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What tail light do you use for long, long rides?

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Road Cycling “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” -- Ernest Hemingway

What tail light do you use for long, long rides?

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Old 03-01-17, 04:19 PM
  #76  
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Originally Posted by Sy Reene
Maybe Zecto Drive Pro Rear... though seem very hard to find with red LEDs online..

On a related topic, if it seems much easier to get more lumens with white lights, and since we aren't really cars, why do rear lights have to be red? Ie. if someone wants 50 lumens, why does it matter if it's red or white?
Originally Posted by the sci guy
I think companies just make headlights brighter on principle - so that's why the white versions are brighter. But I agree that tail lights should be the same brightness because most danger comes from behind just as much as the front.
No.

There's one big difference between headlights and taillights:

The headlight has to light up the road ahead and have enough light to reflect back to the rider. That takes way more lumens! A tail light just has to look bright.

If we didn't need to see the road surface, headlights wouldn't need to be nearly as bright.

Most bike tail lights use red LEDs, which don't have any white light to filter out. The red casing is mostly "marketing". The Cygolite taillights have a clear lens for the red LED, for example.

Tail lights last for a lot more hours than a head light, even with a very small battery. And a really bright tail light is extremely annoying to any following riders.

I plan to get a Cygolite 150 lumen tail light to replace my Cyglolite Hotshot, mainly to have a tail light that better catches driver's attention in bright mid-day sunlight. (And my headlight is 2000 lumens, which would be ridiculous for a tail light.)

White tail lights
This is a really bad idea. I don't want a driver making bad decisions if they think I'm headed toward them. The red tail light says "I'm moving in your same direction", as does the pool of bright white light on the road ahead of me from my headlight.

Last edited by rm -rf; 03-01-17 at 04:30 PM.
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Old 03-01-17, 06:07 PM
  #77  
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Originally Posted by rm -rf
No.

Tail lights last for a lot more hours than a head light, even with a very small battery. And a really bright tail light is extremely annoying to any following riders.


White tail lights
This is a really bad idea. I don't want a driver making bad decisions if they think I'm headed toward them. The red tail light says "I'm moving in your same direction", as does the pool of bright white light on the road ahead of me from my headlight.
On the first point, see the snapshot photo I posted. I think it's showing comparison of the exact same light but one with white LEDs and the other with Red" LEDs. Tail lights last less long (at the same LUMEN output) than does a white headlight. You might be able to interpolate from that chart, that if Lezyne had a white LED light, with 80 lumen output and "daytime" mode, it could last 9-10 hours and be twice as bright as the red LED counterpart that's only lasting 6.5 hrs.

Re: 2nd point.. No idea if most drivers would really be confused by the notion of a white led and/or it would present a hazard.. that's kinda my question. That, and whether it's actually illegal?
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Old 03-01-17, 06:14 PM
  #78  
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Second the Dinotte Quad Red. Plenty of run time and longer than I am ever likely to be riding! Very easy to charge and I hate throwing away batteries.
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Old 03-03-17, 10:53 AM
  #79  
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Dinotte is the best bang for the buck i have a set of them from the first gen an its still running well
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Old 03-03-17, 11:46 AM
  #80  
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Originally Posted by the sci guy
No thanks, I'm looking for something self-contained.



Yeah I have a hotshot I use on my commuters - I guess I could just order another mounting clip for it - the aesthetic perfectionist in me didn't want to have that permanently on my seatpost though.

Any idea where I can get extra mounting clips for Cygolites?
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Old 03-03-17, 12:30 PM
  #81  
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Originally Posted by mvnsnd
I'm no expert, but I think the red is a carry over from motor vehicle requirements that tail lights are red in color. .....
RED/WHITE light is covered by a biking regulation in NJ under the Dept of Transportation. Would probably be the same on other states.

39:4-10 Lights on Bicycles.
When in use at nighttime every bicycle shall be equipped with: 1) A front headlamp emitting a white light visible from a distance of at least 500 feet to the front; 2) A rear lamp emitting a red light visible from a distance of at least 500 feet to the rear; 3) In addition to the red lamp a red reflector may be mounted on the rear.

Biking in New Jersey, Regulations, Commuter Information
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Old 03-03-17, 01:34 PM
  #82  
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Originally Posted by deepakvrao
Any idea where I can get extra mounting clips for Cygolites?
i ordered straight from the cygolite site, they have a spare parts section: To Locate Spare Parts by Cygolite Model - Cygolite Online Spare Parts

Just find your light, and click it. the tail lights are at the bottom.
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