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Bicycle LED warning lights recommendations?

Old 09-10-21, 08:23 AM
  #51  
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Originally Posted by Rick
The Varia has a range of less than 500 yards, My Dinotte Day Time Light can be seen from over 1 mile away. My Dino taillight after dark works the same. The battery on my Dinotte Day Time Light is good for 35 hours between charges. I'm not saying radar isn't any good. I don't believe it is a good application of the technology. They need to do better on range, battery life and sensors before they can interest somebody like me.


Is this what you use? Its...an impressive wired option.
400 lumen for a rear light- I can see(pun!) why they make you click a box to acknowledge that it is for day use only. Its quite the setup.

And I agree that if this is what you need for visibility from behind, then 65 lumens on the Varia is not enough.
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Old 09-10-21, 08:51 AM
  #52  
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On a related note, how many have been on a group ride behind someone whose flasher could induce epileptic fits even is someone without epilepsy? When your tail light is more powerful than my headlight .... I think you have overkilled the overkill, my friend.

The best part? I am behind you, so you are still counting on my feeble 50-lumen flasher to protect us from cars.
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Old 09-10-21, 08:58 AM
  #53  
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"DayTime" Red top center.
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Old 09-10-21, 10:50 AM
  #54  
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Originally Posted by cjenrick
Rick what kind of Planet Bike rear light do you have that only needs a battery every three years? i would gladly switch over to that because yes, i have enuff stuff to charge already, the desk looks like a Pac Bell switch board.
I like that image. But carry to many rooms in the house.
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Old 09-10-21, 10:52 AM
  #55  
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Is this what you use? Its...an impressive wired option.
400 lumen for a rear light- I can see(pun!) why they make you click a box to acknowledge that it is for day use only. Its quite the setup.

And I agree that if this is what you need for visibility from behind, then 65 lumens on the Varia is not enough.
This is what I use. I asked Dinotte about the brightness and was told they didn't post exact lumens because watts to lumens are not an exact calculation. He did say that their light is between 600and 800 lumens bright. I still like my chances better with a light that can be seen from over a mile back of me.

On a related note, how many have been on a group ride behind someone whose flasher could induce epileptic fits even is someone without epilepsy? When your tail light is more powerful than my headlight .... I think you have overkilled the overkill, my friend.

The best part? I am behind you, so you are still counting on my feeble 50-lumen flasher to protect us from cars.
I live in The high desert This year I have seen less than 20 people while out riding and they were mostly traveling in the opposite direction as me. Their is virtually nobody to annoy, aggravate or torture with my light.

Here is Ricks ride: I have the light mounted to my Tubus rack with two accessories. Tubus makes a fender support that mounts to the light bracket on the rear rack. I have it mounted upside down. Nitto makes light mounts for their racks I have the one with the 8mm screw attached to the Tubus fender support.

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Old 09-10-21, 11:59 AM
  #56  
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I like that set-up.

For the record, I have nothing against blinding tail lights Except in group rides,. The guy surely could have turned down the intensity---and plenty of people made-semi- or pseudo-joking suggestions---but he didn't get the hint.

Where I ride, I rarely see a half-mile of straight flat road, but I like the idea of a light bright enough to be seen for as far away as a car can see it .... so if the road is straight for five miles, I will tow a small chemical laser on a trailer if I think it will keep me safe.

How big are those front brakes? They look like what I would want if i was doing fully loaded touring in the mountains and trying to keep upright and safe on the downhills.
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Old 09-10-21, 12:33 PM
  #57  
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I like that set-up.

For the record, I have nothing against blinding tail lights Except in group rides,. The guy surely could have turned down the intensity---and plenty of people made-semi- or pseudo-joking suggestions---but he didn't get the hint.

Where I ride, I rarely see a half-mile of straight flat road, but I like the idea of a light bright enough to be seen for as far away as a car can see it .... so if the road is straight for five miles, I will tow a small chemical laser on a trailer if I think it will keep me safe.

