I have a Red one.

That would be waaaay too much I think lol
That single led light, depending if it's an original one, or clone - is around 900-1200 lumens. I think it would be just crossing the line of annoying enough to be visible.
I have a clone of this light for several years now...very good light btw. It will blind you from half a mile away lol

I tried it years ago, and it doesn't work so great.

First, the red lens reduces the ~600 lumens of a GOOD Magicshine clone to perhaps ~300, and it produces a less-than-spectacular brownish-orange light (IIRC) - definitely not the red you'd hope for if you ordered the lens from ActionLED. It's brighter than most 20-50$ taillights, but not as lightweight or compact with the separate battery pack, and the light is not red - actually closer to amber you might use for a front light.

It would be brighter than most "blinkies", perhaps too bright for night use, as you can't adjust the flash intensity on MS and clones AFAIK. It would be better for daytime use, but not as effective as the far-more expensive DDR/DS500 taillights. I suppose you could use multiple red-lensed MSs mounted on a 2' wide horizontal (an old MTB hbar?) attached to end of rear rack. At this point you might want to consider utilizing automotive LED lights driven by a 12-15v SOURCE - much like the bike pictured in link in #64 .

Putting a red filter on a white light is easy but it's really not that good of an idea. You're throwing away 80% of the light that is being generated (and 80% of your battery life) and turning it into heat that will only damage things.

The best way to go is to buy a proper red LED light or replace the driver in the light with a red one. Heck, the MagicShine taillight is only $30, why not just buy that? It's a very good taillight, I had one at the same time as my 4xAA cell Dinotte 140R and as far as I could tell, they were essentially the same brightness.

They say it often enough over at candle power forums:

It takes 4 times as many lumens to appear twice as bright

Yes, but lumens are essentially photons on the target or lumens per square area. So you can take a bright light and concentrate it down an axis and increase the lumens per square area with a lens and get even more out of that 4 times as bright light. That's what the Cygolite Hotshots do as well as the Dinotte 300R that make them so intense.

J.

I didn't read through the whole thread (sorry) but I have been looking at the Orfos tail light. Has anyone had any experience with this light. Looks Awesome.

Home

I build my own




Using TaskLED driver pushing two Cree XP-E2's at 1000ma's mated to Regina Ledil reflectors running off of 2x 18650's pack





https://vimeo.com/92988300


****

That doesn't make any sense. Lumens can't be measured by lumens per square area.

Lumens is the total amount of light put out by the light. To measure it they use a special integrating sphere to collect all the light.

Lux is lumens per a certain area, to measure it they point a lux meter at the middle and record the intensity.

Typo?

First thing I'd do is contact every local news media outlet and relevant government agency. This is a community safety issue, not something that can be resolved with lights on a bike.

Put together a summary of the facts of the accidents for quick reference. News media and government agencies receive many complaints daily. Too many are from cranks, curmudgeons and kooks. To make your complaint stand out you need to be direct, brief, factual, positive, and emphasize the dangers to the community as well as the benefits of devoting resources to improving conditions.

If possible, shoot some HD video to document conditions. If the video shows distracted drivers - texting, whatever - you can often pull decent still frames from HD video. Be prepared to edit the video to keep it as brief as possible.

If this doesn't get results, escalate to public meetings that allow public commentary. They'll usually give you only one to three minutes, so prepare and rehearse your comments carefully.

Also, check around for safety advocates and any organization that might lend some support and credibility to your complaint.

It takes time and persistence to get results. A local university didn't provide safe access across its divided campus until two students in wheelchairs were killed trying to cross a busy street to get to class. And this was a university that actively recruited disabled students. The university and city procrastinated for more than 20 years and eventually spent millions more than they would have if they'd tackled the problem sooner, and might have saved two lives.

I've been pestering our apartment complex and city officials to persuade the apartment to provide safer egress for our elderly and disabled residents. It's a frustrating process because ADA doesn't apply and this older building is not required to comply with more recent codes. Yet the apartment specifically targets a demographic of elderly folks, so they have a logical and ethical obligation to provide safer egress. But without the force of law to back up our requests all we have is the power of persuasion and public embarrassment by getting the media involved.

Correct. In my first sentence if you change the first Lumens to Lux, it's correct. Typo on my part.

J.

ItsJustMe, Greetings. Which battery pack did you get, and do you have any pics of it mounted, if not, how did you mount it?

I just used a 4 cell that I had, one of GeoManGear's excellent packs. I'm probably going to switch to an 8 cell though. This thing draws a lot of power and I'm sick of having to charge more than once a week.

Mounting, hm, this has about the best photo. I'm not super happy with the mounting, I'm going to try to think up something better. This doesn't stay aimed, it tends to drift down.

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/ga...unt-parametric

Is the battery pack pictured?

What's that garmin piece on the right? Looks like it says garmin.

I've wondered..., does the light settings reset when / if the battery goes dead? Or when you disconnect to recharge.

The Garmin is a Virb camera. I've since returned it. I didn't think it was a very good camera. The light seems to stay on settings when the battery goes dead.

Honestly at this point I think I'd go with the Dinotte Quad Red. Anyone interested in the DS500, PM me, I'll make a deal. Turns out I'm not fond of taillights with separate battery packs.

Below; Said by me about a year ago

Seeker333 response below:

Update response: I'm still thinking about the idea of turning a high powered bike light backward on my helmet ( as I mentioned before ) in order to draw attention on a really dangerous road in the daytime. Just a couple weeks ago I received a Gemini Duo ( with wireless remote ) for review purposes. Since I've been using it on the helmet along with the included 2-cell battery it occurred to me I could very easily reverse the mount and battery set-up and turn the lamp backward set on slow flash.

