BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

That's a good point about the Planet Bike Superflash. I have had more than one give out due to rain. I'd expect that the rechargeable type would be better, since you wouldn't have to be able to open it to replace the battery. But I like the replaceable battery type since otherwise I'd be out of luck on a long ride.

I've got a Blackburn Mars rear blinky that does a pretty good job. I've got it mounted under my saddle, so it doesn't always get direct rain, but it's got rubber gaskets around the main seams, so I think it's fairly water resistant. The one I have is an older model, but I'm guessing the newer ones would be similar. I also like it a lot as a light.

I've had really good luck with cheap Cateye blinkies, specifically this one. I leave two on my commuter, which gets parked outside year round. They've lasted over a year.

Cygolite Hotshot works for me. You can buy it with either disposable batteries or with a rechargeable one, depending on your preference. I have the rechargeable one and it lasts for a looooong time

What Chris said: Cygolite Hotshot lasts forever!

Knog blinders work fine in the rain. Urban velo tested them completely submerged in water. Their battery life isn't as good as a AA or AAA blinky though and have to be recharged a couple times a week. I don't remember the last time I swapped batteries in my avenir rear blinky (superflash clone). Really, the superflash should be water resistant. One key thing to do is open it up and make sure the rubber gasket in between the front and rear faces is properly seated and not twisted or improperly placed. I bet a piece of duct tape on top of the light might help seal it better.

I also use the Cygolite Hotshot rechargeable and hasn't failed me yet in all sorts of rain

I still have and use my PB Superflash (thanks to byogman who found it still running after half of it fell off in the snow) it's never given out in the rain on me even in very severe conditions, that rubber gasket can twist up when you swap batteries though, a lot of the generic lights seem to have used that same thin rubber gasket in their design.

My PB super flash never leaked. You could just wrap the seal with black electrical tape to keep rain out if you have a messed up gasket. Might as well save some money. I had to do that with my PB headlight.

My Fly6 camera taillight hasn't crapped out because of wet, though it's sensitive to cold. A couple times this winter, it quit blinking in the last mile or two of my 11-mile trip home. The camera shuts off sooner (it makes a sound) but the light goes on for a while.

So I ended up picking up a cygolite hotshot and I love it so far. One question, does it give any sort of low battery indication?

I use a hotshot and don't think there is any low power indicator-you probably wouldn't see it any way on the back. My commute is approx two hours, I try to charge it daily but even when I don't, I've never had it die on me. Mine is a year old and works as well as it did new.

According to the FAQ, the Hotshot doesn't have an indicator. I've never had mine run out of juice though. 4:30 ~ 500 hr run time (wow, what setting gets FIVE HUNDRED HOURS?) According to BLD the steady setting burns the most battery: http://www.bikelightdatabase.com/best/taillights/#hotshot "With a built-in USB rechargeable battery with over 4 hours of life on its brightest steady-burn setting, and over a 100 hours on flashing mode, the Hotshot will get you through any ride."

"does it give any sort of low battery indication?" Yes, it's not as bright :)

i have had the same cateye for 10 years mounted on the back of my helmet... it has never failed me despite almost weekly drops and tumbles, it is easy to change the batteries, it has a built in reflector when the batteries die, i don't think there is a better light. http://www.cateye.com/en/products/detail/TL-LD570-R/

@pierce, actually, I just had the battery die and there was no noticeable loss of brightness. at least not like with alkaline or nimh batteries.

The bulk of my problem with blinkies is that they work themselves loose from anything they're not bolted to. I think the most secure one I have is the one stuck in a long, clear plastic bag I have tied to the rack of my #2 bike. I've resorted to wire and shoelaces to hold others in place.

I'm a fan of bolt-on lights for that reason. One of the reasons I like fender-mounted blinkies (like this) is that they pretty much never work loose, assuming they're bolted on with a dab of thread locker or a nyloc nut.

