Store now open. I've ordered a taillight and it's on it's way. Brightest taillight made, or so I've read.
https://store.designshinelighting.com/

800+ Lumens. Dang, and I thought my Dinotte Quad Red was bright. I do like the side visibility though. Can't wait for all the folks to start chiming in about how evil/rude/inconsiderate this light is.

Did you also order one of the batteries on the web site or do you have something else? I hope you can post your experience with the light once you have used it.

My understanding is that this light will use the standard Magicshine-type 4-cell battery pack, of which I have several; so that's what I plan on using. I will post after I have experienced it.

Well, the first thing I like about it right from the get-go is that you don't have to disconnect the battery every time you are not using it; unlike the Magicshine and clones. Haven't actually ridden with it yet, but here are some pics:

Looking good on the LiteSpeed!
Yes, the "standby" current draw with the battery connected is in the very low micro-amp range. Essentially no drain on the battery.

And per the earlier response, yes, it has the capability to be amazingly rude, which is a fantastically good thing on a bright sunny day (especially riding in and out of shadows). The good thing is that the controller has enough dynamic range to drive the LEDs at very lower power levels as well, making it usable at night. This is also when the side lighting feature really kicks in.

Haven't really got it mastered yet--ran into a couple of issues.

First, to turn the light on you have to punch in a code on the power button--dot dot dash. Simple enough, but the trick is that you have to do it really fast--like double-clicking with your computer mouse. The dots have to be less than .3 seconds in duration. Otherwise you can do it forever and all you have is a cold lump of metal in your hand. I've got it mastered now, though, so no problem.

The other problem I had was that the light was shutting off by itself in midride. This really bugged me, since the battery pack was fully charged. However, the problem was not the light's fault. I was using protected Panasonic cells in one of these boxes

Since the protected cells are a little bit longer than regular cells, the box doesn't really close all the way; and when closed as far as I think is appropriate, the springs are really mashed. So, since I hadn't used this pack for awhile, I had loosened the top to relax the load on the springs. Then when I went to use it with the new light, I forgot to cinch down on the lid. Apparently the lid was loose enough that when I went over a bump, the circuit was broken and the light turned off. So the light is OK.

Hopefully over the weekend I will be able to take the light out to a dead end piece of road I know where there is no traffic and a fence I can lean the bike against in an almost vertical position. Once there I can dial in the angle of the light for max visibility from the rear and also play with the various flash modes to make sure I am on the brightest one (I can walk straight back from the parked bike for 100 yards and compare angles, brightness, etc.)

More to follow after I have got it finalized.

Got it tweaked--rode it on my normal ride this morning--passed a friend walking his dog--asked him to watch me as I rode away and then later tell me if the taillight was bright--met up with him on the next lap--he said "You'll get arrested for blinding drivers". So I'm happy and it's a keeper.

So is it worth $230?


It's probably the best taillight on the market right now. If you've got the $$$ and value your safety and are concerned with appearance, it's worth it.

On the other hand, if your budget does not allow this kind of expenditure, you can make do just as well with my Fred-light-twin-pack, shown in post #5 of this thread:
https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/...available.html

Biggest difference is that with the Designshine the women will be running after you pleading for your phone number. With the Fred-twin-pack . . . well, . . . maybe not.

That's all, Folks. I'm outa here. Ride safe!

Wow that's cool. Definitely too much for me, though. I'll just stick to using 2 Hotshots for now...

Does anyone have experience mounting the DesignShine to the seatpost? It looks like the mounting bracket would stick out far enough for your leg to hit it with every pedal stroke; just wondering if that's an issue for anyone.

It sticks out straight behind the seatpost, so unless you're facing backwards on the top bar and wrapping your thighs around the seat post I can't imagine how you'd even touch it with your legs.

here's my mount FWIW. DesignShine sells a bracket identical to what I made, I just didn't realize I'd need one when ordering and it was faster to make one than to place another order.

To answer a few questions:

• it goes down as low as 60 lumens and has several flash modes suitable for night time. The brightest modes carry "DO NOT USE AT NIGHT" warnings and he means it. This thing lights up an entire room bright enough to read by - great in daylight, probably dangerously bright at night.
• As for the triple click turn on, you can change that, it's in the manual.

As an electronics/LED nerd myself one thing that I think is super cool is that the light is FULLY programmable. If you don't like the flash modes it came with, you can make up your own. If you want to use a different voltage pack, like 3/6 cell packs instead of 2/4/8, you can reprogram the low battery warning/cutoff voltages. I may not ever use these features since the flash modes it comes with are pretty good, but some day I may fool with them.

I assume you mean how far does it stick out to the side of the post it is mounted on--I just measured, and it sticks out exactly one inch from the side when pointed directly back.

Yes, very difficult to even touch with your thighs on a seatpost mount.

Yes, it accomplishes the same thing (i.e. translates 90 degrees). Love your 3D printing idea!

Thanks for that dimension. Yes, I was concerned w/ how far the mounting bracket sticks out to the side of the seat post. On my road bike my thigh is only 3/4" or so from the side of the seat post clamp (short guy on a small frame) at the bottom of my pedal stroke so I'd probably be hitting the mounting bracket with each stroke. It's not the end of the world but it'd be pretty annoying. I had the same issue when I had a Topeak MTX rack mounted on my seat post.

Why don't you mount it on the left seat stay--works great and leaves room for a toolpack under the back of your saddle. See my photos above.

Yeah, it seems like mounting on the seat stay is the best option for me. Thanks!

He offers 2 sizes of the Cateye Quick-Release mounts at a better price than I could find elsewhere. They work fine even on odd-shaped seatstays. The cross-section of my carbon bike seatstay is kinda diamond-shape, but the round mount worked fine with little pieces of inner tube rolled up and inserted to fill the "valleys".

So I have four of the mounts, one on each of my four bikes. Moving the taillight from one bike to another takes about a minute.