Rear lights are driving me mad

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martin113
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Joined: 19 May 2011, 5:35pm

Rear lights are driving me mad

Post by martin113 »

It's that time of year again when a cyclist's mind turns to thoughts of lights. I want a rechargeable rear light with option to have it steady or flashing. Trouble is that buying on the internet it's hard to see what kind of bracket it comes with. Most just use a rubber ring to fit around the seatpost. Useless if you use a seat pack. I want to fit it to the seat stays but of course with a simple wrap around rubber thing it points mostly up in the air. I want to be able to adjust the direction of the beam to hit those motorists right in the eye. Tell me about your favourite and most powerful lights on your seat stays.
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Audax67
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Re: Rear lights are driving me mad

Post by Audax67 »

People with powerful and/or flashing rearlights are a plague for following cyclists. There was a silly fellow last week who had one on his bike and one on his idiot head, both of them flashing in a random pattern at variable intensity, the final blast being powerful enough to cut through steel. Dear Lord the misfortunes I wished upon him, if half of them came true he'd have been in three graves by now and shaping up for a fourth.

FWIW I use a stay-mounted B&M Secula on one side and one of these as a back-up on the opposite stay:

http://www.cateye.com/en/products/detail/TL-LD650/

Angled horizontally and in non-blinking mode, of course.
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Therealsouthstander
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Re: Rear lights are driving me mad

Post by Therealsouthstander »

Well, when I'm cycling into work on a dark morning at 4.30 am on a rural road ,I have 2 flashing rear lights - the Cateye LT 1100.1 on my helmet and 1 on my saddle bag..

I want cars/ trucks to see me from as far back as possible.. Do you honestly think this is wrong. ?
Colgrenfell
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Re: Rear lights are driving me mad

Post by Colgrenfell »

Big fan of the Moon http://www.moon-sport.com/product-detail.php?id=72 lights, great mounts and steady or flashing states
PH
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Re: Rear lights are driving me mad

Post by PH »

Therealsouthstander wrote:Well, when I'm cycling into work on a dark morning at 4.30 am on a rural road ,I have 2 flashing rear lights - the Cateye LT 1100.1 on my helmet and 1 on my saddle bag..


Apparently you're better off with one flashing and one steady, can't remember where I read it but think it was a reliable source. The theory is that the flashing light gets more attention but the steady light makes it easier to judge distance.
PH
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Re: Rear lights are driving me mad

Post by PH »

martin113 wrote:It's that time of year again when a cyclist's mind turns to thoughts of lights. I want a rechargeable rear light with option to have it steady or flashing. Trouble is that buying on the internet it's hard to see what kind of bracket it comes with. Most just use a rubber ring to fit around the seatpost. Useless if you use a seat pack. I want to fit it to the seat stays but of course with a simple wrap around rubber thing it points mostly up in the air. I want to be able to adjust the direction of the beam to hit those motorists right in the eye. Tell me about your favourite and most powerful lights on your seat stays.


I have several Cateyes, there's a choice of brackets and which don't seem to have changed in years.
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/rear-light-b ... EYE&page=1

Allows me to swap lights between rack, seatpost and stay on different bikes.
Bigdummysteve
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Re: Rear lights are driving me mad

Post by Bigdummysteve »

Colgrenfell wrote:Big fan of the Moon http://www.moon-sport.com/product-detail.php?id=72 lights, great mounts and steady or flashing states


I have a moon front light, the mounts are very solid and the angle can be adjusted so should work on a seatstay.
ANTONISH
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Re: Rear lights are driving me mad

Post by ANTONISH »

A lot of rear lamps have seatpost mounts which are useless in most circumstances.
I dealt with this by cutting a length of 25mm aluminium tube and mounting it on my seat stay with two rubberised (not plasticised) "P" clips.
The tube is mounted parallel to the seat stay and will accept two seatpost mounted rear lights.
pwa
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Re: Rear lights are driving me mad