This whole aspect of cycling is such a downer. Lights that bounce into traffic, batteries that crap out at the worst times, cheap pieces of crap that should never have been manufactured in the first place, tons of landfill contents from dead alkalines, alkalines that destroy the light they're installed in if you leave them in over a winter (even if they still work), button cells that gradually go dark and then are so damn difficult to change you may as well pitch the whole thing, ... I spend more heartburn on lights than on nearly every other thing on the bike. I've built $20/month into the family budget for "probable accessory replacement". C'mon, scientists and parts designers. Build an inexpensive, reliable solution that won't end up in a landfill in under a year. I don't replace my car's lights anywhere near as often as bike lights. Really, you need to drop $100+ into decent lights and battery/charger systems, per bike, which is awfully damn steep for the minimum-wage worker or college student who make up the bulk of our target cycling audience.

It's true; the lights are a serious and unexpected expense when you start riding. It's because of this that you see so many cyclists riding unsafely at night without lights. You paid, say, $0 for your bike, but now you have to spend $50-$100 for lights? One of the things Forester discusses in his book (which Stu really should read if he hasn't; it's right up his alley) is how the bike industry campaigned to make reflectors, but not lights, required on bikes (as they are in some other countries, I think), because they are so much cheaper. Adding lights as required items would have added too much to the price. Never mind that it would have saved lives. I like the PDW Radbot 1000, BTW. The holder mounts securely, and the light has a plastic tab holding it to the holder. I don't see how it's going to come off. It has replaceable batteries, which I need for a randonnée (USB lights running on steady wouldn't last a night, I think). And it's crazy bright.

Stu, I would consider investing in the previously mentioned Cygolite HotShot. It has a long battery life, USB rechargeable, and a rack mount can be ordered for it. I used to have the same PITA lights, but eventually upgraded. (Just reading a review, I think the newer HotShot SL DOES have a low battery indicator, indicated by rapid flashing when it is turned on or off. I was previously being facetious, but I thought it did dim before finally going out. I don't think mine has ever been low enough to not work at all.) http://www.bikelightdatabase.com/cygolite/hotshotsl/ I have the Portland Radbot as well, but I don't use it anymore. You have to use a screwdriver to change the batteries, which is a PITA, and even though the HotShot has a higher watt light, the Radbot seems to drain batteries faster. I think a connection is also loose, as it kind of randomly turns itself off now. But at least the Radbot doesn't go popping off. Current Amazon prices: Radbot 1000: $18 HotShot 2W SL: $25 HotShot 2W: $30 (comes with seat stay mount, more blinky options)

Stu - you are an absolute candidate for a front hub generator light setup. Permanent to the bike, no batteries, works when you need it. Not cheap. Disc brakes could be a problem. Peter White Cycles sells a dynamo front wheel for $175+-. Think about how much money and aggravation you will spend on "widget" lights in the next 5 years.

You'd also need the lights, which are pretty expensive themselves. Figure a few hundred dollars for everything. And the hub generator itself doesn't last forever, unfortunately. I had one wear out after say 10 years. Still, it is cheaper and much less hassle than messing with battery-powered lights, whether replaceable or rechargeable. You just get on your bike and go. Dirk Strothmann has a really cool design for a self-contained generator light that uses the rim as the power source without friction. Unfortunately he's going through inventor-led startup problems right now, and having a hard time delivering, as opposed to inventing new and better stuff.

I've made said investments. I'm just aggravated that I probably spent $200 in increments of $15-30 over a bunch of years before I got smart and got halfway decent lights. Every >$50 bike expense, though, is an argument in the house. Never mind that a brake job on the car is going to cost more than I spent all last year on the bike. [end rant]

It's atrocious that CPSC allows the bike industry to sell bikes in the US with only reflectors. Funny how cars have to have lights. Forester isn't infallible, but his review of passive reflectors vs active lighting seems valid to me. If the law were changed to require lights of a certain quality, with bike-manufacturer recalls in the event of widespread failures, the price of bikes would go up, the cost of lights would go down (with volume), and the consumer would be safer. I'm suggesting: Trek would have to put lights on the bikes they sell, and Trek would be responsible for any recalls due to problems with those lights. I'm pretty sure they'd be incentivized to use good lights, and avoid recalls like the front-QR recall that just came out. I'm currently running a Cygolite Expilion 850 and an Orp light on the front, and a DesignShine and a Cateye TLD1100 on the rear. They're all bolted to the bike. The RadBot is also a great tail light.

the only problem with the cygolite stuff, is that the rubber cover for the usb port doesn't stay put and often falls off. I have to throw on a piece of electrical tape every time I charge it... small enough price to pay to keep it working.

