I’ve been looking at new rear lights recently, i bought some Exposure Flash Flares but you can come back from a ride and its gone out. Which is quite annoying, i always used 2 lights just in case of this.
Has anyone got any suggestions for a decent rear light for long Dark rides round lanes and the like, not just for commuting.

Thanks for any help

Smart Lunar R2 – mine’s been faultless for about 4 years now. Batteries even seem to last ages too.

http://www.merlincycles.com/smart-rl321r-05w05w-rear-led-bike-light-74377.html

I have a SeeSense rear 110 Lumen, absolutely the best light I have had or seen on the road. My wife followed me home last night and was amazed how much it changed in speed when she approached and brightness when I entered a tunnel.

http://shop.seesense.cc/collections/all

Superb build quality to.

I have that Smart Luna. I also have the clone from Wilco. And apart from having fewer modes it seems as good. And cost £1.95 on offer this week.

Sorry. Double post.

The seesense is dreadful. No physical button is a huge design flaw.

No physical button is a huge design flaw

Not really I just put my bike on its back wheel and it turns off.

Moon Shield. I have two, both over two years old and both still going very strong. Massively bright, and casts a huge beam pattern when pointed a little downward on to the road.

I take it you have the updated model. I have to take it off the bike and try and remember the secret handshake. Mini USB with crap seal is also annoying

I do have the current model which was a free upgrade. I cant see the USB port leaking and have used it in some pretty torrential rain with no bad effects.

I’ve been using a Cateye TL-LD1100 for years and its been great. Very bright, you can set one row to flash, one to constant and run time is great to. I always use 2 rear lights anyway but the cateye is the best.

The SeeSense light looks interesting though, can the auto on/off function be disabled? I have around 10 miles of my commute that’s not on the road so don’t need to pump out 100 odd lumens.

It does not have auto on/off. They said it would then shipped without

Cateye TL-LD1100

Ah, the Holy Hand Grenade of Cateye! I still have a couple somewhere. Very good rear light, if a little bulky by today’s standards. Also, battery not recharge. However, still pretty much the best side visibility of almost any light I’ve used/seen.

It does not have auto on/off. They said it would then shipped without

It does with the upgrade. Only the power on after a complete switch off needs the handshake now. Great light.

can the auto on/off function be disabled? I have around 10 miles of my commute that’s not on the road so don’t need to pump out 100 odd lumens.

You’d just have to pop the bike on it’s back wheel for 3 secs to disable it.

Smart cheaper than Merlin and the Phaart copies at £2.49 from Planet X worth a look:
http://www.planetx.co.uk/c/q/accessories/lights/rear

The Cateyes (some older ones plus 1100 and 600) I had were unreliable – they’d cut out during a ride.

i bought some Exposure Flash Flares but you can come back from a ride and its gone out. Which is quite annoying

Clean the contacts.
Mine do this occasionally. Try a different battery as well – not sure why but my set, the front light works with either rechargeable, the rear light only works with one of them. One thing that helped was folding up a small piece of tin foil and sticking it at the bottom of the battery to improve the contact. Exposure are pretty good with warranty too so if it persists, give them a shout.

As a back up to them and now that winter is approaching, I’ve just got a Cateye RapidX which has lots of modes, 2 of which are insanely bright – the sort you’d actually only use in daytime cos they’re blinding at night! Good little light, it’s recharging off my laptop right now.

I can recommend the on one phaart duals. I bought a few when they were 99p and they’ve been great. Just put a drop of gt85 around the rubber seal and it waterproofs them a bit more. Very bright and good on batteries too. The clip fits nicely onto camelbaks or

If you’re paranoid about the clip, just pop a rubber band around the light and clip.

@soma_rich – what’s the side visibility like on the SeeSense?

I fancy a new rear light for commuting, to add to existing Fibre Flare and Smart Lunar R2 (which suffers dodgy switch). Would use holy hand grenade but find it too wide. The SeeSense appeals, as do Lumicycle InSight and Expsoure Tracer. What do the collective reckon gives best disperse visibility without blinding?

I’ve always found the Smart lights perform well, but don’t have great waterproofing, and eventually leak.

Last light I bought was a PDW Dangerzone, which was recommended here. Extremely bright and has been very reliable in all weather.

Great side vis better than any other i have see,

See sense user here. Minor faff switching on/off is more than offset by the brightness, quality, etc. The fact that it self-regulates brightness is surprisingly useful and the battery lasts about a week of 13 miles each way commuting.

After a recommendation off here I got the Phaart Bleep from on-one its bloody bright and very cheap.
I got asked to turn it off last week by a bloke in a car as he said it was blinding him when he come up behind me..
Also the lad I was riding with also said it was over the top as the flashing was hurting his eyes.

worth considering this

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/accessories/lights-reflectors/lumicycle-rear-brake-light

Another vote for the Smart Lunar here. Nice & bright and side visibility is good too.

On my road bike I used to use the Smart Lunar R2 but upgraded to the Holy Hand Grenade, more flash/constant options and better side visibility

I have a PDW Radbot 500 on my helmet as it has a red reflector, and the flash is pretty good

Was going to put the R2 on my mountain bike but haven’t got round to it yet

The R2 is very impressive, but the holy hand grenade is even more so

On-One Phaart is cheap and very bright, for £3 each I buy them in bulk so I can have then on all my bikes. I also have a Moon Comet which is a new addition and offers some very good side visibility, battery life is average but for my commute light it’s fine.

Leyzene zecto drive. Rechargeable and very bright with 3 led s so you can have one solid and the rest flashing.

I have just got a Niteflux Redzone, about £60 delivered from the states and really nice design. No fancy stuff, just two bright LED’s in a carbon tube with silicone ends to dissipate the light. Very bright, floody and 360degree illumination blocked only by the thing it is strapped to. Mounting is very sturdy as well. I am very impressed so far. They have quite a following, but not in the UK at the moment as they don’t have a UK distributor I would guess, not that it was an issue getting it shipped.