Best rear bike lights 2024 — boost your day & night visibility with a bright beam at the back (2024)

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Best rear bike lights

Running one of the best rear bike lights with plenty of lumens should mean all but the most idiotic drivers will notice you from a good distance

by Emily Tillett

UPDATED Mon, Feb 12, 2024 17:37

First Published Oct 4, 2023

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Over theyears we've clocked up thousands upon thousands of cold, dark winter road miles to test hundreds ofrear lights. From brilliant budget beamers to retina-ripping radiants that demand even the dopiest driver's attention, here are some of the best rear bike lights you can buy, with quick links to our very top picks listed below this paragraph, plus plenty more road.cc-recommended rear lights further down the page.

Best rear bike light overall: Exposure Boost-R with ReAKT and Peloton
- Buy now for £74.99 from Tweeks Cycles
- Find out more
Our top super-bright rear light recommendation: Lezyne Strip Drive 300+ LED Rear Light
- Buy now for £30 from Merlin Cycles
- Find out more
Cheapest road.cc-recommended rear light: Knog Plus Rear Light, Black
- Buy now for £14.99 from Chain Reaction Cycles
- Find out more
Best value rear bike light: Giant Recon TL 200 rear light
- Buy now for £27.99 from Cycle Store
- Find out more
Best sidelight for extra visibility: Brightside Bright, Amber and Sideways
- Buy now for £22.99 from Halfords
- Find out more

A rear light is a legal requirement when cycling at night, and using one that's brighter than the legal minimum seems like a sensible way of helping drivers see you — or at leastdefanging'but I didn't see them' excuses. The best bike rear lights have long run-times, can be seen from a good distance, and are sufficiently tough and waterproof to fend off day-to-day abuse.

Rear lights for cyclinguniversally use one or more red light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to generate their light. LEDs are very efficient, putting out lots of light for modest electrical power, which makes them cheap to run but effective at boosting visibility. Most rear bike lights are now rechargeable, taking power from a USB source like astandalonecharger or your office computer. Battery-powered lights are still available, and have their adherents who appreciate being able to revive a dead light at any filling station or corner shop.

A flashing red light says 'bike' to most drivers; we recommend using a constant light as well so your position can be easily followed. It can be hard to track the position of a flasher on an otherwise unlit minor road. Rear bike lights are increasingly intended as day-time safety lights too, with super-bright flash or pulse modes designed to be impossible for drivers to ignore. They can be very annoying to other riders though; please use them only when necessary.

How we review rear bike lights

While we don't deploy thefamous road.cc Beam Comparison Engine to test rear lights, the procedure for reviewing rear lights is much the same as front beams round these parts. Our reviewers, with centuries of riding experience between them, use products for at least a month before writing up their findings and coming up with final verdicts.

Rear lights are assessed on construction quality, design, ease of use, waterproofing, weight, durability, brightness and value. We'll always take price into consideration when scoring a rear light on its features and specification: e.g. a £15 light won't get slammed for its lack of modes and beam power compared to a £100 one. With a huge review archive, we can keep it fair by comparinglike-for-like.

Why you can trust us

All products included in road.cc buyer's guides will be things we've reviewed in full, or are highly recommended among multiple members of the team (the latter scenario is rare, but occasionally happens if it's an updated product we can't get hold of for review, or something that has been discontinued).

Because we've reviewed a lot ofrear lights over the years, the onesyou'll find in this guide will all havescored 8/10 or more to be considered for inclusion. No matter how big the brand is or how many units it's shifted on Amazon, it won't make it into this guide if the review score was average or worse... which sometimes annoys our commercial team and advertisers, but that's the law of the land.

Of course, the road.cc team members who write our guides are all experienced cyclists too. This meansyou can be sure we've made carefully considered product selections, and the advice you'll find at the bottom of the page is based on our real-world experience.

If you want to see our top picks of back, front and combined lights all in one place, you can also check out our overall guide to the best bike lights. Just looking for a front beam? Head on over to our guide to the best front bike lightsinstead.