How big are those front brakes? They look like what I would want if i was doing fully loaded touring in the mountains and trying to keep upright and safe on the downhills.
I have very long stretches' of straight road I travel on in the high desert. I would not ride with my tail flasher on while riding on an MUP. I sometimes leave on bicycle rides before sun up or am riding and the sun is going down. I gauge when my dino set is going to be effective or not and turn the flasher on or off. The dino set is always on. The front rotor is a 180mm ebike rated rotor. The rear is a 203mm rotor They are both made by Magura. My frame has couplers so I use mechanical disk brakes. I currently have the Paul Klamper brakes with Yokozuna Reaction brake cable housing.
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Old 09-10-21, 01:46 PM
  #58  
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Originally Posted by 10 Wheels
"DayTime" Red top center.
Do ya get much photonic thrust from that setup?
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Old 09-10-21, 01:59 PM
  #59  
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Originally Posted by gpburdell
Do ya get much photonic thrust from that setup?

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Old 09-10-21, 06:39 PM
  #60  
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^ I'd be afraid of people shooting at me thinking I was an invading alien landing craft.
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Old 09-10-21, 10:56 PM
  #61  
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Originally Posted by geepondy
What do you guys do if your saddle bag gets in the way of mounting a rear light on the seat post? Mine takes up most the seat post. Maybe try one of the roll up ones to compact things more?
If there's enough room on the seat tube between the stays.


Cygolite hotshot 200 attached to the seat tube

As someone else said if the seat stay is big enough you can use that. I can use it (with the rubber band that came with the light,) on the seat stay of an aluminum Trek but this CroMo is too skinny.

Because my wife's seat is so low I zip tied a PVC pipe to the rack and use that for her bike. Probably could paint the PVC to match the bike if you cared enough and use a shorter piece of PVC. That'd probably work for a skinny seat stay too.


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Old 09-11-21, 10:20 AM
  #62  
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have been doing some more research and while the Cygolite Hotshot Pro series may be popular, it seems their angle of visibility is low. It seems like both the Cygolite Hotrod 90 and Lezyne Strip Drive Pro 300 provide much better angle of visibility. I think this would be important in situations when viewed off center such as approaching intersections. Any thoughts between these two lights? Not sure how easily the Hotshot 90 will mount on my aero seat post but I see it does come with a seat stay mount although this will put the light facing the angle of the seat post. I see the Lezyne Strip Drive comes with a mounting wedge so it will fit on the flat slide of my aero seat post more easily.

Is it worth considering the Lezine Strip Pro Alert which changes lighting modes as one slows down and stops? Are these features really beneficial to improve biker safety and more intuitive for approaching cars? One thing I read is that the braking modes cannot be disabled and I wonder if they might be too bright if having other riders behind you?

For front viewing, I'm thinking a regular not too expensive headlights would be better than a day time only light? They have the same blinking/pulsing features as the daytime only lights and I think it would be a nice backup even if not planning on night time riding. I recall many years ago of repairing a flat during an evening solo ride and it was getting quite dark by the time I got home. I was thinking of something like the Cygolite Metro 800 for this purpose. I see sometimes you can get tail lights bundled with headlights for a cost savings, for an instance I see the Lezyne Lite Drive 1000XL bundled with the Strip Drive Pro 300 at a significant cost savings if purchased separately. Yesterday when biking I came across a bike with the head light in a solid mode. It wasn't blinding but I could easily see him. I wonder how many lumens that was, maybe 200?
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Old 09-11-21, 10:45 AM
  #63  
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In traffic, during the day, or even at night, there was a reason I rode with a blazing orange, reflective construction vest over my jersey. Along with my lights that worked at night. Lights and vests get you seen, that is the important part. I use hand signals to indicate change direction and stopping. IMHO lights that change based on your speed don't tell a car what you are going to do and they are going so fast won't figure it out before they hit you. Regulation hand signals will.
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Old 09-11-21, 10:52 AM
  #64  
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Originally Posted by canopus
IMHO lights that change based on your speed don't tell a car what you are going to do and they are going so fast won't figure it out before they hit you. Regulation hand signals will.
I concur.

