Best Rear Light for $25?
 

I didnt see a "Best tail light thread for under..." so I figured id start a new thread to ask. Im interested in getting a tail light for my Trek for the purpose of riding on the road and trail. I know Cateye is a well regarded brand the Rapid 3 seems like a solid light for $25. Would you guys recommend this light or something better at this price point?

My girlfriend has the Cateye Rapid 3 and it is a solid bright light at that price point.

My Flare 3 is super bright and was $22 or $25 at the LBS, if IIRC.

Princeton Tec Swerve is very bright. The mounting system has worked very well for me. Swerve

Rapid 3 is my fav. One on each seatstay. Only gripe is the short runtime on steady (be better if it was half as bright for twice as long).

I'm sure there was exactly this thread recently. Anyway, what a lot of people said is that there is a HUGE jump in rear light performance from $25 to $35. There are a ton of very good lights in the $25 to $35 range. Unless you absolutely can't afford it, it's well worth spending another few bucks and get something like the Cygolite Hotshot, the PDW Danger Zone or Radbot, and several others, all < $35.

+1. Here's the last thread: http://www.bikeforums.net/electronic...-opinions.html

Planet Bike Superflash Turbo. Bright day or night. $22 shipped from Ebay, very pleased so far. If you order, just make sure you get the updated version with the rubber button instead of the hard to press plastic button.

A few bucks more, but I got this: Cygolite Hotshot

I like how that one can charged via USB but there are quite a few reviews on Amazon questioning its longevity. The only complaints ive seen about the Cateyes is that they're not very weather resistant? Not a huge deal to me since I ride in dry conditions (no fenders). There are almost too many choices lol.

If you had to pick between the PDW Dangerzone, Radbot 1000, Planet Bike Superflash, or a Cateye whats the best one? Or are they all equally good?

I've got a Hotshot, and it's definitely nice and durable, but I don't particularly like its extremely focussed beam. I'm thinking about getting a Danger Zone instead.

In the winter when I'm riding at night a lot, I use a Magicshine which is way brighter than any of these and runs off my headlight pack, for $30, but if you have to buy it with the battery pack it's not only huge but way outside the budget.

Rechargeable is good, but I like using AAAs. In flash mode on the Swerve I get 1000-1500 miles out of a set of AAAs before the light starts dimming. The light employs two so-called 1/2 Watt LEDs with lenses that produce a fairly narrow beam which is what makes it so bright. It needs to be aimed properly for max effectiveness which is the case with many of these taillights. Hanging off a loop on a backpack or seat bag won't usually cut it.

If you get that much time out of a pair of AAAs, either the light isn't very bright, or you're running the thing until the LEDs are barely glowing.

There's no free lunch. Long run time comes at the expense of brightness. Period. I ride on 50 MPH 2 lane roads with no shoulders in all weather. I'm not willing to ride with a wimpy light in the dark in a heavy fog with people approaching me from behind at 55 MPH.

I gave miles, not time. Time would depend on how fast I ride. :thumb: Honestly, there is some percentage of that that is group rides where I didn't have it on....and I use Energizer Lithium Advance or Ultimate batteries...

Low duty cycle flashes can be just as bright as high duty flashes but consume proportionately less power. Also the beam width/pattern will trade off width for brightness. Anyway, IMO, the Swerve isn't the brightest, but it's better than the Planet Bike Superflash, and much better than the NiteRider Cherrybomb. I use it in daylight.

I stopped by my LBS after work and picked up a Cateye Rapid 3. They had others including the cygolight hotshot which was quite bright but it was very directional and hard to see from the side. If they come out with a version with side lights that would be awesome.

I also say get the Cygolite Hotshot, even though it's more. If you are riding with other rides who will be close behind you, you will want to put it on steady, because the flashing modes are too bright for eyes that are close.

In fact, I've decided not to put my lights on flash at all. It's weird for an American, but that's what I like.

I know you already bought a light, but for others reading along I recommend the Radbot 1000 in this price range.

I have a Planet Bike Superflash that I'm pretty happy with. Batteries seem to last a long time. I know this because I've accidentally left the thing on when I got back home from a ride more than once.

Oh, sorry, you already bought one. My bad.

For what it's worth, I've been using rechargeable batteries in my SuperFlash. They work well. I've stopped buying disposable AA's and AAA's. Whenever my disposable batteries run down, I replace them with rechargeables. I've gone through far too many disposable batteries in my life. It's time to stop using them. I still use disposable 9V batteries in my smoke detectors.

They are all good with their own pluses and minuses. In the end you will be fine with any of them. If you want to upgrade in the future there are some more expensive models with USB charging, better side visibility, etc. You can also use two lights, one with a focused beam and one with good side visibility. In this case consider running one on steady.

Occasionally, I mount my Cygolite and my Planet Bike side by side. They blink differently, which might be an even better attention grabber than one flashing light. Sometimes I run the Cygolite on steady and the Planet Bike on flash. That's another unusual sight to see.

But usually, I just use the Cygolite on steady, all by itself.

Alright so I guess it's back to the drawing board since the strap already broke on my Cateye. The part that allows you to rotate it vertical or horizontally depending in how you mount it doesnt work and now the light just flops downword. Brilliant design by Cateye and I wont be buying anymore of their products.