The best rear bike lights: our top picks

Exposure Boost-R with ReAKT and Peloton

Best rear bike light overall

Buy now for £74.99 from Tweeks Cycles

Bright

Several modes

Good runtimes

Pricey

Exposure's TraceR with ReAKT and Peloton rear lightimpressed us previously and in creating the new Boost-R, Exposure has taken the highly regarded Trace-R and doubled the runtimes while adding just 10g in weight.

You get a beaming 80-lumen max output, with six modes that dictate how much burn time you have, from 6 hours in the brightest static mode to 48 hours on the lowest flash mode, plus DayBright pulse mode.

ReAKT is probably the best feature of the lot, adapting to the light conditions at the time, and flaring up when it senses that the rider is braking. Additionally,the Peloton feature recognises when there is a front bike light behind you and dims itself to save dazzling the following rider.

Read our review of the Exposure Boost-R with ReAKT and Peloton

Lezyne Strip Drive 300+ LED Rear Light

Our top super-bright rear light recommendation

Buy now for £30 from Merlin Cycles

Wide range of powerful modes

Huge run-times

IPX7 waterproofing

Easy to use

It's quite chunky

No-nonsense, easy-to-use and highly capable - that's how our reviewer summarised Lezyne's revamped Strip Drive with a huge 300 lumens in its max setting, and loads of other useful modes for all use cases at a sensible price.

In the lowest 5-lumen mode you can get a huge 80 hours out of this light, and in the 60-lumen 'always on' mode its still over five hours, enough for a week of commuting or morefor most of us. It's easy to use and fits almost any seatpost with the flexible back and stretchy rubber strap to attach it.

If you want to go even brighter still, there's always theLezyne Zecto Drive Max 400+ that also scored well in its road.cc review - but the Strip Drive edges it for the huge run times and ease of use.You don't get any smart braking tech or extras beyond the super bright light, but the very goodpricereflects that.

Read our review of the Lezyne Strip Drive 300+ LED Rear Light

Knog Plus Rear Light, Black

Cheapest road.cc-recommended rear light

Buy now for £14.99 from Chain Reaction Cycles

Light and slim

Easy to detach

Highly visible

Cable-free charging

A bit wobbly on aero posts

If you're a time triallist or hill climber, or just want some brightness without adding weight to your bike set-up, then this very affordable beam from Knog iswell worth a look. As well as been light on the wallet, it's also light in weight too, coming in at a diddy 18g.

Our reviewer described it as "an impressively simple light that weighs almost nothing". Pumping out 20 lumens, it'sbright enough for a useful visibility boost. The mount is magnetic, and there's a USB port built into it so you don't need a cable for charging.

Burn time is two hoursin steady mode which isn't huge, but on eco flash you can get 40 hours out of it according to Knog. There are five modes to choose from, and you can't really go wrong for this price.

Read our review of the Knog Plus Rear Light

Giant Recon TL 200 rear light

Best value rear bike light

Buy now for £27.99 from Cycle Store

Bright

Compact

Good run-times

Waterproof, reliable and durable

Easy to use

Tricky to separate light from bracket (but at least you won't lose it on bumpy ground)

Neither cheap nor expensive, Giant's Recon is worth every penny if you value brightness, reliability and good run times. It's also waterproof, durable and easy to use.

This compact light is great for day or night, and it kicks out 200 lumens on the max setting. 270 degrees ofvisibility thanks to two strips in the side of the light unit ensuresyou're visible to motorists approaching from side streets.

You can mount it vertically or horizontally, and charging is via USB. There are sevenmodes to choose from, and even the high flash mode provides an impressive six hours of run time.

If your budget is tighter or you simply don't need this much brightness and extra settings, we also highly recommend the Giant Recon TL 100.

Read our review of the Giant Recon TL 200 rear light

Brightside Bright, Amber and Sideways

Best sidelight for extra visibility

Buy now for £22.99 from Halfords

Extra dimension of visibility

Well-made

While it's not actually arear light, Brightside's eponymous light deserves a mention for the clever way it provides extra visibility on top of your front and rear beams.

It's essentiallya well-built double-ended side light at a good price that attaches easily to your frame, and gives you an extra dimension of visibility to other road users approaching you from the side. Bright 15-lumen Cree LEDs at each end attract attention.