Since manufacturers had to put printed circuit boards into their lights anyway, adding a bunch of gadgetry and meaningless frippery was easy, but pretty much worthless, IMO. As with the helmet turn signal, I doubt anyone is looking long enough to decipher what your signals mean.

As for viewing angle, I turn all my tail lights slightly to the left because I have never been hit by a car coming out of the bushes on the side of the road .... but if you feel like another light works better, go for it. i can say I have never been hit from behind, but is that luck or lights? Who knows? I think a lot of it is like buying a lock---you are buying your own mental security more than securing the bike. A dedicated thief can defeat any lock and an inattentive driver won't see your lights because s/he isn't looking anyway. You buy for the majority of situations and take your chances.
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Old 09-11-21, 11:24 AM
  #65  
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Originally Posted by geepondy
have been doing some more research and while the Cygolite Hotshot Pro series may be popular, it seems their angle of visibility is low. It seems like both the Cygolite Hotrod 90 and Lezyne Strip Drive Pro 300 provide much better angle of visibility. I think this would be important in situations when viewed off center such as approaching intersections. Any thoughts between these two lights? Not sure how easily the Hotshot 90 will mount on my aero seat post but I see it does come with a seat stay mount although this will put the light facing the angle of the seat post.
The Cygolite angle can be adjusted so it can be perpendicular to the road even if the tube is angled. If by angle of visibility you mean side to side, dono about that. The brightness is hard to beat though.
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Old 09-20-21, 08:47 AM
  #66  
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I ended up (for now) Getting a Lezine Strip Pro 300 for rear and Cygolite Metro 800 for front. The trouble I think with the Metro 800 while it's a nice headlight with daytime modes, upon looking at it from a distance, the diameter of the lens is small. I'm thinking for daytime purposes, something covering a wider area of light would be more noticeable. Biking is dangerous! Yesterday, a black SUV in a mostly wooded area was slowing backing out of the driveway. I'm not sure if he saw me coming or not. I grew up in Vermont and miss the rural biking experience.
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Old 09-20-21, 02:13 PM
  #67  
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If anybody is still reading this, any recommendations for compact taillights I could maybe clip to the back of the jersey pocket? I would use this in addition to the Lezine I just purchased. My friend gave me an AAA powered Nightrider Cherrybomb 35 but it's too bulky for strapping onto the jersey.
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Old 09-20-21, 02:37 PM
  #68  
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Originally Posted by geepondy
I ended up (for now) Getting a Lezine Strip Pro 300 for rear and Cygolite Metro 800 for front. The trouble I think with the Metro 800 while it's a nice headlight with daytime modes, upon looking at it from a distance, the diameter of the lens is small. I'm thinking for daytime purposes, something covering a wider area of light would be more noticeable.
Not a valid test .... the light could be a pinpoint and if it was bright enough, would be more visible than a light with ten times the lens area ... what you need to do is set up the bike somewhere, drive 800 yards away, and look back at the bike to see what a driver would see. Also, a flashing light is more noticeable.

Further, you have to think about real-world applications. Cars are (hopefully) on the other side of the road while approaching you, and it is daytime (as stipulated) so they can probably see you a ways a way and really don't need to.

The bigger danger, as you note, is cars pulling out of driveways and parking lots. The issue there is purely intensity and rate of flash .... but remember, motorcycles often have two and always have on headlight much brighter than a car, and often generate 110+ decibels of sound, and are always getting nearly hit by idiots who look up the road, see no cars, and pull right out---their brains never register a motorcycle or bike because they are looking for cars and more interested in pulling out quickly than pulling out safely.

So basically, you could have four headlights and a siren and still that guy in the Yukon, backing out, wouldn't see you. (I have a couple "I nearly died" stories where a driver saw me coming, even made ye contact and nodded, and then tried to pull out over me because there were no cars .... or overlooked my headlight at nigh, as I approached down a quarter-mile straight, flat road, and pulled out on top of me just as i passed in front, after sitting there all that time .... )

A Cygolite Hotshot (from 35 to 200 lumens, depending on model) comes with a clip. I usually have one on my bike on a mount and another on my tool bag loop. I am sure other manufacturers offer the same.
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