New Tail Light.

Lost

Active Member
tail1.jpg
tail2.jpg
My bike never did have one, I dunno if it fell out of the (damaged) box during shipping, or just got forgotten. No biggie, I knew it was a cheapie from reviews, so not a big issue. I ordered the light that BVC had linked to in his awesome youtube video, from amazon. Well, that sort of sucked, the light was great, but the rubber attaching band broke in two. I may glue it to the topeak bag permanently, but it is useless right now. Plus, one more thing to charge, but easy enough to plug it into the Rad battery and charge as you charge the Rad battery.

But I wanted a permanent solution that illuminated as soon as I turned on the bike battery. I bought the light from luna, and all wired up for the party seems to work pretty well. (Link Removed - No Longer Exists) Nice thing, if you forget to turn off your battery, you have a big red warning light telling you! Not to mention it may prevent your own death. Win win thing in my opinion.(Link Removed - Attachment No Longer Exists) (Link Removed - Attachment No Longer Exists)
 
One of my Radrovers came with a rear light and the other one didn't. I ended up using that light on the back of my wife's bike helmet. I have two USB rechargeable lights on both bikes I need to charge up 1-2 times a week. I turn the light on during the day when I ride home and sometimes forget to turn it off when I get to the house. I don't notice I left it on unless I go out to the garage and see a glowing red light in the corner at night.

I would go for an upgrade if someone could make a battery operated rear light that is also connected to the hand brakes. Added safety if the light would get brighter like when you step on the brakes in a car.
 
I personally do not see the value of a brake light (we are already going slower than traffic, and if a car is on my bumper that a brake light is significant, I will have already poo'd my pants), but should be able to be done by accelerometer interface, someone has already don e it to the fancy new helmet.
 
I usually ride with one of my panniers down and sometimes both on my Topeak rack bags. I think the pannier blocks my rear light at night from the side (same Topeak fat tire rack). I ended up getting the same light on my rack and mounting it on the back of my helmet for added safety (Light and Motion Vis 180 ebay, $45-$65). I tried the smaller Vis 180 micro light and I had a really hard time turning it on or off without playing with the switch for sometimes 10 minutes. I'm still playing around with ways to improve my side illumination for my 5:30am commutes other than reflective gear.
 
I saw the Monkey Lights and I wasn't too excited about the crazy patterns. I also wasn't sure how they would hold up when I trail ride. I've been watching the Revolights to see if they will come out with a fat tire design. I had the Nori lights that were offered by Rad Power Bikes on both of my bikes for a while. The UV tape kept falling off the rims, it used those Frog LED lights with UV emitter and they kept moving over bumps as the rubber stretch over time, and I had to change the cr2035 batteries a lot.

Thinking ordering the Brightz Ltd, Amazon, $20. You can pick one color or rotate the 5. I have rechargeable AAA I can use. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZY52LF8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Brightz.jpg
 
Last edited:
I had the Nori lights that were offered by Rad Power Bikes on both of my bikes for a while. The UV tape kept falling off the rims, it used those Frog LED lights with UV emitter and they kept moving over bumps as the rubber stretch over time, and I had to change the cr2035 batteries a lot.
Bummer to hear about the Nori lights. I splurged for that option, too, but haven't installed them yet. Probably because I was miffed that it would be annoyingly tedious to click all four of the lights on every time. I'm already peeved at having to do that with my rear light.
 
Bummer to hear about the Nori lights. I splurged for that option, too, but haven't installed them yet. Probably because I was miffed that it would be annoyingly tedious to click all four of the lights on every time. I'm already peeved at having to do that with my rear light.

I do a lot of trail riding and the Nori lights would detach in 2-8 inches sections around the rims. I started to superglue those areas back on the rims just to have another section detach a few days to a week later. Add to that the issue of the Frog black lights rubber getting stretched over time and slipping/rotating over bumps. It seemed like I was always adjusting the lights every ride and changing batteries several times a month with two bikes. I had to remove the Nori lights because they were becoming very time consuming to maintain. They might have worked if my bike was a 100% urban/road bike.

Main reason I did Nori lights was for side illumination for my 5:30am bike commute. I've notice other bike commuters almost disappear from the side view without proper lighting that early in the morning.

I decided to try Brightz Ltd. color morphing LED bike lights, $20, Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZY52LF8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I had a few AAA rechargeable batteries (need 2 AAA) and the Brightz lights just attach with zip ties. You can pick 1 of 5 solid colors or rotate all 5 colors. I like the one button push to turn on/off and they look bright enough to be seen from the side. I did one per bike under the rear rack.
 

Attachments

  • bightz lights close up.jpg
    bightz lights close up.jpg
    125.3 KB · Views: 742
  • bightz lights.jpg
    bightz lights.jpg
    105.5 KB · Views: 707
  • bightz lights II.jpg
    bightz lights II.jpg
    82.4 KB · Views: 703
I decided to try Brightz Ltd. color morphing LED bike lights, $20, Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZY52LF8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Thanks for the lead.

Interesting placement of your light. That's probably the last place I would think to install it (frame blocks forward illumination) but if they're as bright and non-focal as your pictures indicate, it definitely gets the job (side illumination) done. No one is not going to see you from the sides. And for $20, it's almost a no-brainer.

(Cheap + 2 rechargeable AAA batteries + one click for power + zip-tie fastening) beats (expensive + 8 non-rechargeable button batteries + 4 clicks for power + adhesive and weak rubber friction fastening) any day of the week. But, dang if those Nori lights don't look sweet.
 
Back