The Brightside has filled a gap in the market (a quick internet search only unearthed the Brightside and the Cateye Orbit Spoke lightset) in a bid to reduce the instances of SMIDSY (sorry mate I didn't see you) incidents. With too many accidents happening at junctions and roundabouts, the light is designed to give you all-round visibility to motorists approaching from your side – Brightside, not broadside.

More highly rated rear lights

Garmin Varia RTL515

Buy now for £169 from Halfords

Great rear light

Alerts you about overtaking objects well before you can see or hear them

Expensive

The GarminVaria RTL515 is a very good rear light with a reliable alert system for being overtaken.

The radar system alerts you to cars behind you, and while you might be thinking that you don't need a radar system, Iwein felt that it made his riding safer because it alerted him to overtaking objects before he could see or hear them.

The rear light is among the best in class in terms of flash pattern and brightness too with a battery life of around 16 hours on day flash mode.

Read our review of the Garmin Varia RTL515

ETC R65 65 Lumen USB Rear Light

Buy now for £15.99 from Ebay

Solid mount

Easy to use

Useful modes

Bright

Waterproofing a little weak

Most of the lights we review are more expensive than £15.99, and of those that are close, few are as bright. The ETC R65 USB Rear Light is a well-made and effective light that lasts well between charges and at full power,and is easily brightenough to be seen in daylight.

The light hassix modes, cycled with a single press, so it's easy to choose. You get high and low solid beams, two speeds of flash, a mode that combines very fast flashes with bursts of solid beam, and a smoothly rising and falling pulse.

ETC doesn't claim any run-times, but in the solid 65-lumen mode it lasts around 90 minutes, and everything else runs usefully longer than that – flashing mode is easily good for a typical week's commuting, and unless you're running that full power solid mode it's dependably fit-and-forget rather than charge-every-ride.

Read our review of the ETC R65 65 Lumen USB Rear Light

Cateye Viz 450 Rear Light

Buy now for £37 from Merlin Cycles

Cateye lights tend to be solidly made and last for years

Very high output when you really need that...

...other effective (and less offensive) modes for when you don't

Generally easy to use, fit and live with

Overkill for most use-cases, and most will find all the illumination they need in cheaper models

As a whole, we've found that Cateye lights tend to be well-made units that chuck out lots of light and last for years and the Cateye Viz 450 Rear Light is no exception.

Cateye's Viz 450 rear light can throw out an extremely bright beam, although the full power is reserved for an intermittent flash in the 'Daytime Hyperflash' mode. It combines the all-round visibility from Cateye's earlier Rapid models with a focused beam that will have you seen from hundreds of metres back.

As the name suggests, Cateye's Viz 450 rear light can emit an extremely bright beam—450 lumens. In some specific use cases, you might appreciate this level of power, but for most cyclists, it can be considered overkill.

Read our review of the Cateye Viz 450 Rear Light

Gemini Juno 100 rear light

Buy now for £34.9 from Ebay

Very bright, but kind on the eyes

Versatile mount

Easy to use

Run-times shorter than claimed

Rotating mount could be better

The Gemini Juno 100 is a simple, easy to use rear light with few frills, but it does pack some useful features, including a 30 COB (chip-on-board) LED lighting array that's super-bright without melting eyeballs, and a clip mount that allows it to be attached on or off the bike in a variety of ways.

The oval arrangement of LEDS gives the light a distinctive shape that certainly stands out from the usual lighting crowd, and thanks to the ability to rotate around its base 90 degrees, it can be orientated either in line with your seatpost, or perpendicular to it.

The curved lens also gives the light decent side visibility as well, which is a bonus. Although 100 lumens max might not sound as powerful as some, even in bright daylight it really stands out – I honestly don't think you need any more than this to stand out, unless you want to be really obnoxious.

Read our review of the Gemini Juno 100 rear light

Techalogic CR-1 Rear Light with HD Wide Angle Camera

Buy now for £99.95 from Techalogic

Good value

Simple to operate

Includes various mounting options

Weatherproof

Has a rear view mirror mode

Chunky looks

Buttons flat and hard to find

The Techalogic CR-1 Rear Light with HD Wide Angle Camera is a decentlight and a good camera too, at least for safety use.

