Fantastic New Rear Light

seataltea

Up until now a rear light has been a solid or flashing red dot attached to the bike, a rucksack or even a helmet.

But DX once again gives us the future of rear lights, the Ultrafire Philips Luxeon powered red led torch £6.17 delivered.

Fitted to the seatpost of my new Aether 20 and focused on the rear silver caliper it looks like the back of my bike has gone supernova (what a pushover yeah) showing my age there.

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ultrafire- ... 123a-20333

http://imgur.com/a/jgf3H

Fantastic for the money, do I need it ? well I'm often a late night/early morning commuter and have two P7s on the bars to light the way so another torch on the back makes perfect sense.

gareth1234

pretty . what you do? cable tie it on?

seataltea

gareth1234 wrote:

pretty . what you do? cable tie it on?

No, it's adjustable and fitted on a couple of bar mounts, it'll swing through 180° but pointed directly rearwards it'll remove retinas.

walkingbootweather

Thanks for the pointer. I'm a big fan of the 501b bodied front lights which I mount on handlebars and helmet, but not so convinced they would so well as rear lights.

What sort of mount have you used - you haven't got links have you? Looks nice and bright from directly behind, but is it as visible from an angle? What is the run time like?

The price for the light is good but obviously people would need a rechargeable battery and charger if they don't already have one. Would a pair be overkill?

tincaman

I have this setup but with this drop-in:

Gives you the option of a flashing mode.
I have also fitted a white cap from a spray paint can as a diffuser and then tye-wrapped the whole lot to my backpack hi-vis cover

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/cree-xlamp-xp-c-r2-5-mode-90-lumen-memory-red-light-drop-in-led-module-38mm-26mm-8-4v-max-26345

johnboytheconfused

Bit useless IMO if you can't even angle it properly because it is too bright, but that is my grouse with any bike light used on road which is too bright; I do understand why off-road riding after dark might need one, but again what is the use of a rear light in that situation?

I run a Smart 1/2 watt rear light, which I like because it can be set to a pusling effect which makes me feel very safe. Recommend the Bikehut 1 watt led on the front as being one of the very few bike lights I have seen with sufficient sidespill directly from the led. I also have a 3 watt Tesco Cree torch, the mutt's nuts for unlit roads and a route I used to ride frequently before moving to my present flat across a dogwalker and ninja infested dark park, or as we call them in Cardiff, daaaark paaaaark innit.

gbsahne001

the spec shows a run time of 1 hour, which is really poor and would only just get me home; during the winter I'd end up charging it twice a day.

seataltea

gbsahne wrote:

the spec shows a run time of 1 hour, which is really poor and would only just get me home; during the winter I'd end up charging it twice a day.

It is rated at about 120 lumens so I'm very sceptical of the 1hr runtime. My P7s are good for 90mins so in theory the red torch should run an easy 4hrs.

jimmypippa

johnboytheconfused wrote:

I run a Smart 1/2 watt rear light, which I like because it can be set to a pusling effect which makes me feel very safe. Recommend the Bikehut 1 watt led on the front as being one of the very few bike lights I have seen with sufficient sidespill directly from the led. I also have a 3 watt Tesco Cree torch, the mutt's nuts for unlit roads and a route I used to ride frequently before moving to my present flat across a dogwalker and ninja infested dark park, or as we call them in Cardiff, daaaark paaaaark innit.

I use that and have seen other commuters with them from about quarter of a mile away (about the longest section of straight road on my route) in driving rain in the dark with streetlights hindering the situation.

I think the pulsing mode is good in that situation as it is different from car lights, so can be identified as a slower vehicle.

DaveHudson

I have two smart 1/2 watt jobbies, One on the saddle bag set to constant and one on the light clip on my camelbak set to strobe.

Feel's nice and safe with plenty of light thrown out at most angles. I think this torch time is a bit bulky and a bit overkill. It's good to be safe but that's a bit much.

seataltea

seataltea wrote:

gbsahne wrote:

the spec shows a run time of 1 hour, which is really poor and would only just get me home; during the winter I'd end up charging it twice a day.

It is rated at about 120 lumens so I'm very sceptical of the 1hr runtime. My P7s are good for 90mins so in theory the red torch should run an easy 4hrs.

Ok, well I used it for 30 mins this morning and have had it turned on since my last post so that's about 2 1/2hrs with no loss in brightness.

vorsprung

There are three problems with this

1) the build quality of deal extreme stuff is sometimes poor

2) it isn't designed to fit on a bike

3) 18650 batteries are available as rechargables istr but only from specialist places

I would guess that the runtime is 3 hours as the voltage/current figures stated for the k2 LED "chip" light making element are 700ma at 3.6v, and rechargable 18650 batteries do 2400ma at 3.6v

seataltea

vorsprung wrote:

There are three problems with this

1) the build quality of deal extreme stuff is sometimes poor

2) it isn't designed to fit on a bike

3) 18650 batteries are available as rechargables istr but only from specialist places

I would guess that the runtime is 3 hours as the voltage/current figures stated for the k2 LED "chip" light making element are 700ma at 3.6v, and rechargable 18650 batteries do 2400ma at 3.6v

1) The build quality of this light is good, as good as all my other DX lights which all work well and are used daily in all weathers.

2) It fits on my bike very well with a couple of standard mounts costing less than £2 for the pair.

3) 18650s are available from from the UK from Ebay and other cycle light suppliers.

4) My runtime is now 5hrs without a recharge using Ultrafire 2400 3.7v protected cells.

sketchley

This looks kind of cool

http://www.lightlanebike.com/prototpye_pics_001.html

No idea if it will go into production based on the follow it may only work when it's really dark!

"Preliminary contextual research shows its performance in real world situations is best when lighting conditions are at their worst, improving safety in the most critical situations."

rjsterry

Not sure drivers would be looking down at the road to see that, and it sounds as though it wouldn't show up against well lit tarmac with dipped headlights and streetlights as found in most urban situations. Interesting idea though.