Rear Lights

I’m using Cateye TL-LD1100 (the one with 2 rows of leds that can be switched independently). It’s bright, has good side visibility and is surprisingly good on batteries. I was also using a 2×0,5W rear light as a backup. Not stupidly bright, but pretty good. With those lights on still not all drivers pass me with safe distance.

This fed me up a bit and I now have swapped the 2×0,5W light for a Magicshine rear light. Runs off the standard battery from Magicshine light, has a 3W led + 9 smaller LEDs and is very bright. It’s pointed slightly downwards so is not blinding drivers but leaves a noticeable red light trail behind the bike. It’s hard not to notice it even at day time. This combo might be a bit over the top now, but does the job especially now when it’s getting dark pretty quick.

+1 for the RSP, had that one on another bike, bright enough and very good visibility.

Moon shield here, has lasted a couple of years so far. Got a couple of Aldi moon copies a few weeks back a d they seem pretty good. Shield on flash and Aldi on constant.

Strip or cob lights best IMO.

I think many lights are too bright and while fronts are worse, neither add to safety

Highly recommend Exposure Blaze on the bike and Knog 4 on the back of the helmet. One acts as a back up to the other and keep the cars off your back.

Don’t forget that for rear lights, quantity is just as important as quality.

What if a light falls off? (and you don’t notice)?
What if the battery is flat after 5 minutes of your 30 minute commute? (and you don’t notice)?

Make sure you have at least 2 lights and maybe some spare batteries!

I also have one of the RSP ones. Great for all-round visibility and can be attached/detached without a bracket (has a good o-ring type clip). It has a good slow pulse mode that I think is more eye-catching than the normal rapid flashing.

+1 what al says about some light being too bright… it’s great to have that power for when the sun is right in your eyes (and therefore the eyes of someone driving behind you) but you might not want to be using it all the time.

18th October 2016 by -Cheesyfeet-[/url], on Flickr

That’s my current road set-up
Knog Blinder
Lezyne Micro Drive
Fabric FL30

Think that lot is plenty bright enough!

See Sense Icon here. Cracking light and full of geek tech features too like accident notification and theft alarm

In proper darkness, Busch Mueller Ixback. Big area, not ridiculously bright, doesn’t flash.

probably out of fashion these days but I’m also using two Cateye TL-LD1100’s. Been using the same two since 2007 and they’ve been perfect. Run one row on flashing and one on constant on each light and have one on my seatpost and one on either saddle bag or rucksack. In winter I use rechargeable batteries and replace weekly.

They’ve been faultless.

Cateye TL-LD1100’s

The holy hand grenade.

Quick thread resurrection as I’m having that annual light review and am looking for a bright but not blinding, non-point source light.

I commute on dark unlit country roads and I found that my Lezyne Micro Drive rear lights are far too bright a point source – it’s hard for drivers to see beyond the light, and I’ve noticed more drivers making bad overtakes before bends – whether it’s because they just can’t wait to get past the blinding light or whether the can’t see the road ahead I don’t know but it’s real. I got around that by fitting a ping-pong-ball diffuser which improves things to a degree.

I’ve got dynamo lights, the rear of which Busch & Muller claim to make it much easier to judge distance as it’s a strip of light not a point source, I’d like a secondary light to go alongside this working on the same principle – what’s good for that – do the Moon rear lights work on this principle ?

Claim

Ixback or Sigma Stereo

Aldi were doing Moon copies a few weeks back. They may have some left instore if you’re lucky. I’ve been running one for a year now and it still works fine. Bought a couple of the bigger metal ones this time round.

But if you can’t find any I’d can recommend the Moon versions. Think the batteries are probably slightly better but I’d want a good deal on them when you see the price that Aldi pump them out at.