First off: Yes I care how my stuff looks. If you think that's lame, go read another thread, you don't have to troll mine.

UPDATE: I revised the light. There are new pictures in post #13.

To the point:
I ride at night fairly often, and it's a lot safer, as well as a lot less likely to get me a ticket, if I do it with a taillight. However, most taillights that I've seen are pretty ugly looking. I wanted something that was slim and out of the way so that it wasn't really noticeable when it's not on. I thoguht I could mount a light under my saddle instead of on the seatpost, and it would look a lot better. So, I tore apart a planet bike taillight, and started modifying it. What I came up with is kinda ghetto, as it's finished in electrical tape and held on with zip ties, but I think the concept works.

Here's the light from the side of the bike. You barely notice it under the saddle:


And here it is from the back. It's alot more obvious with the flash on the camera turned on. With the flash turned off, it doesn't stand out nearly as much.


Up close:


And turned on:


I think it's be pretty cool if I came up with a nice way to package and mount it.

**** looks like Johny 5 when he's mad

Do a headlight and it'll be K.I.T.T.

I took a similar (but much simpler) approach to the same problem.

I have a clip-on taillight I keep in the pocket of my bag. the problem is there is nothing on the back of my bike to clip it to, and I didn't want to put one of those ugly clip-mounts on the seatpost.

So I put a zip tie spanning the saddle rails. Now I can easily clip the light under the saddle when I need it. The light is muuch more conspicuous when it's on, and the mount is damn near invisible.

Boredom is the mother of invention.

I'd put a parabolic reflector behind those LEDs. But that's me.

It looks tight. Good work.

OK. My opinion is that looks worse than the little bracket, but thats just me..


If you usually ride with a bag or pants, you could just clip on the light there..What about those removable frog rubber lights?

looks really cool. and quite inconspicuous, especial considering you have 5 leds there.

Why do you have a rear brake? The lights look good, need to have them flash or something more atention grabbing. Something tell me a drvier busy smoking, having coffee, and talking on the phone won't notice 5 lights. Also, how bright are they?

Good work, you're are on the right track.

I've always prefered blinking to solid colour lights. Also, I just clip mine onto my bag (the loop of fabric that attaches the flap buckle) so it's a bit higher up/more visible. Nice custom job though,

aww man...that made me laugh real hard for a few minutes...

Ok, I redid the whole thing. It's no longer held together with zip ties and electric tape. Here's some new pictures.

Bike with light mounted (you can barely even see it):


Here's a close-up of the new light:


And here's the light turned on:


And it's made out of a planet bike light that has a blink mode, so it can be either off, solid, or blinking. There's a little push-button switch hidden under the saddle that switches modes. It's also pretty bright. Just as bright as it was in the original palnet bike version.

And the bike has a rear brake because it's a single-speed cyclocross bike, not a fixie.

Well done, notfred! Really good work. Funny that I've been looking at Bianchi bikes recently and found out that the Bianchi Milano has a saddle with a built-in blinky too. See the pic below (source).

The Schwinn Quality line of low-end bike parts (available at Target, among other places) makes a saddle like this with integrated taillight. I think it goes for $18 or so.

I like it. I've been sketching an idea based on a similar approach recently. Seems a perfect place for a blinkie.

My friend just took those LED valve caps that go off when you hit a bump
and he rigged a few up like that to his saddle so whenever he rides around, they flash like MAD.
its pretty tight.