KC8QVO

I have been looking around for a decent rear light. I've seen a couple varieties that are combo reflectors/LED lights (flashing) that look cool. I read a review online of the Cateye TL-LD1100 and that looked like a decent option too. While I made my rounds to a couple bike stores today one of them had the TL-LD1100's for 50% off - $20. Not bad, so I bought one. It seems like a decent light. Does anyone have any comments on them from experience? Have you had one? Have you seen one on a ride somewhere? How does it stack up to other options?

GaryPitts

I have one and like it quite a lot. Kudos to Cateye for replacing it TWICE after it was lost, coming off my tail bag on two separate rides. After the 2nd time, I mounted it to the seat post and it has been fine. I like that it uses AA batteries which last quite a while before needing to be replaced. I'm not sure if it gets as much attention in the daytime as one of the better 1W LED lights, but I'm happy with mine.

ItsJustMe

It's a good light for $20. I don't think I'd pay $40 for one, though when it was new it was probably the best in its price range.

gilaasepeda

yup i got two of those model for my mtb and road, love those use AA battery easy to replace. im using chargeable sanyo enelope xxx which last longer realy. down side is because use 2 aa battery to bulky and heavy.

znomit

The pickle.
Very good side visibility, and I like the ability to run steady and blink at the same time.
Replaced mine with a Rapid 3(smaller and brighter).

vol

I tried this light before. While the light visibility is pretty good, I found it too heavy and too big on the seatpost.

rekmeyata

I've never seen this light in real life but read they are very bright. The only problem I've heard is the mounting bracket seems to be a bit flimsy for the weight of the bike.

Is there a reason you need that particular light? Serfas Shield is a slightly better light...of course the Serfas cost a bit a more.

ItsJustMe

One thing, it's a heavy light. I lost mine because I had it mounted to a steel reflector bracket, and on rough roads it just vibrates like heck due to the weight, and it eventually fatigued the metal bracket and it just fractured. When I got home I had a broken off bracket.

rekmeyata

The Cateye LD1100 broke the bikes metal reflector holder? That's just weird. I handled one of those in an LBS once, though they were heavier then others, I didn't think they were that heavy.

znomit

It's 60 grams plus batteries, ~110 with NiMh, about twice the Rapid3.
Mine jumped off the belt loop a few times and survived, and need the fixed mount quite tight to avoid drooping.

ItsJustMe

My route covers 4 miles each way of gravel road which is often badly washboarded. If you take a piece of metal and bend it 4 times a second for 30 minutes a day for a few months, it eventually gives way.

rekmeyata

LOL! Dang you have an odd commute! I don't think many brackets would survive that for long.

jsharr

I have run one, the same one, for many years. Sturdy. No problems with mount. Company sent me a second mount free of charge so I can move it from bike to bike. Good run time on two double AAs. I like that it has two on / off buttons that can be used to set each row of lights for a different function or pattern. There are probably better, cheaper, brighter lights out there now, but I was happy with it when I bought it more than a few years ago and I am happy with it now.

rekmeyata

Supposedly that light is still holding strong in the lighting brightness department still considered to be one of the top 6 brightest. I have a Cateye LD 600 that it too supposedly is still in the top 8 of the brightest ones in the American market. Which I find odd after all these years those two have been around.

ItsJustMe

Just regular old gravel road. I actually don't go that way anymore since getting the road bike, because I do not have an adamantium spine.

Everything else on the bike lasted just fine. Rubber band mounts, fine, plastic mounts, fine.

rekmeyata

What, you don't have a metal back? I do! Titanium to be exact. I'm fed up with rubber band mounts, my last about a season and a half then they break. Plastic mounts are ok if their not zip ties, zip ties get hit with sun and then break like glass after about 2 seasons.

ItsJustMe

A metal back what? I haven't had an O ring mount fail on me yet. One of my lights with an O ring mount has been on the bike for 4 years. I have never had a plastic mount fail either. My PBSF mount has been on the seat post for 6 years now.

rekmeyata

LOL!!, no, I was talking about titanium rods in my back which makes me more of a adamantium spine person.