So I need something that has a better mounting system, preferably one that you can mount to a rear rack. I cant find pictures of the mounts for most of these lights.

Planet Bike has a good rear rack mount: Taillight Rack Bracket They don't give you the metal part that typically connects the rack deck to the light/reflector, but the rack typically comes with one, you can buy one from them separately, get one off an old reflector, etc. Please note that the Portland Design Works mounts are identical to the PB ones, so you can mix and match.

I think using rechargables is a good plan. When you're using disposables, there's a temptation to get all the life you can out of them and you may run until the light is dimmer than it really should be. With rechargables you just swap out every weekend and recharge the ones you took out, so the light should always be at maximum brightness.

They're good lights, but I prefer the Radbot 1000 for about the same price. I like its pattern better, and it doesn't need tape or a rubber band to keep from falling off the mount like the PBSF (and clones) do.

That said, I generally just get the PBSF clones for $5, and I run two of them so I have some redundancy.

The only reason I might want something even better would be to be even more obvious during the day -- but at night these things are more than enough for my needs.

Yes, the beam on a Cygolite Hotshot is quite narrow. But it's as wide as the road at about 50 to 75 feet back. ( And closer than that, it's very bright from any direction, no beam needed.) At a few hundred feet, it's way wider than the road. So cars will see that bright blink even if the road is curvy. That focused beam makes it very visible on cloudy days, too.

And there's some diverted light at wide angles, even up to 90 degrees, that's bright enough for close range cars on side roads to see.

I have mine aimed slightly downward, and if I look back, I can see the pool of red light on the road behind me. That's bright!

Side lighting
Here's the Hotshot laid on it's side, exactly horizontal, at an inch above the paper. The brightest light shows as yellow, but it's actually red.

The bright side light aimed at the camera is visible, and the other side lighting that hits the paper is pretty bright, in a checkerboard pattern. You can see the central cone of bright light is already hitting the paper just 6 or 8 inches from the light, so it has a decent spread.

This side lighting is just diverted light, via prisms, from the main beam. There's only one LED.

WARNING: if you push the On button in the store, when the light is still in it's box, don't aim it at your face...:twitchy:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-g...o/IMG_1515.JPG

I bought 2 of these a few months ago and they are great. BikePakmart - Super Bright 1-Watt Headlight, 1/2 Watt Taillight, Safety Light Set, Quick-Release, Weather Resistant the tail light is identical to the planet bike super flash and parts are interchangeable. It also includes a nice headlight that has about a 100 lumen output that is usable for limited night riding or as a day-time strobe. Both use a a a batteries. I bought the sets for 13 bucks but they went up to 29 recently. Maybe they were mispriced, but even at current price you get à super flash with a free headlight included. The tail light is fantastic and the headlight is great for daytime flashing or as a limited use night riding light.

I'm going to make this thread a sticky, as I'm sure it has the potential to be just as popular and helpful as the "best headlight under $50" thread.

The problem with all disposable battery lights that I have ever seen is that they gradually grow dim in relation to the battery voltage. When using rechargeable batteries they are never quite as bright since Nimh or Nicd batteries are 1.2v per cell as opposed to 1.5v for alkaline. Li-ion rechargeable lights maintain the same brightness for the entire run of the battery. The only down side is they give you no warning when the battery is getting low. They just shut off. But I just keep a charger where I park the bike and plug it in every night or 2. I'm running this Dosun tail light (just came out this year) and really like it's 270 degree spread.

When you say 1.5v alkaline and 1.2v NiMH ... you're comparing apples and oranges.

The reality is that alkaline batteries start at 1.5v and go down from there, and NiMH batteries start from 1.4v and go down from there. I don't know why they rate the voltages differently for primary vs. rechargeable cells, but they do. Your alkaline cell only hits 1.5 volts when brand new, but when a NiMH cell hits 1.2 volts ... it's around 75% of the way to dead.

In any event, for most lights, the difference in brightness between alkaline and rechargeables is negligible. Of course, the advantage is that when the light starts to get dim ... you recharge the rechargeable and throw away the alkaline, so it's more practical to keep the rechargeables near full charge and therefore near full brightness -- just charge them every ride or every few rides rather than replacing them when they get dim like you do with alkalines.

As for your Li-ion lights, Li-ion cells have a discharge curve just like alkaline and NiMH cells do -- they generally (there are some different chemistries out there) start at 4.2 volts, but their "nominal" voltage (i.e. the voltage that the package says) is 3.6 volts. The only reasons you don't notice the difference in brightness are that 1) many of them have regulators that make sure the LED gets a constant voltage, and 2) Li-ion cells are ruined by discharging below 3.0 volts/cell or so, so they usually have a cutoff circuit that just shuts it off completely rather than letting it get dimmer and dimmer like a NiMH or alkaline cell will.

Many of the single cell 18650 (li-ion) flashlights have no regulator, and you can clearly see them getting dimmer as the battery discharges ... and then they shut off completely when the cutoff circuit is activated. But most dual cell (starting at 8.4 volts and then going down from there) lights have a regulator so you don't notice any changes until it shuts off (with no warning as you said, unless it has a seperate warning light.)