runner pat

I had an aftermarket motorcycle brake light back in the late 70s/early 80s that did the same thing. Brighter in daylight than night and under braking the light would vary from a slow pulse to a faster stutter. Each light pulse would also get shorter and brighter in concert with the faster flash rate.

The problem I see with a bicycle brake light is that drivers aren't used to seeing a brake light on a bicycle and might not know what message is being conveyed.

JohnJ80

Agree. This might have more value in a commuter situation with lots of bikes - like in Europe. The speed differential between cars and bikes is usually high enough (I would guess) that it wouldn't matter anyhow.

J.

ItsJustMe

I haven't done that comparison, however I have done a comparison that includes the Serfas 60 lumen light. I believe that these are essentially identical lights; they look almost identical and seem about as bright.

Here's that comparison:
Taillight test 2013-04-09 - YouTube

Grillparzer

I made the investment and ordered one of the Quad Red tail lights from Dinotte. It arrived today and as soon as the spots clear from my eyes and I get home, I'll put it on the bike. The quick release seems to be tight and should be effective. It doesn't have the option of the older models I've read of for mounting permanently. I spent the night wondering how I was going to jury rig a cargo rack mount for it and then realized the smallest diameter bracket it came with would do perfectly.

Grillparzer

Well, the Dinotte bracket may have fit perfectly, but it didn't work perfectly. It's already broke after one week of use.

01 CAt Man Do

Ah, but it's a DiNotte. Getting a replacement shouldn't be a problem.
Maybe Monday night I'll get lucky and see you riding through Silver Spring.

From your video, the TL-60 rules. Since the Serfas TL-60 is the same as the Moon Shield and the Axiom ( Clone version ) is about the same as both the Shield and TL-60, they all make excellent choices for a rear light.

ItsJustMe

Then he'll have another bad bracket that will break again and maybe he won't notice until he's miles down the road. One of the reasons I always run two taillights - you often don't know if your light is still on the bike and still working.

FWIW, I've taken to attaching a safety line to all of my lights. I've lost probably > $100 in taillights over the years to broken or badly designed brackets, most recently the Serfas TL-60, which has a strap clip that should be thrown out as soon as you buy the light. I'd be REALLY pissed if I lost a Dinotte to a broken bracket.

JohnJ80

I've run the Dinotte brackets for years on three bikes. I'd say that in this particular case, there was a defect in the one he had. "Beefy" is probably a good word to describe them. You could pick up 2-3 times the bike weight (or more) with them.

J.

hammond9705

Yes, curious where the bracket broke. Can u add a picture or description? I was thinking of getting one of these lights

ItsJustMe

Regardless of how good or bad the bracket is, I still advocate using a safety line on anything you want to keep.

Here's the clip I designed for my rack. Just tying it to the rack would work too, but that would mean untying it to charge. A carabiner is a good alternative though I didn't like it because it rattled.

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/pa...d-other-things

01 CAt Man Do

Don't know if I would assume that the DiNotte bracket would break again. The brackets used look similar to the other brackets DiNotte supplies with some of their other lights. That said I really can't recall any major public outcry in the past highlighting the failure rate of the DiNotte mounting brackets . I really doubt that the bracket broke just by riding down the road. If it did it would have to be a "flawed" piece that somehow manage to get through the quality control.

About the Serfas TL-60 bracket; I own the two sister products to the TL-60, the Moon Shield and the Performance Axiom, rear. Both of the one's I own have the same seat post bracket so I can only assume the TL-60's is the same. Never had a problem with mine but then again it is real important to listen for the "click" when sliding the lamp into the mount. I've often heard of people losing lamps using mounts like these but ( IMO ) as long as the lamp is properly seated and the strap is tight enough I can't see why the mount would fail.

On the other hand the clip on the lamp itself is indeed very fragile. Looks like it's only about 1mm thick ( at it's weakest point ). If somethings going to fail I'd bet on the thin plastic clip. The one I had ( Moon Shield ) broke the first time I tried to mount it to my helmet. The one on the Axiom is no more inspiring. I figure if the plastic clip on the lamp breaks or the plastic piece on the mount that secures the clip breaks you will lose the lamp. This is one of the reasons now that when I mount the lamp I make sure I don't overly stress the ( cheap brittle ) plastic piece on the back of the lamp. That goes for the plastic clip-lock on the mount as well.

Going forward if I end up losing the Axiom I'll have to caulk it up as a loss and just buy another and then consider some kind of plan B to keep from losing it in the future. Otherwise I'm not going to worry about it until something goes wrong.

Garfield Cat

You mean "chalk it up"??

ItsJustMe

It's the clip that I'm talking about. On the Serfas, the clip that it comes with that goes over a strap. It's hopeless. It slides on but there is no retention hook at all, it can slide back off again easily.

Indeed the seat post bracket for both the Serfas TL-60 and the Axiom Pulse 60 are probably the best designed tail light brackets I've ever seen. It's just weird that the same light would come with the best AND the worst brackets I've seen.

Grillparzer

The mistake was mine it seems, I tightened one of the screws on the bracket so much it pulled the nut through the plastic when I banged it. A couple of extra long screws, nuts, and washers seems to have fixed the problem for now. The Dinotte bracket that fits on the rack is the same type that they use for the seat post, just a little smaller diameter, and attaches to one of the downward struts of the rack. Since it protrudes a couple of inches or so from the rack it is susceptible to getting hit. The bracket might work for attaching it to a rack, but I would prefer a beefier alternative. Going forward, I'm either going to borrow the suggestion from this thread and use a safety line, or attach the bracket to a piece of PVC pipe and Velcro strap it to the rack. That way I'll have the option of only having it on the rack when I need it.

PaulRivers

Interesting.