01 CAt Man Do

Just thought I'd chime in on this; I've not had an O-ring mount fail on me either but I very much believe that it can happen quite easily. Some of the Chinese stuff made from plastic can be real brittle. At least if one breaks I can replace it real easily as you can buy these from Action LED and other places.

Last year the plastic clip on my Moon Shield broke when I tried to use in on my helmet. ( very brittle it was )Tried a couple times to get a replacement clip from Moon but to no avail. I ended up removing the clip and fastening my own Velcro mount. Not pretty but it works. Too good a light to throw away.

About these Cateye lights, for an old style rear light these were one of the best. I like rear lights that use AA or AAA batteries because I know that if for some reason I do an epic ride I can always carry extra cells if need be. For the newer self contained rear lamps the only other thing you can do to cover your bases is to bring an extra self-contained rear lamp along in case the first runs out. ( Note; I just discovered that the Shield works when connected to the USB charger. Perhaps it will run with an external battery atttached. If so that would be great! )

ItsJustMe

Yes, I've seen some very brittle Chinese plastic. The $6 (shipped!) bike computer that I put on my road bike had zip ties that simply snapped in half when you bent them. The PBSF clones that I bought from China had OK plastic in the mounts but the mount itself wasn't good, the light could jump out.

rekmeyata

And this an unfortunate problem with the junk that is made today. Companies are not blind (no pun intended) to the fact that the LED bulb could easily last 20 years, and they knew that if they made the brackets good and strong that a person would not have to buy a light for about 20 years, which means sales would be dismal, so they had to create failure in order to boost sales, and brackets are a way in which most manufactures are doing it. Don't say that's not true, because look at tail light brackets back 15 years ago just prior to LED's, they were much better then today's, so the engineering to make better brackets is there but they choose not to make them like that.

ItsJustMe

Well, brackets from before LEDs were certainly sturdier, because the lights sucked so much power that it wasn't uncommon for them to have a few C cells in there. They weighed 10 times as much.

I haven't gotten a bad bracket from any manufacturer except for the really junk Chinese ones (like the $2.60 PBSF clones from DX). The failed metal bracket I was talking about before was one I made myself out of a reflector bracket. These days I'd 3D print the bracket instead and it'd be much sturdier because I can custom make it to the last detail.

I'll take a PBSF with its bracket from today over the really bad lights with better brackets from 15 years ago. I don't care how good the bracket is if the light stinks.

The brackets for most of the lights I have right now are really quite good. The Serfas rubber mount is great (the clip mount pretty terrible - bad design, slips off, but not due to poor material). The Hotshot mount is pretty good.

The Knog mount, meh, I don't like it. I'll agree there. They seem to be designed to fail and require replacement in a year or so. They really need to step up and make better mounts and more versatile mounts. They have great lights and cruddy mounts. They're nice looking but they only work in exactly one place, and it doesn't work for a lot of people, and it's just not that durable.

01 CAt Man Do

I'm not sure this is about "Planned obsolescence". More than likely it is just over-sight, budget constraints or just out-right poor design. Not all the Chinese stuff is total junk. Depends on what you're buying. If you buy a $5 bike light you can't expect quality akin to what's used on the space shuttle. If it lasts a season you got your money's worth.

All said I have lots of Chinese made lights sitting on my computer desk. Most of these use the plastic O-ring mounts. They could use better mounts but than they would have to charge more. So far I've not had any fail but the heavier the lamp the more problems with the O-ring mounts. Personally I'm ecstatic that I can buy a bike light for < $40 that not only can supply the amount of light I need to mountain bike but will actually do so very well. Let's face it, if all the Chinese made stuff was junk no one would buy it and then we'd have nothing to talk about.

rekmeyata

My first rear tail light I bought about 25 years ago, (before that I relied on reflectors), and that light ran on 2 AA's not C's.

Knog's, which I like to call No's have issues with their internals too, I bought two and both failed within a week of purchase from some sort of internal failure...but the mounts lasted the week! But I agree, the Knog mounts are bad but so are a bunch of others. Cygolite does do a decent job with their mounts, probably better then 99% of the manufactures out there, but even they have cheapened their mounts just not as much as others.