Dinotte 300R
 

After reading some of the posts about tandems getting hit from the rear we decided to add a light to the rear of our tandem. From what we have read the Dinoette seemed to be a good choice. I placed an order for the 300R on Saturday and it arrived today. I have it mounted and just took it outside in the dark to see what it looked like, I checked it out earlier in the daylight and I am totally impressed, this thing is bright! People should be able to see us in the day and in the night. At $200 it was not cheap but what price can you put on safety. It only weighs 135 grams.

Wayne

We have been using the Planet Bike Superflash and its pretty good for $25.
It also has been very reliable.
Last time I went looking at tail lights they had demos in the store and the Nite Rider Cherry Bomb was insanely bright, in fact too bright for me as it temporarily blinded me.
It seemed to loose a lot of brightness once you got off angle however.

+1 on the Superflash, we've used it for a couple of years

++1 on the new Turbo superflash which sports a 1 watt LED instead of the 1/2 watt on the super flash. From what I understand the 1W LED in the turbo is the same LED used in car taillights; daylight visibility for under $30.

We are huge fans of Dinotte tail lights. If we get hit from behind it won't be because someone did not see us. We keep ours pointed down a bit and people can see us from a very looong distance. It is the one item that other riders comment on the most..."man that is one bright light, we saw you guys from way down the rode"".

Bill J.

Another vote for Dinotte. Low beam = car tailight, high power = car brake light.
We keep ours alternating high low during the day and have add singles passing us say that they started chasing that light from miles behind us. We have also had cyclist in cars pull along side, roll down the window, and ask what kind of light was have so they can buy one.

Wayne

Count us as fans of Dinotte. We use a Dinotte 140R on every ride and I've just purchased a 300R to replace it. There's no way that a $25 blinky is going to compare with a Dinotte taillight, even if it is a Turbo Superflash. The dazzling flash pattern of the Superflash impresses people in the bike store, but it just doesn't cut it on the road, especially in bright daylight. It's not only the brightness of the Dinotte that makes it superior, it's the fact that it's a true, deep red. Oh, and their customer service is second to none.

I agree for shear firepower the Dinotte wins, but with a list price of $199 that leaves out a lot of folks, no one with a $500 bike will pay that much for a tail light. If you're a serious on-road/any road rider you might justify it, but for the MUP crowd its hardly a viable option.

This is the tandem forum and a decent tandem does cost a bit over $500 and instead of 1 rider you are hoping that the light will help people see 2 riders. Therefore at $100 per rider on a very nice and fairly expensive tandem the cost is not out of line. I also have it set up so that I can take it off of the tandem and put on my single. For US we believe it is money well spent. While on our ride this morning we met up with another rider, we had stopped for a short rest and he stopped to chat and then rode with us, he commented that you could see the light from a long way off. That was what we were hoping for.

Wayne

Visibility (and the assumed collision protection it provideds) is the issue, not sheer firepower. Anyway, I don't see how the price of the bike has anything to do with the price of the light. Isn't it all about safety (or perceived safety)? Is a $500 bike less likely to be rear-ended than a $6000 bike?

If what you're saying is that a $25 light fits your budget and you don't ride in traffic anyway, then I agree - the Superflash is good enough and I could even argue that you don't need a taillight at all. But if that's your primary use, why respond to a post about a high-end light for "serious" riders?

There is also a new Superflash "Turbo" 1-watt LED

It is way brighter than the standard superflash, and is probably the best bang for the buck out there

http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Bike-Su.../dp/B004U5PV5A

EDIT: I see this was mentioned... I will give this light another "thumbs up"

It is really bright. We don't hesitate to use it on night rides.

There are a lot of lights out there that use new high output LEDs. All of those should be very bright. Some Dinotte models allow for use of rechargable AA batteries and that sold me. The only downside to the Dinotte headlight is the unfocused optics. At night it tends to blind oncoming traffic. This "feature" works well as daytime running light however.

Wayne

I was only giving a +1 to a post that was already made about the superflash while adding my experience with the new 1 Watt model. I also agree that its about safety I didn't think I said there was any thing wrong with the Dinotte, I wish everyone had one.

Maybe its where I live but as a driver I see very few tail lights on bicycles. It seems that the cyclists who need them most are not recreational riders/commuters like you and I but non-drivers who use a bicycle as primary transportation, they are often helmet-less, and riding a cheap bike that doesn't fit, these folks may or may not pay $25 for a flasher, but I doubt they could afford a Dinotte.

