The cars move waaayy over....

Editz

Well, that $99 price does not include batteries or the charger. I may get one simply because I want to invest in a different/better quality charger and brand of battery.

joshandlauri

dinotte light is worth every single penny, way brighter than my PB Superflash.

Shimagnolo

- 0.75" x 0.125" x 10" aluminum bar stock, one hole drilled through top, 2 holes drilled through bottom, slight bend 2" from bottom to line up with front of rack.
- 1" x 2.25" diameter wood dowel rod, slotted, drilled for wood screw, painted.
- (1) wood screw in dowel rod passes through hole in aluminum bar.
- (2) 5mm bolts pass through aluminum bar & front of rack & mount that holds rack to seatstay bridge.

ks1g

Nice work, Shimanglo. I just wrap the o-ring a second time around the rear of my rack. It works well enough for my needs. The battery cord is relatively short; I could make an extension, instead I just stuff the battery into the top pocket of a pannier. f4b makes a good point, though - the PB SuperFlash is $20 or less on sale, gets great run time on 2 AA (or is it AAA) batteries, and puts out a lot of light (esp in strobe mode) for the money. Not as bright as the Dinotte, but good enough for many people. I have one as my 2nd light, and a Cateye as #3/backup.

mechBgon

I like my DiNotte 140R pretty well. If they could make it a single unit, with an integrated battery pack, that would've been even better, but whatever. If you want to get the attention of 60mph / 100kph+ traffic from long range, so they've got plenty of time to notice you and plan accordingly, even in broad daylight, then the 140 or its big brother (the 400-series) are just the ticket (use the flashing modes, of course).

One of my dislikes about the 140 taillight is that it tended to drift around on its mount a bit. I overcame that by making my own mount out of a couple of old computer-sensor bands:



Compact, lightweight, effective. Very nice

The DiNotte has also gotten some praise from the motorists. About a week ago, I was riding home around 9PM in complete darkness on the highway, and a guy in a pickup passed me, stopped at the top of the hill, got out of his truck and waited for me so he could tell me how great my visibility setup was, and how he wished every cyclist had great lights and reflective stuff like that, etc etc. It was slightly embarrassing, but whatever

Editz

Just ordered the 140L-AA-R on sale last night. I hope to mount it in a way similar to this guy:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22303165@N05/2151181172/

Speedball

Edit,

That looks like it will work fine. Mine is attached with a Bontraeger aluminum water bottle holder bracket. Having trouble with the computer or I would try to post a picture.

bicycleflyer

The Dinotte Tail light is THE brightest thing out there. I ride with friends who all have some of the brightest of the competitors. Such as Planet Bike super flasher, and Cateye LD-1000. The Dinotte outshines them all. In fact I am told that as other biker go abeam of me, their lights disappear. Of course my group has requested that I keep the Dinotte in either it's lowest setting, or ride in the rear of the pack.

It appears there are some very ingenious mounting ideas out there. Here is mine....


This homebrew mount attaches to the rack braze on.

mechBgon

...other than DiNotte's double-emitter and triple-emitter versions, you mean You and I just have the "baby" model.

abbynemmy

I won't ride at night without my Dinotte lights. I can't recommend them enough. Here is how I mounted mine to my rack. I drilled two holes through the seatpost mount that came with the taillight and bolted it to the reflector bracket on the rack.

hopperja

I won't be of much help here, because everyone else has already said it.

It is worth every penny. I happened to get mine on sale a year ago for $99, but as I've said elsewhere in these forums, it's worth it even at full price. I don't ever ride without mine (flashing during the daytime, solid in the dark).

Editz

Nice solution. Can you post some more close-ups or an exploded view of this?

Editz

I just received my 140 yesterday. Damn that thing's bright! It hurts even to point it at my closed eyes.

Speedball

.......

........

Editz

Decided to go with the simpler setup of drilling out the stock DiNotte seatpost mount. A 5mm hex head screw with a wing nut. I think I could use a spacer between the mount and the back of the Topeak rack attachment though. The third shot is a Superflash I have attached to the bottom of a PB Cascadia fender.

oldmtngoat

All I can say is that when I started using the Dinotte I immediately notice cars gave me more room when they passed!

Zero_Enigma

How did you mount that PBSF to the rear fender? Can I see a few pics on the mount and materials used? I'm thinking of doing the same on my bike but I have some older fenders that came with this Peugout.

Is that PBSF setup, setup so the light can be taken off quickly say shopping/mall/etc?


Thanks

gear

I think the biggest mistake people (myself included) make when judging the brightness of a tail light is to make the judgment from too close a distance. A car traveling 45mph will close in on a bicycle pretty quickly. In order for the driver to recognize that there is an object to avoid and then take the action of changing the course of the car to give a safety cushion between the car and that object requires quite a good distance for this to all take place at speed.

The Dinotte is seen from a great distance and it allows drivers the time it takes to change course. Most other tail lights aren't visible from such a distance so even though they look extremely bright from a short distance, they just don't compare to the Dinotte when it comes to giving the driver time to take evasive action. The first thing you notice when you begin using the Dinotte is that cars are suddenly giving you room when they pass.

Editz

At first I was going to try and mount the SF like this guy:

https://www.krabach.info/bike_light/aux_flasher.JPG

But then I discovered that the Cascadia's rubber mudflap has a small space between it and the plastic fender. Enough to slip a strip of semi-flexible plastic into. The red plastic strip is a piece I cut out from an old notebook. It has a notch cut into it just wide enough to accommodate the SF's belt clip attachment.

The nice thing about this is that it prevents the SF from moving upwards and thus doesn't get bounced off like it tends to do with the stock PB rack mount. I haven't lost it once in 3 months of daily commuting. The strip also curves slightly due to the shape of the fender, thus making it stand up better. Taking the light off (either pulling everything out or just removing the light from the strip) is very easy.

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indygreg

I CANNOT agree with this post more. It is so true. I do a night ride with a group and they all have an assortment of little flashing lights and things attached to all kinds of place on them. When you are 5 feet behind them on a dark road, it looks cool as hell. Get in a car and come up on that rider (I have done it to test) at any speed . . .even like 35mph and these little lights are not visible until too late. That that is best case. Do it during the day and most red LED (non dinotte) are utterly worthless. You can see them when you get to about 20 feet behind them. Same with into sunset and all kinds of conditions.

I could care less what my tail light looks like from 10 feet and I am not moving. The bottom line is that most drivers use sampling to watch for things. They look forward, then to their mirror, then forward, then to their radio, then forward, then to their kids in the back seat, then forward, then the cell phone. Most drivers will give you some space or slow down if they see you. If you do not make one of their forward samples, you do not exist to them. The Dinotte tail light cannot be described IMHO - I have gone out and driven up behind it (someone else on bike) and you see it from far away. It is worth every penny.