8/4/2023 0 Comments Cateye lights review![]() ![]() So if the battery's out, you can't put in a fresh AA, you have to wait for it to recharge.įifth, it can be mounted vertical or horizontal, which means it has a symmetrical beam and will blind cyclists behind you.īasically, 450lm rear light is simply retarded. Third, it costs 40€ and they couldn't include a 2 cent light sensor to make it behave properly at night? Come on.įourth, it has a rechargeable battery. ![]() I made sure my light beamed out more than 180° around the rear, so if I'm arriving at an intersection, the driver arriving perpendicular can both see the front and rear light so they know it's a bicycle. Now a more technical analysis of the thing.įirst, the cyclist is riding with a symmetrical beam front light instead of a proper StVZO which means he cares neither about blinding other people, nor about seeing the road. Obviously it has a light sensor, so at night it stops blinking and switches to a more civilized intensity. This consumes about 0.3W when on (less when blinking) so it should be at most 10 lumens, considering the lumen efficacy of red LEDs is low because the lumen unit includes the eye sensitivity, which is low in the reds. It was very safe and visible in the above worst-case scenario. It is important to focus the beam of light in a tight angle horizontally, but in a wide angle left to right, so it is clearly visible to a driver far behind you or to the sides, but will not blind the cyclist riding right behind you by sending too much light upwards into his eyes.īlinking frequency around 5 Hz. I settled on a bunch of high-candela red LEDs, some of them aimed towards the sides for intersections, and some aimed towards the back. And I was riding in a bright orange t-shirt. Without a rear light, the bike was pretty much invisible to the driver, because it was in the shadows. The bike was in the shadow from the trees, and we picked the time of day when the sun would hit the friend driving the car behind me right in the face and blind him. The most difficult one was on a small country road in a forest. ![]() ![]() When designing a rear light for my bike I did various tests. I always ride with multiple lights, but on some commutes I've lost almost all due to flat batteries exacerbated by cold.Īnswer: lumen level is less important than other considerations. By contrast the front light needs to illuminate the land in front of you and needs more "throw"Īnd a lower lumen level will run for longer on a charge, meaning less chance of it going out suddenly. So your DRL might be a different unit to the nighttime one, or the same light running in a different mode.Ĭonsider that a rear light is not a "seeing" light, its a "be-seen" light, and the lower lumen levels are perfectly adequate at that. Most of the world would accept a blinking red rear light in the daytime, but do check.įor daytime use I personally choose a light that has a sharp on-off profile, and a beam shape that covers the rear-most 90 degree arc.īy contrast at nighttime I prefer both a solid-on red and a throbber that moves from low to high and back again over ~1 second rather than the sharp-edged and blinding. Whether that light can blink, strobe, throb, pulse, or has to stay on solid depends on your locality and the road regulations. Ideally for daytime usage, you want a rear light that gets driver's attention and lasts the whole ride. The measured brightness is less important than the beam formation, or lens configuration. ![]()
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