The updated Duo-R is now has close to a 1500 lumen output. There is also a very nice "slow flash" mode that is very easy to access when using the lamp. In the state of Maryland ( where I live ) it is now very common place to see bright white strobes being used on the rear roof panels of both School and commuter buses. These white flashing strobes are very visible from the rear but are also omni-directional.

The way I figure it, "Good for the goose, good for the Gander". Since the Duo-R uses a wireless remote I could also very easily turn it on and off without even having to remove my hands from the bars. I also have some pieces of translucent amber plastic sitting around so if I wanted to I could very easy make an amber lens for the lamp. Tonight just for the heck of it I cut out a lens just to see what it might look like. Even with the added lens it is still bright as all get-out. I suppose I could also make a red lens for it but likely the darker colored lens would cut down much more of the output. Anyway, can't wait to try this outside in the day just to see what it looks like at distance.

Of course I have no need at the moment to use the lamp in this fashion but it's an interesting option if I ever decide to commute on the dangerous road that I mentioned before. For my night time road rides I'm now still using two lamps; the Performance Axiom on the seat post but have now chosen to use the Gemini IRIS for my rear helmet light ( formerly used the Cygolite Hotshot on the lid ). The IRIS has a much wider beam pattern than the Hotshot so it should make an excellent helmet lamp. Output on the IRIS can be varied ( programmable ) five ways ( from 10-30-50-100-180 lumen ). Run time on the 100 lm level is listed as two hours so the highest ( 180 ) output is likely not going to see much use.

Last weekend on a group ride I saw one cyclist using a combo red/white very bright flasher on the rear. Didn't distract me and made the bike very visible during the night ride. But some folks seem to be more sensitive than others to bright flashers. My idea of a bright flasher would be what emergency vehicles use - I haven't seen any bike light nearly as bright as a police car, ambulance or fire truck emergency flashers. And we cope with those.

I don't cope with the latest LED emergency lights at all. They're absolutely blinding on dark roads to the point that I squint while passing.

Now that you mention it, a few nights ago I noticed some emergency vehicle lights that were unusually bright. I can see how those might be distracting, especially for folks like my mom who has cataracts and poor night vision. Those flashers don't need to be that bright to be seen, and I don't see how they're useful as to-see lights for emergency response personnel.

Anyway, I wouldn't use white lights on the rear of a bike, even mixed with red. Too easy for an approaching vehicle to confuse a bicycle with a car's reverse lights and misjudge the closing speed. The typical 50-300 lumen red steady/flashers seem plenty bright enough to be seen, even in traffic with distractions.

I've found it more helpful to elevate the rear lights than make 'em brighter. Add red lights to the rear of the helmet, clipped onto a backpack, back of the jacket/jersey, or on a trunk bag. Gives vehicles a better chance of seeing the lights in traffic. During nighttime group rides I've noticed bikes with rear red lights only on the bikes themselves -- on the rear rack or lower -- can't be clearly seen in traffic because some cars physically block the view. But if the cars can see the rider's helmet or torso, they can see a red light mounted higher.

I ended up behind a cyclist with an extremely bright tail light doing the chilly hilly ride, it was a dark, rainy day, and I wear glasses, it made it virtually impossible for me to see through the kaleidoscope of brightly illuminated raindrops.

Good point. It hasn't rained much here recently and I don't need glasses for riding, so I probably wouldn't notice. But I'm planning to start wearing safety glasses full time, after some near misses with gravel being shucked like bullets by passing vehicles.

This personal strobe (marine) is rated at 260 lumens in strobe mode and 80 in steady mode.

Which would meet the "serious light" criterion. May not be legal and is not red.

As others have suggested, I'd probably avoid riding in such an area. OTOH, it's an interesting challenge.

You could consider using a rear view mirror and install a trigger to alert overtaking drivers if circumstances warrant, using a very serious light for a very short time (think blinking lights on top of antennas intended to warn pilots, or lighthouses)

If you really want to go overboard, look at marine searchlights. If I am not mistaken you'll find some rated in the thousands of lumens. Naturally, they might constitute a (criminal?) road hazard.

(see a review here. One is listed at 2000 lumens.

OBVIOUSLY you will not want to train this kind of light on incoming traffic, BUT pointed upwards, a short burst cannot go unseen, even by someone scanning tinder at the wheel.

This is the point I was making in another reply, suggesting very short bursts of serious light at longish intervals.

You are absolutely right in pointing out that always on powerful lights are a hazard

It may depend. When I see a cyclist having lights on their helmet, it looks like a light from some poles in distance, unconnceted to the rider. On the other hand, when I have rear lights mounted on the lower part of the seatstays or the legs of the rear rack, they lighten the ground and produce a large (flashing) red area on the road that follows the bike; I suppose that helps with visibility (provided there is a taillight in higher position, too).

Cygolite hotshot plus wear a Proviz switch jacket (the Proviz jacket is made entirerly with reflective material on one side, and the other side is hi viz yellow for the daytime) ... (so at night, you wear it with the grey side facing out, and in the day, you wear it inside out)

If someone is driving at night and cannot see you when you wear the proviz jacket, they should not be driving. It makes you look like Casper the ghost and is highly visible. Amazing



https://www.provizsports.com/en_gb/ca.../category/156/

here are 2 videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etEozvmdJAA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpsCyI72RG0