I've never had a screwed-on mount break, but I've had lights flip off the mount before. With those lights, I eventually just glued the light to the mount. Replacing batteries doesn't require take the light off the mount (usually you pry the cover off the light), and if you want to remove the light for long term reasons you can still remove the entire mount.

The doesn't cover the mount itself breaking, but does cover the light jumping (or getting stolen) off of the mount.

mrbubbles

I have little faith in plastic clip removable mounts after I lost a few that were based on the planet bike mounts (and some lights like PDW are still using that mount). My solution is allen bolt with nylock nut with metal bracket mounts on rear racks or on the seat stay bridge fender hole.

01 CAt Man Do

Thanks for clearing up that issue. Unfortunately, even when you pay $180 dollars for a lamp there is no guarantee that the mounting hardware is going to work when mounting to anything other than a bike frame or seat post. At least DiNotte gives the user some alternative mounting solutions.

Sliding QR mounts can be a point of failure for any lamp...nature of the beast I suppose. I've never lost a lamp using a QR bracket or QR slide mount before but I know it can happen. That said I don't think I'd use a tether for something like a rear lamp, even one that cost $189.
On the other hand if the slide mount is made of plastic you might want to inspect the "catch notch" which is what usually locks and keeps the lamp from popping out. These "catch notch's" tend to be small and so might wear out ( due to friction ) if used on a regular basis.

Just for fun I dug out an old PBSF ( with mount ) and tried to see if I could make it come loose by smacking it with my hand. No go, did nothing but hurt my hand. Afterwards I removed the lamp from the slide mount and tried to re-mount it without getting it properly locked into the notch ( no click ). At first glance it looked normal and looked pretty tight. I hit it once and it held. I hit it again and it flew across the room. I've heard of many people losing their PBSF and then claiming that the reason was that the mount was crap. My theory is that likely they never had the lamp properly locked in. Hey, people make mistakes, it happens.

Anyway, no comment ( from me ) on the slide mount used on the DiNotte quad rear. I don't own one so no way to know how well it might or might not work. One thing certain for sure though, If I did buy one I would certainly test the security of the mount by banging it on my hand before mounting it to the bike. I figure a little hand pain is worth the potential loss of a $180 lamp.

peceroni

I purchased the Dinotte tail light because of this thread. 189 dollars seems like a lot .. and it is when you consider that they probably spend 8-12 dollars per unit in cost.

That accepted and aside, the light itself works very well. I've used it on a few rides alone and a group ride today, people said they really noticed it at a very long distance ... which is what I was looking for on the country roads I ride. Will it solve the problem of idiots on cellphones talking and texting? No, of course not. However it is a good light that works well in daylight.

Some of the pedantic **** in this thread ... man. Shame on you fellow ****tards. It is a good light, it is in my opinion as someone who owns both better than the 30 dollar competition. That is all.

* Edit, the clamps? They appear to be the same as you get with any light except you get a bag full of them with multiples of every size along with some rubber spacers. I ended up not using the quick release mount as I need the light to fit under my "*** bag" on the bike I have the light on. ~200 miles since Monday and the light is still there. I generally use it on one of the flash modes for around 3 hours at a time and it needs to recharge for about that same amount before the next ride.

Is it worth 189 bucks? No. Is their an alternative? No.

JohnJ80

Just the other night, I thought I'd check it out. I can pick up my road bike by the light attached to Dinotte mount on the bike. That's good enough for me. No tether needed.

J.

brickster

The metal bracket that attached to the Dinotte 300 came loose after about 2000 miles. The screws vibrated loose and the light fell off the mounting bracket. I managed to retrieve the light and Dinotte is sending replacement screws. The original screws were sealed with loctite at the factory but came loose anyway. I will give it another try because I absolutely love the light.

01 CAt Man Do

Just when I thought I'd heard it all. I guess the guy on the screw assembly line was having a bad day when he put together your lamp. I guess he must of forgot the "righty-tighty, lefty-loosie", rule on that particular day. Hopefully they're not assembling these in either Colorado or Washington state. ( comment intended to be taken totally tongue in cheek )

Econoline

I've convinced myself to try a Dinotte tail light, and I like the quad RED, but I'm not a fan of USB charging. Looking around the Dinotte site I see the 400R AA powered tail light for $129. Looks like I could just drop in 2 (or 4) of my Eneloop rechargeable AA's. The batteries are in an external pack that velcros on to the frame or seat, but I don't see a problem with that. Seems like a good deal at $60 less than the quad RED.

volosong

I know. Old thread, but it answered a few of my questions about the Quad Red. I lost my 300R last Friday when the bolt that attaches the foot to the seat post band worked itself loose. I heard it fall, but a quick inspection of the cockpit showed nothing amiss and I just assumed I ran over something in the awful, debris strewn roadway. Lo and behold, upon packing up my bike after the ride did I notice my light was gone! No way I'd be able to find it twenty or so miles behind me.

I'm saddened that the 300R is no longer being sold, so I'll be ordering a Quad Red in a few minutes. I will not ride until I get my 300R replaced! I'll be taking ItsJustMe's advice and rig up some type of safety lanyard. Is $189 worth it? Definitely yes!

PaulRivers

Also Loctite on screw threads helps a lot to for anything with screws that's meant to be semi-permanently mounted.

JohnJ80

I'm a big believer in powerful tail lights. I actually think they may be more important for safety than powerful headlights, or at least as important. I too have a 300R and find them impressive.

While it's not what the 300R is, I did just pick up a Cyrgolite Micro Hot Shot that I find really impressive. The thing is super tiny and has a lot of kick. I use it for road riding during the day. It's got nice visibility from the side and it's quite impressive from behind with the same sort of focussed lens that the regular Hotshot has and as did the 300R. Its a lot of light for $35.

J.