Taillights, etc

by Pamela Blalock with John Bayley

Taillights

If you think I must have giant bins of discarded headlights, you should see our box full of taillights. Maybe if I didn't constantly check out new ones, I wouldn't have so many discarded old ones! We do have loads of Vista lights, the first widely available LED taillights, and these still work quite well. And many of these still live on bikes and see active use. A couple of years ago, we got a few Cateye taillights, model TL-AU100 BS. The BS stands for British Standard and unfortunately this taillight isn't sold in the USA (but is available mail-order from St John's Street Cycles in the UK). I believe it is unfortunate because it is the best taillight I have seen from Cateye. It has 6 LEDs, one of which seems to have an extra focusing element. It also has a nice reflector, and still comes in a compact package. It takes two AA batteries and as a result has reasonable burn time. (Keep in mind that lights using AAA batteries won't burn as long as those with AAs.) It has steady and a flashing mode. It has good seals to keep water out and a nice secure mounting, yet it is easy to remove. The switch is big enough to operate while wearing gloves, and located at the bottom on the back. We've used these taillights on various bikes for a while now and have received very positive comments about their brightness. One currently lives on our sporty tandem. Another is used on my travel single bike. Neither of these bikes has a rack. There is a B+M light that is similar, with 4 bright LEDs and a reflector. It's called the Relite D. I have one of these as well, but I've had some trouble with the plastic clamps failing an inopportune times..

My favorite taillight for bikes with a rear rack is the 4DTopLight taillight by Busch and Muller. This TopLight series of taillights are designed to be mounted on racks. Tubus racks (but not the stainless steel ones) have mountings for taillights. The Tubus Fly has a separate clamp that attaches to a threaded hole on the underside on the rack, and the Tubus Cargo racks have a plate predrilled for taillights. The drilling is to German standards, as are the Toplight mounting points. There are quite a few different Toplights, some work with generators, some with AA batteries; some sense when to turn on and off; and some have more LED's than others. Since I don't like wired taillights, I have the simple battery model. I got the 4D model with 4 LED's, designed to give good off axis visibility. I have a standard one and even decided to try a senso model, which senses motion and darkness and turns on and off automatically. While this seems like a handy feature, I haven't had such good luck with the switch and trying to figure out if it is on or off can be tricky, so next time I'd just go for the simpler standard switch. We have put these taillights on a few of the bikes we have with racks - both our winter commuters, the expedition tandem, and my brevet bike. These are very bright and visible from many angles. They also have a very large reflector which can do no harm.

I'm also paranoid about taillights and always have two. If riding alone or in the back of a group, you cannot easily tell if your taillight has gone out. We found Spanninga taillights in France after the last PBP. These are great little lightweight battery lights designed to mount on mudguards. All our fenders sports these lights, as well as lots of reflective tape.

John recently found a new LED taillight from Sunn. He picked one of these up mailorder from England and then we found the same light at REI, branded as Serfas. This has incredible off-axis visibility, but no reflector. I've also received lots of comments for how bright these are. Given how bright it is, I have it mounted quite low (at hub level) to avoid blinding ridiers behind me. My current commuter sports one of these and the 4DToplight.

I've long said I don't like wired taillights. I did recently get the wired tallight from Supernova because it was so tiny. It is mounted above my DToplight with plastic clamps from my local hardware store and pictured below. It's impressive enough that I was willing to deal with the hassle of running a wire to the back.

My pet peeve about flashing taillights: Flashing in a group is just not socially acceptable behavior. Please set your taillights to steady when riding in a group. Looking at a flashing light for hundreds of km's gives me homicidal thoughts regarding the owner of said flashing light! It's also important to aim the lights properly. The light should be visible from a car well behind you, so it should be pointed back and level. It should not be aimed up and into the eyes of the cyclist drafting you! This is especially important the brighter the light is.

And I totally do not understand a flashing headlight. How can one see when the light goes on and off and on and off and on and off. Yet, I regularly encounter a bike commuter on the path in Lexington using his light in this way. Whatever about doing in in daylight on the road, to do this at night on the bike path is totally obnoxious. If this describes you, please stop!

Front LED lights, Standlights, and Helmet Mounted lights

I've also found the very small led lamps like the one pictured below are handy for many things. These are useful when stopped, since the generator powered light stops too (if your lamp doesn't have a standlight). You don't really need a powerful light to see down the road when you are stopped, but you'd certainly like other road users to see you, hence a continuously powered light. There are loads of good tiny front LED's that will do the job.

One more helpful light is a helmet mounted LED. Black Diamond and Petzl both make very bright helmet mounted LED lights, which are bright enough for reading cue sheets, computers, doing repairs and flashing at cars to get them to dim bright headlights. While most aren't powerful enough to illuminate the road, they do a remarkable job of providing light with minimal batteries. They are great for nighttime roadside repairs, and walking around in the dark.

Right before BMB in 2002, I found the Black Diamond Ion light, pictured below. This thing is tiny. It comes with an elastic band for use as a headlamp, but I removed the band, and just cable tied the light to my helmet. It weighs nothing, and still lives on my helmet. It is hinged, so can be adjusted up and down. It uses a camera battery, that you likely won't find in a convenience store in the middle of nowhere, but does have very long life. I would recommend carrying a spare battery if you plan to leave it on for extended periods of time.

One should remember that helmet lights are anti-social. If you are riding with others, turn off your helmet light. If you look at the other rider, with your helmet light on, you will blind them. For this reason, I recommend against all high power helmet lights for group riding (and on bike paths).

Speaking of being seen, I don't believe you can ever have too much reflective stuff on a bike. The Lumotec headlamps have nice reflectors, as does the DToplight, the Spanninga and the Cateye AU100. I supplement all this with reflective tape on the forks, stays, racks, rims and pedals. Because they move and attract more attention pedals, shoes and wheels are really good places to have reflective material