I investigated taillights when we moved and started doing more rides in the early morning to avoid the midday heat. Frequently there will be mild fog for the first 1/2 hour of the ride and some sort of taillight seemed prudent.

I settled on Blackburn Fleas since they are small and could be easily mounted on our saddlebags on a permanent basis. Compared to the tailights others in our riding group use, their are much more noticeable, though I don't know specifically why that is. Rechargeable via a USB connector, so I'm not blowing through batteries (Blackburn also offers a solar charger or an adaptor which lets you recharge from any alkaline battery, if you need those options).

The battery on one of our 3 Fleas conked out after a few months and Blackburn replaced the entire unit since they have a lifetime warranty. Pretty crazy deal for a piece of electronics if you ask me.

I'm sure the Dinotte is brighter, but it is larger, heavier, and much more expensive. Although I've never seen the Dinotte in action to compare, but I'm going to assume it is significanly brighter. However, in our area auto and bike conflicts are rare enough that I don't feel moved to step up to the Dinotte. The Fleas seem sufficient (for us) for our occasional foggy morning or dusk riding.

A Dinotte 140R on high setting is brighter than the tail light of any other vehicle.
Going to 300 seems like overkill, and shorter battery life.

The 300R is self contained, the rechargeable battery pack is built in. It recharges using my USB iPhone charger. We used it on 3 occasions recently for over 7 hours in the flashing mode and it was still working great. I have since charged it. We live in Illinois where the drivers do not pay much attention to motorcycles let alone bicycles. We wanted a really good bright daylight tail light and the 300R does a great job for US!

Wayne

Google Streetview provides a demonstration of the daytime visibility afforded by the Dinotte 400R, from my commute. This was January 31, at about 8:30 AM.

The Dinotte is comparable in visibility to the traffic light.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6135/...5f5493e8_z.jpg

Well, if we are talking about *daylight* use, then I'll agree that bigger is better.:thumb:

We do not intentionally ride at night, we are in a position to ride when we choose to (retired).

Wayne

I have the Dinotte 140 on my bike, while sporting 2 PB superflash lights as back ups. One superflash on the back of my helmet, the other on a seat stay. I'm very happy with that combination.

Ah, I forgot; I have the 400R, not the 300R. I did that so that I could "permanently" mount the light to the bike and just remove the battery for charging. These lights are expensive and I didn't want to worry about it being easily removed when the bike was out of my sight. If I did that with the 300R I would have to charge the light on the bike. The 400R is brighter than the 300R and the external batteries last longer, but finding a place to mount the battery can be kind of a pain. We have a rear rack with saddlebags and I just drop the battery in the bag.

Really? How did you manage to get on Google streetview?

I would just encourage every cyclist to use some sort of a rear light during the day (night use is obvious). Whatever the cost or technology don't wait until the batteries are on death's door. I've seen a lot of inexpensive blinkies that might be fine with fresh batteries, but are so dim you have to look twice to see if the light is acutally on.

The 300R has a nice quick release mounting system, it is very easy to remove the light from the bike. I actually have the permanent mounting brackets on the tandem and on my single. It is very easy to remove to charge and move from one bike to another.

We both also use rear mounted flashing helmet lights that we got from http://illuminatedcycling.com/, they are also very bright and work great in daylight.

The answer is...

For the last 9 years or so, I've been commuting 19 miles RT most work days, and this 12 months out of the year. Neither cold nor heat nor gloom of night stays this commuter from the swift completion of his appointed route. Heavy rain or Tule fog will, however.

So, if the Google Streetview vehicle is plying Fresno Street even on a damp January morning, it might just come across me.

The thing is, Fresno has great bike lanes, and pretty good weather for bike commuting. You can go look around on Google Street View in Fresno, and not see any other commuters.

I caught up with the Google Street View car a mile south, at Fresno and Herndon.


http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6001/...be2479b6_z.jpg


That is a Light and Motion HID on the bar. I'm on a Specialized Globe (with a Nexus hub), and wearing a (long discontinued) Gill Adrenaline eVENT® jacket.

We often go on a morning tandem ride, before I bike to work. Getting caught on the tandem by Google Streetview, now that would be cool!

I've been riding with a Flare 2 (now discontinued I think) for a couple of years. I can't imagine needing anything brighter.