The light consists ofa stack of five LEDs andat the top, you'll find the camera lens, which is protected by a flush-fitted cover designed to minimise the risk of scratching.The camera captures footage at a resolution of 1920x1080, recording at a frame rate of 30 frames per second. With its wide 120-degree field of view, it covers the entire road width, and during playback, it consistently provides sharp images.

The light offers five different modes, consisting of four flashing modes and one steady mode. When solely using the camera, the battery lasts approximately 7 hours, whereas when using both the camera and the flashing light, it provides around 5.5 hours of runtime.

Read our review of the Techalogic CR-1 Rear Light with HD Wide Angle Camera

Kryptonite Incite XR USB Rear

Buy now for £18.75 from Fawkes Cycles

Bright

Easy to operate

Lacks punch for fog

The Kryptonite Incite XR USB Rear light iswell suited to being your weekday commuting bike light thanks to a solid run-time, easy operation and good side visibility.

The Incite XR has five modes lasting for around 20 hours in the high steady flash mode and up to 36hours in eco mode.

Usually, we see the brightness of bike lights measured in lumens. Kryptonite measures its rear lights in Lux and this Incite XR is given a value of 0.06.In real terms, I found the Incite XR to be perfectly bright enough for city commuting.

Read our review of the Kryptonite Incite XR USB Rear

Bryton Gardia R300L Rear View Bike Radar Tail Light

Buy now for £119.99 from Halfords

Effective radar coverage

Easy pairing with head units

Simple to operate

Smart light functions

Magicshine SeeMee 300 Smart Tail Light

Buy now for £39.99 from Bike Inn

Downward-pointing OptiTracing light gives added illumination

Good run-times

Mount fits all shapes of seatpost

Light sensor isn't very reactive

While not as super bright as the name might lead you to believe, theMagicshine SeeMee 300 iscleverly designed and has a lot going for it, all without being very expensive.

The smart mode allows the sensor on the light tomonitor ambient lighting levels and adjust the light's brightness accordingly - it's optional, and there are also low, high, flash and group ride modes if you'd prefer to set it manually. The Smart Mode really is quite smart, flashing 300 lumens during the day and switching to a 100/20-lumen flash plus the OptiTracing light on a static 60 lumens.

The mount should fit all seatposts, and our reviewer used it in all weathers and found this light very rugged and weatherproof.

Read our review of the Magicshine SeeMee 300 Smart Tail Light

Best rear bike lights: how to choose and what you need to know

Should rear bike lights be flashing?

In terms of the law, it's up to you. The law requires flashing modes to be between 1Hz and 4Hz (one to four flashes per second) but actual modes vary considerably and some fall well outside that. Pulsing constant modes are a grey area.

Ask a rider why they have their light flashing and they'll often argue that it makes them visible from further away. Ask another rider why they have a constant light and you'll often hear that it makes distance easier to judge for following vehicles.

There's not a lot of scientific research to hang your choice on. Most people who run two lights will have one of them flashing. One thing to bear in mind is that if you're riding in a close group – be that a club run, sportive, Audax or anything else – having a bright light flashing in your eyes at close range is pretty annoying. Many lights have low-power steady modes for group riding.

Are bike lights a legal requirement?

In the United Kingdom, it is a legal requirement for bikes to have a white front light and a red rear light illuminated when ridden on public roads during the hours of darkness.

In terms of the law, it's up to you whether your rear light is flashing or not.

What is the recommended lumens for a rear bike light?

A rear bike light doesn't need to be as powerful as a front light as its primary aim is for you to be seen rather than to see.

A rear bike light of between 50-100 lumens is sufficient but it depends on the type of riding that you plan to be doing.

If you're mostly just pootling to the shops and back then something basic will probably do the job. Simple flashers that use button cells or AAA batteries are cheap and effective these days, and they last ages before the battery needs replacing.

If your commute is on busier roads, or you plan to do longer rides at night, you'll probably want something brighter. There's a wealth of USB-rechargeable and brighter AAA-powered rear lights about that will catch a driver's attention from further afield. Many riders who spend a lot of time on the road after dark fit more than one rear light to increase their chances of being seen.

How long do bike light batteries last/how long before I need to recharge?

This can vary massively and depends on whether the rear bike like is rechargeable or battery-powered.

