Rack mount flashing battery rear light

[hongse]

I'm looking for a battery rear light that will fit to a pannier rack (so two screws, 50mm or 80mm apart) and that flashes. This seems to be surprisingly difficult. Naturally it should be a replaceable battery (AA or AAA) rather than a built-in lithium battery because I will need to remove the battery to recharge it. I want to be able to leave the light in place permanently, so it needs to be screwed on to discourage casual theft. It seems that virtually all rack-mount rear lights only operate continuously. Any readily available examples of ones that flash? Auto on/off would be nice too.
Cheers, Mark

[Sweep]

I'm looking for a battery rear light that will fit to a pannier rack (so two screws, 50mm or 80mm apart) and that flashes. This seems to be surprisingly difficult. Naturally it should be a replaceable battery (AA or AAA) rather than a built-in lithium battery because I will need to remove the battery to recharge it. I want to be able to leave the light in place permanently, so it needs to be screwed on to discourage casual theft. It seems that virtually all rack-mount rear lights only operate continuously. Any readily available examples of ones that flash? Auto on/off would be nice too.
Cheers, Mark

Might seem that I'm ignoring your post but personally I'd screw a cateye mount to the rack, then clip a cateye to that and take it with you. No probs. Also allows you to carry a compact spare light if your batteries go down mid ride. There are some very poor quality rack-mount lights out there. And not a lot of choice - as you've found.

[Norman H]

CatEye sell a rear rack mount that is compatible with a number or their rear lights. Having the light easily removed makes it much easier to replace the batteries.

https://www.cateye.com/intl/products/parts/5445620/

Edit: Sweep beat me to it.

[Sweep]

CatEye sell a rear rack mount that is compatible with a number or their rear lights. Having the light easily removed makes it much easier to replace the batteries.

https://www.cateye.com/intl/products/parts/5445620/

Edit: Sweep beat me to it.

On the cateyes, if you favour AA/AAA battery power (I do) I'd motor and stock up as they drive everything to USB recharging.
Cateye do some excellent lights.
Many of the discontinued ones are probably still available on the bay.

[PH]

I watch with interest, but don't think you'll find one. I think those countries that produce such practical things, don't tend to allow flashing, plus all such lights I've seen also come in dynamo versions. Of the steady lights, the Spanninga Elips would be my choice, I have the dynamo version, the battery version uses 2 X AAA's
https://spanninga.com/product/elips/

What I don't know is how the battery swap is achieved, before I had a dynamo I had a battery B&M rack light, you had to unscrew the cover to replace. Not a big deal on a commuter bikes where a pair of batteries would last months, but an awkward task at the side of the road if that were ever needed.
I have a preference for using two lights, a big splodge of colour and a more intensive flash (Without being blinding) the Elips covers the first and I can use some cheapie for the second.

I want to be able to leave the light in place permanently, so it needs to be screwed on to discourage casual theft.

I also like this idea, except one of my Spanninga lights was recently broken, presumably by someone trying to remove it, though it could have just been vandalism.

[Jdsk]

As above, I'd start with Cateye mounts. (And there are a lot of different ones if it ever needs to be mounted anywhere else.)

The remaining Cateye AA/AAA rear lights are here:
https://www.cateye.com/intl/products/safety_lights/
including their modes.

Are you are that you want to leave it on the bike if it's only held by screws? (Same concern as Sweep's above.) And a screwed-on mount isn't that different from a screwed-on light.

There are different opinions about flashing lights in this forum. Are you already familiar with the legal bits?

Jonathan

[Mick F]

This one's mine.
Cateye, and I have the rack mount on it.

Take two AA batteries and has modes of lighting. Ripple, flashing, and solid all controlled by the button on the back.

[Jdsk]

We have lots of these, and I recommend them. But there is a significant design fault... that "button on the back" gets turned on when something presses against it in the pannier.

Jonathan

[mjr]

The Range sell one. Button on back cycles through flashing, static and off. 80mm fixing. Green and black packaging. Some minor Dutch brand beginning with D. About £5. Not shown on their website so maybe only larger stores or ones in high-cycling areas like Norfolk. Yes, it is only bolted on, but casual vandals do not attack them as much as clip-off lights. It looks like a chunky reflector to the uninitiated.

Cateye used to be OK but annoyed me changing their mounts once too often. And their front lights are now substandard torches foisted off on us while Germany still gets good stuff.

[thirdcrank]

....Cateye used to be OK but annoyed me changing their mounts once too often. ...

I've not bought any bike lamps for a long time, but I thought that Cateye were good in this regard in that an entire range of brackets to fit different diameter tubes and other situations (eg as illustrated by MickF) was available separately, to fit all their rear lamps, even though you had to go to a decent LBS to find a stockist. IIRC, the bracket-to-bike mounting systems changed eg a single continuous strap replaced different diameter bands but the fitting of the lamp to the bracket was the same across the Cateye range. There were a couple of different Cateye brackets for front lamps.

[mjr]

but the fitting of the lamp to the bracket was the same across the Cateye range. There were a couple of different Cateye brackets for front lamps.

I am pretty sure I have at least three styles of front and two rear styles in the parts box here. Probably should recycle them. It was the lamp to bracket fitting that changed. I think it was another front fixing change that made me stop buying them and the current front bracket seems to be "H34N FlexTight" so I expect mine may be H31, 32 and 33... or maybe it is the letter N and mine are other letters.

[Bmblbzzz]

If you don't go for the Cat Eye mount or the bargain from the range, B&M make lots of lights which bolt directly to the rack but they don't flash.

[thirdcrank]

I don't know if this was an intentional part of the OP's spec but IIRC flashing is not so onerously treated by the regs as constant light

[PH]

....Cateye used to be OK but annoyed me changing their mounts once too often. ...

I've not bought any bike lamps for a long time, but I thought that Cateye were good in this regard

That's my experience with rear lights as well. It's the reason I've stuck with Cateye, The Omni light I bought this year fits a bracket that's at least ten years old, even the USB light that I had for a short while fitted the same bracket.

[slowster]

A B&M Toplight Line battery light incorporates a lens which results in a large area of light being emitted across the entire width of the unit. That is much better than a point light source, because it is much more visible. It also gives people behind, such as drivers, an indication of how far ahead the rider is, because as they get closer, the size of the area of light appears to grow larger. It can be difficult/impossible to estimate the distance to a point light source, and one that flashes might make it even harder for a driver to estimate how close they are to the cyclist.

The Spanninga Elips uses a similar lens technology.