I have that problem too Drewbacca. FWIW, they have decent warranty service it seems. I broke the annoying mounting tab and they sent me a new one. They actually sent me two because I had broken another mount before, but since I had two mounts, I didn't worry about it until they both broke.

Yeah, cygolite sent me 3 new buttons for free when I wrecked and lost one button on the top of the light. I'm sure they would help you out if you lost the USB cover. However, I have been commuting without the USB cover in all weather for over a year and havn't had any issues with the light malfunctioning.

Out of curiosity, I let the Hotshot drain to see if it had a low battery indicator: it does. here's what it looks like: https://youtu.be/IJbsd7awYrs just a quick spastic whimper.

Whoa. Never noticed that. Is this the SL or the other one?

"Whoa. Never noticed that. Is this the SL or the other one?" I believe it's the non-SL version, according to my Amazon receipt from 10/2013

My hotshot melted :( (some transistors were all fused together with black melted stuff) I worked, just couldn't charge anymore and eventually died Lasted three years and seven months though, without issue, which is decent compared to what we used to have to go through (Have a distinct memory of old crappy 2AA tail light popping off by chunnel and me having to look for all the parts in the snow) Think I'm going to upgrade to Cygolite's 80 lumen offering now http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013FIVU0C?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=A1919NYIH5072G

I gave up on my PDW Radbot 1000 last night. The connection between the battery holder and the light itself consists of metal tabs pressing against tinned pads on the circuit board. There's no way that's not going to wear out, and it did. I could get the light to light up, but after screwing it back together the switch no longer worked. I also was not terribly happy with its waterproofing. I'd thought that a light that you had to screw back together would have a good seal, but it was wet inside. It's a shame, because it was a nice, bright light. I'm currently trying out a Busch & Muller Secula light -- not sure it is any better. Seems a bit cheaply made. (But at least the battery compartment and light are all one piece, so there's no part that can easily wear out through friction.) I'm aware that there are better rechargeable lights but I'm sticking with battery operated or dynamo lights because I need an option that will work all night long, for randonneuring. If you have suggestions, let me know.

"Think I’m going to upgrade to Cygolite’s 80 lumen offering now" I had a bunch of freebie points to use at Amazon and got one of these. Side by side with my 2 year old SL 2-Watt version: https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HiBmLsef78k/Vr-mrjKHo0I/AAAAAAAAEGI/9vBMhZiQ7zo/s1600/IMG_0851.JPG Usage specs (300 hours?): https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pxiOPomC8v4/Vr-mBVEyDwI/AAAAAAAAEF4/8ogcJivEJ6A/s1600/IMG_0843.JPG Beam comparison with the 30 lumen and the the 80 lumen version: https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UX-99iN7hns/Vr-mCgP5glI/AAAAAAAAEGA/PUjEciJHdXk/s1600/IMG_0852.JPG Reviews: http://rustyredriding.blogspot.com/2015/01/cygolite-hotshot.html http://rustyredriding.blogspot.com/2016/02/unboxing-cygolite-hotshot-pro-80.html

John, if you don't mind -- could you give me your PDW Radbot 1000 to fiddle with it a little bit?

It's in the trash

Mikhail, I have a Radbot 1000 for fiddling if you want... My "works" but randomly turns off while riding, so I stopped using it as well. Maybe a similar failure to jonas'? By contemporary light standards, they're not even especially bright anymore.

Pierce, will take gladly. :) I will share results. And if it would work with some stability L will return it.