Most rear lights will cope easily with the longest ride you're likely to throw at them, though not all USB-rechargeable ones can be fully trusted to last a whole night, especially on steady beam. If you're planning some big forays into the dark unknown – or if you're just a bit crap at remembering to charge your lights – pick something that has a long run time. AAA-powered lights tend to be the pick for that.

A lot of rechargeable lights will have some sort of system for warning you if you're about to run out of juice. Multiple lights we've tested have a small green light to indicate they're full or close to fully charged, moving to amber and finally red to tell you the charge is low.

When it comes to rechargeable lights, beware of the highest advertised run times vs mode. Flashing modes will usually last much longer than steady settings, simply because less light is being omitted overall. As an example, the Giant Recon TL 200 recommended in this guide has a max advertised run time of ten hours on its smart night mode, but this goes down to 2.5 hours on the 100 lumen high setting. Let's say you have a one hour commute each way, and you prefer to use the higher setting, that means you really need to be charging the light every night. A mid-setting will probably be best for most commutes though, so if your journey is half an hour or less each way you could get at least a week's worth of use out of most mid-range rechargeable lights.

Where is the best place to put the rear light on a bike?

The best place to mount a rear light on a bike is typically on the seatpost or seat tube, facing directly backwards as this provides a clear and unobstructed view of the light from behind.Some bike lights will also fit under the saddle.

Depending on your bike's design, you might also consider additional mounts such as a rear rack or saddlebag, providing alternative locations for mounting lights.

Winter Cycling

Lights

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best rear bike lights

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Emily Tillett

Emily is our track and road racing specialist, having represented Great Britain at the World and European Track Championships. With a National Title up her sleeve, Emily has just completed her Master’s in Sports Psychology at Loughborough University where she raced for Elite Development Team, Loughborough Lightning.

Emily is our go-to for all things training and when not riding or racing bikes, you can find her online shopping or booking flights…the rest of the office is now considering painting their nails to see if that’s the secret to going fast…

29 comments

RM | 4 months ago

0 likes

The article states "A rear bike light of between 50-100 lumens is sufficient but it depends on the type of riding that you plan to be doing." Yet you give the 20 lumen Knog Plus Rear Light the Cheapestroad.cc-recommendedrear light award!
If you just want cheap and not really functional light (20 lumens IMO is not suitable for riding on the road in traffic, barely better than a glow worm) then there are planty of other similar spec but cheaper lights on eBay and Aliexpress (or Aldi as someone has suggested).
A 20 lumen light might be suitable as a spare emergency backup in case your main 50 lumen plus light dies or goes flat, but that's about it.

wtjs | 4 months ago

0 likes

Or, alternatively, get the pair of excellent Aldi lights for £10. No, I don't work for Aldi!

momove | 4 months ago

2 likes

Surprised this didn't get a mention for side lights: https://orb.bike/product/the-orb-mkii/

I use mine all winter on my commute, although I don't usually drink much/anything. I've got the old, original version and wouldn't think twice about buying another if I lost mine or it broke.

Once I started using it, it made me really aware how much I may or may not be seen from the side in different situations.

It comes with my big rubber stamp of approval - but I'd like to see road.cc review it and hear their thoughts.

ktache replied to momove | 4 months ago

1 like

A fine idea. I've put Christmas lights in a water bottle, and seen some very good YouTubes of people placing very bright LED lightstrips and big batteries in bottles which were very cool.
But of course this gets use of the bottle too.
If the manufacturers would send the product to road.cc for proper testing...
(If they dare...)

Capt Sisko | 4 months ago

0 likes

Every single one of the above mounts on the seat post. What happens if you've got rack & rack pack or a saddle bag? How many come with alternative mounts?

Rendel Harris replied to Capt Sisko | 4 months ago

1 like

You invest a modest amount in one of the many available adaptors or (more fun) you make a bodge yourself, a short length of appropriately-sized pipe, a drill/Dremel and some cable ties usually does the trick for me.