Post by pwa »

I prefer the barrel shaped Cateye things with 2 x AA batteries (good rechargeables) that can be renewed each year. I use a pannier rack so the light is always securely fitted in the best position. I try to have 2 rear lights in case something goes wrong with one. A light with a built in battery will only last as long as the battery.
martin113
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Re: Rear lights are driving me mad

Post by martin113 »

Audax67 I like the look of that Cateye LD650 but it looks to me as though it will hit the spokes if you mount it horizontally on the seat stay. Yes? Or no?
pwa
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Re: Rear lights are driving me mad

Post by pwa »

Fitting lights to the rear of a bike can be a pain, but however it is done it is a good idea to avoid dazzling other road users. You want to be noticed, but you also want the driver behind you to have his / her eyesight working properly as they consider passing you. For that reason I make sure my good, bright rear lights (I use two) are not pointed upwards. I want a driver 100 metres behind me to get the full blast, straight in the eyes, but I want a driver close behind me to be getting more of the peripheral light and not the full blast. Making sure that the main beam is horizontal achieves this, at least on a level road. I also like lights that have some light thrown left, right and upwards, but not in a way that dazzles.

In the past I have bodged a way of fitting lights to the unused lower rack fitting point on a bike, near the bottom of the seat stay. One each side.
pete75
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Re: Rear lights are driving me mad

Post by pete75 »

It's reading threads like this that makes me glad I've fitted five of my bikes with hub dynamos. They use various combination of AXA and B&M lights all of which are bright with powerful well focused beams. The whole system is always there and always works very reliably.

A reasonably good dynamo system with a 70 lux front light and a powerful rear can be installed for not much over 60 quid.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
pwa
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Re: Rear lights are driving me mad

Post by pwa »

pete75 wrote:It's reading threads like this that makes me glad I've fitted five of my bikes with hub dynamos. They use various combination of AXA and B&M lights all of which are bright with powerful well focused beams. The whole system is always there and always works very reliably.

A reasonably good dynamo system with a 70 lux front light and a powerful rear can be installed for not much over 60 quid.


How do you mount the rear light?
pete75
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Re: Rear lights are driving me mad

Post by pete75 »

pwa wrote:
pete75 wrote:It's reading threads like this that makes me glad I've fitted five of my bikes with hub dynamos. They use various combination of AXA and B&M lights all of which are bright with powerful well focused beams. The whole system is always there and always works very reliably.

A reasonably good dynamo system with a 70 lux front light and a powerful rear can be installed for not much over 60 quid.


How do you mount the rear light?


The back light fits on the carrier light mounting plate. Dynamo rear lights are usually adjustable for 50 or 80mm hole spacing though some have two versions depending on the spacing you need.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
Tangled Metal
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Re: Rear lights are driving me mad

Post by Tangled Metal »

Cateye do a bracket to fit racks which I used to have and worked well. Now I have a rapid X2 from cateye which is really a good light. It fits with rubber bands but works on seat post, racks and pretty much anywhere you can wrap the rubber band around. On seat stays it points up but I did see something in a bike shop (online) that was a bracket from Cateye that created an angled surface which I took as something to tilt lights such as these up when using on seat stays and other angled fixing points. Perhaps check with cateye or a retailer that stocks them for an idea since AFAIK cateye will have seen the issue and created a bracket for it. They do seem to have a lot of brackets in their catalogue.

I do rate the rapid X and rapid X2 is even brighter. One is 25lumens the other is 50 lumens. Both not a lot but seriously they are noticeable and from a wide angle too. You do not need a truly high lumen rear light IMHO except for daylight running lights which are not best for night use IMO.

PS rear lights that are too bright are not nice to follow behind.

PPS whatever you do make sure your rear lights are actually visible from behind. The number of people riding bikes with rear lights on their MTB seat post with the wheel between them and anyone behind them is alarming at times.
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