andy_l wrote: When I'm driving, I often find it difficult to work out exactly where the bike is (how far away), and if the light is very bright, it's difficult to see beyond it. .
Could be a good thing. There's an argument for lights which cause enough puzzlement to motorists to rouse them from their stupor and pay attention.
I have both the dynamo and battery Philips Saferide Lumiring rear lights, and I agree that they're really nice. A big area of red light on the back, very visible but not dazzling at all. The front light is very good too, nice and bright with a good beam pattern.
I don't know whether it's placebo effect, but I'm pretty sure cars give me more room when passing since I've fitted them instead of more normal LED back lights.
The only downsides was that both my lights had rather brittle (and very thin) black plastic for the backs, and both ended up breaking where the mounting bolts sit in rather minimal T-slots.
The battery one I managed to get replaced by Philips, and it's just about hanging on. I think they must have had quality control problems with the manufacturer, the plastic was so brittle it just fell apart.
The dynamo one I fixed by taking it apart, drilling holes all the way through for the bolts, and then adding lots of epoxy resin to strengthen the back. The main lens is a solid chunk of transparent plastic, with six LEDs mounted in the middle pointing outwards radially, and this is very robust. Once epoxied all back together the result is a lot stronger than the original product.
The other problem is that Philips no longer make bicycle lights of any kind. You can still get these Saferide lights from shops, but perhaps for not much longer.
admin wrote:The other problem is that Philips no longer make bicycle lights of any kind. You can still get these Saferide lights from shops, but perhaps for not much longer.
Which is a real shame, as both the rear and front Saferide lights are well thought of and it is good to have proper competition in the quality on roads cycle lighting sector rather than have it totally dominated by Busch & Muller.