Oldfatgit replied to Capt Sisko | 4 months ago

1 like

I have a rack pack, and commute using panniers.
The rear light mount of my rack has a reduced section in the middle ... so it starts wide then narrows and then goes back to wide.
I found out that the centres of the mounting holes on the rack mount are too far apart for anything I had laying around; but, the narrow bit was the right width to fit between the bolts of a seat rail mount.
Because of the shape of the rack mount, the seat rail mount can't go anywhere - there is too little space between the centres to allow side to side movement, and the shape of the rack mount doesn't allow for up and down movement.

A few extra pennies (less than 20quid) and an aluminium tee action cam mount later, and both my Garmin radar and my Fly6 Gen 3 are securely mounted with very little movement.

Image:

Sriracha replied to Capt Sisko | 4 months ago

0 likes

I share your pain. Bontrager Flare RT is the remedy. I use their rear mudguard mount, but they also make a variety of other mounts, including a seat stay mount. Bonus is that the light can switch on/off with your Garmin, saving the hassle when the light itself is mounted out of reach from the saddle.

mattw replied to Capt Sisko | 4 months ago

0 likes

I use a handlebar extender on the side of the seatpost to gvie me 2" of extra width. They usually cover up to 32mm diameter tubes, so will do either the small tube attached to the seat or the larger seat tube.

Cost £5 to £10, and need to be installed such that they touch neither your heel noryour thigh.

No option for me as the under seat saddlebag is full of batteries for the Gruber Assist.

I just bought one of these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CM9N74V6

Simon E replied to Capt Sisko | 4 months ago

0 likes

The availability of good quality mounts is one of the reasons I like Cateye. Although the parts are sold separately, they cover various seatpost sizes (SP-6 covers 26-30mm IIRC), clothing clip* and a pannier rack mount.

I have been using a Viz 100 for a few months now and I am impressed enough to buy a second one for my dry/summer bike (it's currently just £15 in Halfrauds). Brighter than I expected with impressive wide angle visibility. The Viz 300 and 450 models are OTT, quite unnecessary.

The Lezyne strap for my 800XL front light snapped the other week, it broke near the end, the bit I have to pull around the handlebar. £14 and the LBS will have to order it. A design weakness, it will surely fail without warning again in the future.

* it used to be included with some models so I have 3 or 4 of these.

wtjs replied to Simon E | 4 months ago

1 like

The Lezyne strap for my 800XL front light snapped the other week

In contrast, I have been using the simple stretchy rubber straps on my Aldi lights for 5 years now and none of them have torn yet. They're what I use to film apparently non-existent vehicles like Y40 DAN. The significance is that the vehicle was initially identified and reported as 'No MOT' in July 23. I have come across these disappearing vehicles around here before

Image:

Hirsute replied to Simon E | 4 months ago

1 like

Not so sure about the 300 and 450 being unnecessary.

I've been on a few NSL roads with low, very bright sun directly in front of me. I was confident that the 300 would show up and less confident that other models would. (also it will do 30 lumens in other modes).

Was also very glad of my radar too !

NickJP | 8 months ago

5 likes

I'm normally commuting with a Carradice saddlebag, so can't use seatpost-mounted lights as they're obscured. It would be useful in your reviews if you mentioned whether lights come with either a seatstay mount (eg most Cygolite taillights have both seatpost and seatstay mounts in the box) or a belt clip that will fit the mounting strap on saddlebags.

zero_trooper replied to NickJP | 7 months ago

0 likes

I use a NiteRider Sabre clipped onto the back of my rucksack. It hasa big clip, never had any retention problems. In fact use it there so much I'm not sure where the actual mounting bracket is!

The Knog+ ('lightest rear light') has a decent looking clip. The actual bracket for it works with magnets and gets good reviews.

ktache | 8 months ago

0 likes

I am considering the Knog Blinder Link, the saddle rail version. As a bit of an extra, and to lower my Hope District+, as I can with my mudguards.

I did want something to go on the right hand seat stay, a Moon, but the weatherproofing seemed somewhat inadequate, and I was unsure of the fixings.

The Knog has a USB C, which will mean I need another cable as this will be the first for my lights...

ktache replied to ktache | 4 months ago

0 likes

Did a little research, mainly good reviews, but the few bad ones, reporting light loss put me off.

PeteZahad replied to ktache | 4 months ago

0 likes

I'm using the Knog Blinder on my pannier and it works great so far. The USB C charging is however terribly slow. The attachment clip might look cheap but is easy to attach/remove and the light is hold tighly in place. Using it for about 1 year now, almost every day, would definitely buy again.

