I've actually thought about buying Design Shine's IP, because they are so good. It's sad he's not making them anymore.

Dinotte has traditionally been the gold standard, but the new Lupine Rotlicht is supposed to be phenomenal: http://www.lupinenorthamerica.com/taillight.asp

Dinotte QuadRed: http://store.dinottelighting.com/...in-battery-p111.aspx

I have the older Dinotte 300R (double) and a Dinotte 140R (single) and both are phenomenal.

I'm in the process of reviewing the two Garmin lights: the TL 300 and RTL 500 (with radar). These don't rank, in my opinion, high enough on the brightness side, but the RTL 500 (with radar) is can detect cars behind you to change brightness when it detects them. That may allow it to punch above it's weight in the lumens department...

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

I have the Dinotte 300R and my husband has the Lupine Rotlicht. There really is no comparison -- the 300R is WAY brighter. The Rotlicht is fine for nighttime riding, but only marginally bright enough for daytime riding. The other advantage of the 300R is the battery life; on strobe, it goes on forever. I get over 10 hours on a charge and my light is at least four years old. The advantage of the Rotlicht is that it's much lighter and more adaptable to a variety of seatposts.

Now you've made me go to the Dinotte website and see that I can get a great price on the Quad Red with a trade-in on my 300R. Sigh. Always more money to spend.

Without a question Bontrager Flare R. I've had more cars pull up to me and say they saw me a mile up the road. Honestly best money I spent. I'm "frugal" and I bought a 2nd one after getting so many comments about it. The light is straight up awesome. Anything to catch the light in the corner of the texters view.

Again, thanks for all this quality input! Ride safe!

"Cygolite Hotshot 2" Great value and excellent lumens. Not the best side illumination though. I own two and use them day and night.

I attached an additional thick silicone rubber band to make the band long enough to fit my Speed Concept seatpost, now it works great and is the most obnoxiously bright light.

I did the same thing as the other use an O-ring to extend the loop. I also love the Ion 700's.


Ion 700s

You are right!
I ordered it after I read your recommendation and dayumm man....that sob is bright and for less than $20
I can't believe there is a better value out there.

Thanks,

Just saw this kickstater idea for a bike light that uses the frictionless spinning aluminum rim of a bike wheel to generate current to power an LED light - F**kin Brilliant!

https://www.kickstarter.com/...ction-free-bikelight

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res, non verba

How many hours you suppose you get out of the light on say a low setting ?

the review on amazon said 6hrs.
I have to think it will get all that. It is a rechargeable light that plugs into a usb.
If there is a better value out there I would be surprised.

Lumicycle

Nuff said........

Thanks Carl. Question: With most high end road bikes having aero seat posts at this point, doesn't it seem odd that the big manufacturers --- like Trek but everyone really --- don't make a single rear light that is designed to fit their bikes? Trek must have someone on this for 2017, no?

Like this? Came out with the 9series Madone.

http://www.trekbikes.com/...-9-seatpost/p/21486/

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Carl Matson

Must admit I forgot about that one :-) However, it seems like such an overdesigned solution. And it only works on one bike, which makes its market very narrow. There's nothing for the Speed Concept, for example, right? Presumably Trek also sells a lot of lights to people that don't own Treks, so why not design a more general solution?

Overdesigned? How about purpose-designed to give the Madone 9 customer a really clean solution vs a kludged-on strap or band or similar? Kind of think that level of customer appreciates having the former. Won't argue that was a miss on SC (not having a dedicated solution right out of the box), but it's not like there aren't ways to make something work on an SC either...ref. my post you replied to. I think what you see on Madone is a pretty good hint as to where the future lies.

There are a number of strap and band options available from Bontrager: http://www.trekbikes.com/.../bike-lights/c/E312/ either supplied with the various light models or available separately.

Granted, they may not cover every other bike brands' shape or diameter requirements, but I'm not sure that's a reasonable expectation to begin with. They'll certainly cover many of them. Of course, if the other brands would kindly send us their aero profiles and sales projections in advance we can see whether or not accommodating them will compromise any of our other design goals.

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Carl Matson

Guess I kind of touched a nerve there, but yeah I see stuff like that as overdesigned. It a single purpose attachment point on one model of one bike that works with just a few models of one company's bike lights. If you want a camera, or a brighter/different light, you have to use something else anyway. And when you don't want a light at all, you can't remove it. I think even one of those attachment points is an eyesore, but imagine if you put single purpose unique attachment points on the bike for all possible items people might want -- seat bags, front and rear lights, front and rear cameras, multiple bottles, storage, etc? You end up with an aero touring bike, and worse, it's an aero touring bike where every part is manufacturer/year specific. Next year when Trek decides it doesn't like that particular design anymore, and stops making 2016 Madone specific parts, it ceases to work with anything.

So yeah I think it's overdesigned. I realize that's the way the whole industry is going, but I'm not big on it. I would prefer a nice simple elegant system for mounting the light to an aero seatpost, that I could put on all my bikes, even my speed concept (which I love by the way). Pretty sure I'm not alone on that, and that Trek could make some money by satisfying that demand.

A definite Bontrager Flare R fan here. The reflector bracket on the Speed Concept makes a reasonably neat mount.

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Developing aero, fit and other fun stuff at Red is Faster

Exactly what it was designed for....with that particular customer in mind. It's not the only mount that works on that bike, and all five Bontrager rear lights I linked to are compatible with it and those other mounts.



Yes...ecosystems exist. See also Garmin. Or GoPro.



That Madone bracket slides over the existing seatpost clamp...it clips on and off in about 2sec...see that little hook at the bottom? Spring loaded. Easy peasy :-)



If it's a mounting point permanently attached to the bike, I agree with you. None of ours are. Nor are anybody else's that I'm aware of. There are just different degrees of unmounting "difficulty"...many these days are simple rubber bands with hooks...most of the rest involve maybe a phillips screwdriver.



It'll continue to work with all of the bikes it was designed for. Why does the glass have to be half empty?


We'll keep trying to do better.

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Carl Matson

They're good.

I have a lot of love for Moon's lights. Very bright, good mounts, very compact and aero - not that this matters overly in training, but it's nice to have the option when smashing Strava segments.

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'It never gets easier, you just get crazier.'

Don't give anything about stupid bright or flashing...for me it is all about size of the light area..... even a stupid bright tiny red spec is easily overlooked in the sea of large car tail / headlights.

I run 2 of these on my aero post:

http://www.cateye.com/...TL-LD720-R/moreinfo/