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Old 12-24-21, 05:40 PM
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samkl 
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Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 518

Bikes: 2004 Trek 520, resto-modded 1987 Cannondale SR400, rando-modded 1976 AD Vent Noir; 2019 Wabi Classic; 1989? Burley Duet

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Originally Posted by ThermionicScott
I waffled about posting this in the Electronics/Lighting/Gadgets forum, but figured this forum might be more hip to what I have in mind. This would be in addition to my dyno taillight, to act as a back-up.

* PBP regulation says the taillight must be visible from at least 150 meters. I haven't done much testing of this, but it feels like a pretty low bar -- it's about the same distance as the inside of a 400 meter running track. Brighter would be fine, but not at the expense of:
* 24-32 hour running time in solid mode. This is where most offerings I know of fall short -- rather than being dimmable, they use flashing modes to extend battery life. I rode through 4 nights in 2015, going to the 84-hour group would cut that down to 3 nights. Nights in France are about 10 hours long that time of year, and with better planning than last time, I'd sleep about two hours of each one. With a long enough runtime, I wouldn't have to fumble with batteries when I'm a zombie, a definite plus.
* Miminal weight. Without features like dimming, flashing or recharging, I'm thinking this kind of light shouldn't weigh much more than 2 AAAs, the LED, maybe a limiting resistor, the switch, and enough plastic to enclose it and attach it to the frame.

Does something like this exist? I'm a little concerned I may have to design and build it, since it's rather niche. Most people in the E/L/G forum (and probably everywhere else in the cycling world) seem to want retina-frying brightness and/or seizure-inducing flash modes.
I bet a lot of AAA-powered lights would fit the bill. I have the Planet Bike Superflash and it lasted all of 2019 PBP:

Run times: 40 hrs. on high (30 lumens); 90 hours on low (7 lumens); 45 hrs. on Courtesy™ pulse mode (20 - 60 lumens); up to 130 hrs. on Superflash™ (65 lumens)
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