Sriracha replied to ktache | 4 months ago

1 like

There has to be something here that works for you...
https://www.trekbikes.com/gb/en_GB/equipment/bike-accessories/bike-light...

ktache replied to Sriracha | 4 months ago

0 likes

Thanks for that, impressive range of brackets, but nothing that does it for me. The Flare has a seatstay bracket, but I would prefer a cob striplight there. The seat lights seem to be wired for ebikes and dynamos, the knog looked very cool, but the quick attachment seemed weak for such an expensive unit, I'd considered Exposures little rear as an underseat light, better bracket and lots of printed aftermarket ones too, but then difficulties for removal when leaving and when needing to charge.
It's for an extra extra light, so not essential, which is why I'm after "perfection", already have the Hope R4+ on the seatpost, an Exposure RedEye piggybacking my Axis on the helmet and a NiteRider Solas 250 as a baglight.

Hirsute replied to ktache | 4 months ago

0 likes

How about this

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/lighting-spares/madison-universal-light-moun...

Fits to any old rack, then you can put on any old light.

HoldingOn | 8 months ago

1 like

the Cateye Viz is frustrating me. It comes with a plastic mount that you slide the light into, then you wrap a rubber block over the mount, which stops the light from sliding out. Then you use the rubber "ladder" to hold the light to the seat post.

Two problems I've found:

to get the light off the bike to charge it, you have to take the whole thing off your bike, to be able to slide the light out of the mount
if you use the light horizontally, the tag at the end of the rubber "ladder" has to be forceable bent and squashed between the light and the mount - leaves me worried it isn't actually seated properly and will fall off

Hirsute replied to HoldingOn | 8 months ago

0 likes

Eh? You just take it off and charge it, no need to dismount it.

Not following the second point - the ladder end locking is independent of the orientation.

HoldingOn replied to Hirsute | 8 months ago

0 likes

The image on the left is how you have to have the rubber block to slide the light in and out, the the part you slide the light out of is how it is held onto the seat post- so you would have to pull it away from the seat post and push the rubber back (as i have in the photo) and then slide the light out.

The image on the right is the light put in horizontally - the tag is pushed out by the light and makes me worried it'll slip out of the mount.

Image:

mark1a replied to HoldingOn | 8 months ago

1 like

I see what you mean now - I have one of those but use it on a Brompton with the proprietary Brompton seat mount, which allows it to slide in and out easily. I've just dug out the original mount like yours and it's just as you say. One solution for off-bike charging perhaps would be to get an alternative mount? The Cateye square mount is fairly common and there should be others available.

Hirsute replied to mark1a | 8 months ago

1 like

Something like this

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/lighting-spares/cateye-sp11-flex-tight-brack...

Hirsute replied to HoldingOn | 8 months ago

1 like

I wasn't envisaging you making it horizontal on the seat post, I thought you were using it elsewhere as horizontal.

I've just tried and you can slot the light on afterwards if you want horizontal and the retaining tab in the square mount will hold it. I needed an allen key to move the tab to get the light out.

Hmm, although I don't use that mount any more and I'm now wondering if I've lost a bit !

EDIT

Apologies, I have found the missing bit and now I understand the issue. What is even more bizarre is the site shows the horizontal placement as an option with no reference how it is very hard to get it on.

peted76 | 8 months ago

4 likes

USB-C is now a must, when will we see more manufacturers implementing this...

But why I hear you cry..

1) No right or wrong way up so no bent connections

2) Higher amp bandwidth means faster charging

3) future proof (until the next better thing sticks at least)

Sriracha replied to peted76 | 8 months ago

3 likes

Amen. At this point it's a no-brainer. It would be helpful if the charging port could be in the first line of the review, could save a lot of wasted reading!

the_mikey replied to peted76 | 8 months ago

5 likes

USB C is a bit of a mixed bag, sometimes it means what you say, like higher charging current and quicker charging times but all too often USB C charging protocols aren't observed so none of those benefits are actually available, and in many cases a compliant USB C charger won't charge your light at all. The USB C plug is certainly better than micro usb though.