Best Rear Bike Lights?

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spen666

Legendary Member
Any suggestions for good rear light(s) and where to buy your recommendations from.

Want to make sure dozy motorists can't be believed when they say they did not see me
 
The Topeak UFO is a good un. Vistalite used to make some great lamps but appear to have lost some market share recently- not so easy to find. Cateye have great build quality. Smart are cheap and cheerful but seem to last ok.
 

GrahamG

Guru
Location
Bristol
Cateye LD1100 is a good compromise between price and blinding potential. £30 for eight rear LED's (two rows of four with separate switches) plus two on either side for side-on visibility - very pleased with mine and I believe it's even brighter if you don't use rechargeable batteries (not fussed about that myself). After that you are looking at well over £50 for the posh Dinotte et al lights.
 
OP
OP
spen666

spen666

Legendary Member
I have used, and still do, the Cat eye TL LD600 - which cost circa £15 or less. I tend to use more than one of these lights.

I'd love the dinotte one, but think quantity may be better ie 2-3 lights at different heightrs on bike as opposed to one

any comments?

PS thanks all who have made suggestions- am looking at those as I type this
 

BentMikey

Rider of Seolferwulf
Location
South London
I have two Cateyes, an LD600 and an LD1000, on the back of the bent. Pretty bright, IMO. Oh, and the flat back of the tailbox has 3M diamond grade red reflective tape. It doesn't look anything like a bike at night now.
 

BentMikey

Rider of Seolferwulf
Location
South London
Oh, and I'll second Mr Paul's geargurl recommendation. They're fast and cheap, A+++++
 

Spoked Wheels

Legendary Member
Location
Bournemouth
About 20 quid.

Anything above that and you might as well toss a coin as to whether the customs people decide to pick it off the conveyor and charge you. Of course if they don't you're supposed to declare it anyway.

Actually it is £36 but it needs to be declared as a gift otherwise you risk a £10 bill for presenting the parcel to customs + duty + VAT on top of that


Rick
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
I have both the Smart Superflash 1/2 watt LED and the Smart 7 led light, I like both though the Superflash is brighter and I saw it for about £10 recently (I paid £15 last year). Easy to clip on and small enough to go in a pocket easily (even at the pub!!). I don't do lots of night cycling - so I can't claim to have given them a really good test. Plus they come with a seat stay bracket - so I have one on the back and one on the seat stay. (Plus used spare seat stay brackets on the kids bikes to be able to light their bikes using one of my lights).
 
We're both kind of right. You missed half of it.

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channels...ntent&id=HMCE_CL_000014&propertyType=document

See 2.3 and 2.4.

If you don't pay more than £18 for the lights you won't get charged.


Geargurl will declare it under the threshold in any event. But look at it this way - I got the Cateye opticube EL530 and that rear light for 30-something quid. Even if I'd paid duty, it would have been less than the UK retail price of cateye's less-well specced opticube EL500
 
One more for the Smart Superflash. Just be careful when you first test it. You'll regret looking straight at the light, but everyone does it!!
 
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