Remote rear light

[mark a.]

I cycled home with my son in his seat from nursery last night to find that I had forgotten to turn my rear light on. I suppose in the usual chaos of sorting bags, coats, helmets, straps etc I forgot to turn it on.

It frightened me a little bit (even though it's quiet roads, I have a fair few reflector bits) so I'm less likely to do it again. But I was wondering if there's a remote controlled rear light with, say, a little led on the handlebar to confirm that it's on?

[Brucey]

back in the days of tungsten bulbs, some folk would install an offcut length of fibre optic from the rear light housing to the front of the bike. This would act as a very simple and efficient rear light indicator. You could do the same with an LED rear light.

With any (typical) battery powered rear light there is a fair chance that it will just pack in with no warning whatsoever. Thus many riders fit two, so that they are reasonably sure that one is working OK. You do need to turn them on though!

Some (mostly carrier mounted) rear lights have an automatic mode whereby they sense darkness and motion and thus turn the light on. These are pretty good until the batteries run down, lose contact, or water gets in and scrambles the poor thing's tiny little electronic brain. I've had all these things happen at various times.

The bike I do most night time riding on has a hub generator and both lights switch with the headlight. All the wires are strain-relieved where necessary, all the joints are soldered by yours truly and the whole thing is designed to be robust so the chances of it packing in are slight. Even so to be on the safe side I have the rear light on the seat stays where I can see it between my legs easily enough. That way I am sure that it is on.

cheers

[TrevA]

There are certainly Senso rear Dynamo lights that come on automatically when it is dark, but I'm not sure whether you can get battery lights that do that.

Edit: yes, there is. Busch and Muller do a battery Senso back light called the IX-Back Senso.

[mark a.]

Ah yes, a night- or motion-sensing rear light might be the way to go. For some reason I never got round to adding a second rear light to this bike, so it's probably a good idea to pick something up in addition to the carrier-mounted Cateye I currently have.

[ragudave]

I take my wee person to nursery and back most days. I get her to check and tell me if the lights are on.

We use a light on my rucksack and one attached to the seat.

[Valbrona]

Plenty of senso/automatic rear lights on the market with motion sensors. Some run from a dynamo, others are battery operated. So no, you don't have to invent one and put it on Kickstarter.

[bikes4two]

..... to be on the safe side I have the rear light on the seat stays where I can see it between my legs easily enough. That way I am sure that it is on.

cheers

+1 for this idea. On one of my bikes I have a rear light attached to the rear pannier rack seat stay braze-on and I can see it by looking back between my legs. This is a useful facility and I'm considering how I can achieve similar functionality with my other bikes: maybe reflective tape on the chain stay near the drop-outs such that the tape picks up stray light that can be seen by the same rear-ward glance?

[mark a.]

But I feel like I'm the only person not to put something on Kickstarter, so perhaps it's my turn.

I don't know why I didn't just look at B&M lights, but of course they have loads of great senso options. Or perhaps a Reelight?

If I were choosing a utility bike from scratch, I would choose dynamo without hesitation. I'm not going to upgrade my current bike, so battery powered (or Reelight) it is.

[axel_knutt]

I've got a Cateye TL-560, but I don't like it, it switches on at about 2pm.

[edocaster]

Dynamo lights that match the German STVZO regulations require that the rear light has no switch to turn it on, and is controlled by a single front light switch. So as long as the front light is on (easily visible while riding) the rear light should come in, if it's not broken.

[Brucey]

even with dynamo lights it is not certain that the rear light will definitely work all the time. I think that the fibre-optic idea still has something going for it.

Another approach is to perhaps use a little cunning; if you have a simple LED rear (dynamo) light there is always some circuitry required to drive the LED, normally including a ballast resistor. If part of the ballast resistance required is included inside the headlight, and drops ~1.5V DC, then a small indicator LED (with its own series resistance) can be put in parallel with the ballast resistor. Provided the rear light is drawing current 'normally', the indicator LED will come on 'normally' too. This ought to give a reasonably reliable indication that the rear light is actually working.

cheers

[pedalsheep]

I recently bought a Fibre Flare (30% off at Wiggle at the moment) and mounted it so it runs almost the full length of my offside seat stay. Not only can I tell at a glance that its on but cars now seem to give me a wider berth too. Its only classed as a visibility aid so you do need a rear light as well.

[mark a.]

I have panniers on pretty much permanently on this bike, so seat-stay mounted lights won't work. I had a Fibre Flare in the past and I liked it on the seat-stay, but it broke within a few months so I binned it.

I might be tempted by a full Reelight setup, which is currently £50 on SJS, which isn't that much more expensive than the £28 for a B&M senso LineTec battery light, but gets me a dynamo setup with front and rear lights and should always (as near as possible) come on.

[Brucey]

one 'advantage' of traditional framesets is that there is usually a fair bit of seat stay that lies above a rear rack. Thus you can often have a seatstay mounted rear light and still have a rack, panniers etc.

cheers

[roubaixtuesday]

I run one of these.

http://www.ultimatesportsengineering.co ... ng-cable-0

If the front light is on, so is the rear, and you only need to recharge one light rather than two.

But they are very pricey.