mechBgon

If you had to pick one, would it be the radbot or the danger zone?

The Danger Zone wins by default, you know my bad experience with the Radbots I had. The DZ also allows battery changes without tools, has some extra-crazy strobe tricks, and I'm pretty sure it has a longer runtime (although still short).

I just had another thought on mounting- use a Gino mount. This thingy can be used wherever a M5 bolt can go, so it it could be used at the seat stay or the drop out. But I don't know what size clamps that the PDW and PBSF lights use...

Yep. Just checked the PDW site- 50 hrs on the DZ and 30 for the Radbot 1000.

The larger band will fit large mountain seatposts in the 31.6mm range without a shim, and shim down comfortably to around a 25.4mm if you use both shims. The seatstay clamp... lessee here, I must have some... yes. It's marked 18mm, too small for a Gino mount.

BTW if you're considering the Gino mount, you could just drill a hole in a square piece of scrap metal, bolt that to your eyelet, and bolt the light receptacle straight to it. I know you're not made of money, and those Gino mounts are pricey.

Longer battery life isn't a good thing when you want a bright light.

I have a Radbot 1000, and I was disappointed when I did the math -- on steady mode it claims a 15hr runtime, and even using 1200mah primaries, it only puts about 1/5W into a 1W LED.

In my case, the Radbot 1000 kept turning itself off, so there was no light, bright or otherwise. But the battery life was great as a result :D

On that note, BrianMc did some measurements with the Radbot 1000 and his assessment is found here: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/...ar-light/page2

I speculate the 1W blinkies on the market only deliver 1W in flashing mode, if even then. If you want a high-brightness steady-burn light, the Hotshot might be your ticket to ride. I haven't checked burn time in steady mode, but if it's of particular interest I could do a runtime test.

Another steady-burn monster is the DealExtreme SKU 20333, a flashlight with a red emitter: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ultrafi...2-cr123a-20333 I have one of these and it's REALLY intense if aimed right :eek: Might be a good "early warning system" for people who ride in dense fog, although flashing would still be better yet.

I think the only way a DZ is going to get 50 hours of runtime is if it is running in the OFF mode. I ran mine on a pair of freshly charged 800mAh NiMH cells and it finally shut itself down at about 20 hours. It was pretty feeble during the last 5 hours or so.

It wouldn't be real straightforward to use the Gino mount though. It assumes the round clamp to be at a 90 degree angle from where a seatpost or seatstay mount is. It would work great for stuff that is designed for stuff that normally mounts on a handlebar though.

Thanks----------------------------------------giving............have a happy one.

I guess if you want the convenience of using a light with cells integrated in the body then PDW has at least two good tail lights.

But after using lights with higher power battery packs - I don't see big benefits. A MS tail light can be had around $30 and connected to a 4xAA $2 battery carrier from Radio Shack and still out perform these lights while lasting much longer as well.

Of course one could argue the hassle of strapping on the battery carrier and taping or soldering two wires......... In any event I'll take four.........

Where I ride, anything you leave attached to the bike without being locked is subject to being quickly stolen. I need a taillight that puts out a lot of attention-getting light and is still quickly and easily removable and pocketable. Your bike would be stripped within 15 minutes if you parked it in San Francisco. And they wouldn't do it neatly.

Whist not cheap, the Dinotte 300R fits the bill. I'm thrilled with mine.

Battery packs.... ew. Don't want them. More cables and junk to have to keep attached to the bike. More failure modes, and more stuff to break. And more stuff to get stolen. Also, I commute on my road bike and it's easy to remove my two PBSF and Junkfire torches when I go on a Saturday ride and don't need the lights. On the commuter, I can remove the lights so they don't get stolen while I am in the store running errands.

I've been commuting with a RAdbot 1000 since July, and it's been terrific. I like the button. Makes it easy to switch modes and turn on/off. Does the DZ have a similar button?

Interesting, thanks. Too bad there aren't any numbers for the Radbot on NiMH, but since it seems to be unregulated, I guess I can extrapolate downward.

Cygolite claims a minimum 4.5 hour runtime, with a 3 hour charging time on USB. If those numbers are accurate, that light can put out an average of about 1.2w.

Are there any tests or measurements that compare the visibility of taillights with car tail/brake lights? I don't need crazy -- I've seen bike taillights that were way too bright and I don't want to go there.

It will not. I think the DZ was meant to be mounted vertically because the button is on the bottom (or top) so no light will be emitted from those areas. Light is, however, emitted from the side of the light when mounted vertically.

Where in SF? Perhaps I've been fortunate, but most of my travels are on the western half of the city and I've left a PB Blaze, my PDW DZ, and a Niterider MiNewt on the bike before for about an hour in outer Richmond and Sunset on many occasions. If I'm at Ocean Beach Safeway, that's different though.

I'm surprised it lasted that long. With only about 5 to 7 hours of riding with the light in strobe, I'm putting 300-400mAH into the batteries, Sanyo Eneloops, according to my charger. As such, I recharge the batteries every week so there is no doubt whether or not I have good batteries.


DZ will not last more than 12 or 15 hours with any useful amount of output. Not with NiMH at least. Alkalines might be different, but will be more costly in the long run.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...able-taillight

This light leaves all the cheap lights like Superfalsh/SF Turbo/Danger Zone/Radbot/All Cateyes etc. in the dust. IMHO, there is no compelling reason to buy them at all. I am amazed how a light this small can be so powerful. For the price, one can get two just for the redundancy. Dinotte 300R is 50% brighter but 600% more expensive so there is no reason to buy it either...

Alkalines vs. good NiMHs will deliver a little higher energy content when used with low-current devices (about 4 W-hr vs. 3 W-hr). But when the alkalines start to go their voltage slowly drops over a long period of time. So the light will stay on for many more hours, but will slowly be getting dimmer and dimmer during that time. With NiMHs, the voltage stays pretty constant until the cells are almost dead and then drops much more rapidly.

Nearly all other taillights are powered by replaceable AAA or AA cells. The Hotshot is powered by a non-user-replaceable Li cell. One has to wonder how long this cell will last, because in a light that sells for $33 shipped, it is likely this is a cheap cell. I have had cheap Li cells last for days or years.

Most of the other taillights will continue operating in rain, which is apparently not always the case with the Hotshot, based on comments in that thread.

Finally, although the beam of the Hotshot is very bright, it is a very narrow beam for a taillight, with no spill whatsoever. You'll be visible only from directly behind with the Hotshot.

Those are three compelling reasons to consider lights others than the Hotshot.

Well, you've got the point with the AAA or AA batteries. I also prefer the battery to be replaceable. However, I do not think that such a reputable company as Cygolite would source the bottom of the barrel Li cells. Definitely not the state of the art but not some trash either. A safe assumption seems to be 500 cycles or five years, whatever comes first. 90% of people do not need to recharge it more often than once a week, so five years it is. $33 every five years is not much really, especially taking into account the price of the replaceable battery, if there was one. $200 for Dinotte 300R which also has a non-replaceable battery is another story... The point is: this is a moot point at best but the time will tell...
Operating in the rain: you'll find many more links of people complaining of Superflash & the like letting the water in. Come to think about it, they are more likely to do so because of the replaceable batteries so let me disagree with you on this point.
As far as the narrow beam goes, it seems to have a wider one than Superflash & Radbot both of which I also own & use. I mostly use Hotshot for daytime riding when the other cheap lights are just not bright enough & it has performed splendidly.