Cycling UK Forum

The 'tail' lamp bulbs in a motor vehicle are 5 W, and not very bright. The 'stop' lamps are 25 W and brighter.

On my bicycle, I use a rear lamp equivalent to a 5 W 12V filament bulb and the standard reflector which was supplied with the bike.
I wear a red jacket with reflective strips, shoes with reflective panels and a helmet with a reflective ellipse on the rear.

Being 'lit up like a Christmas tree' gives the impression I'm scared to ride on the road in the dark. Which is untrue, and the motorists around me get the message I'm confident and can be dominant in the carriageway by the way I'm dressed and riding.

"Assertiveness" counts for a few rear lamps.

Ayesha wrote:The 'tail' lamp bulbs in a motor vehicle are 5 W, and not very bright. The 'stop' lamps are 25 W and brighter.

On my bicycle, I use a rear lamp equivalent to a 5 W 12V filament bulb and the standard reflector which was supplied with the bike.
I wear a red jacket with reflective strips, shoes with reflective panels and a helmet with a reflective ellipse on the rear.

Being 'lit up like a Christmas tree' gives the impression I'm scared to ride on the road in the dark. Which is untrue, and the motorists around me get the message I'm confident and can be dominant in the carriageway by the way I'm dressed and riding.

"Assertiveness" counts for a few rear lamps.

So what filament bulb wattage is my 3W LED rear light equivalent to? Googling suggests over 30W, which is a bit naughty I suppose.

EDIT: if you look at the pictures you can see that the cars passed my unmanned bike giving quite a reasonable amount of space, especially as they also slowed to ~20mph.

A dyno hub rear bulb is 2.4 W. That's correct.

niggle wrote:

Ayesha wrote:.

So what filament bulb wattage is my 3W LED rear light equivalent to? Googling suggests over 30W, which is a bit naughty I suppose.

Certainly brighter than any 21 watt incandescent brake light - which is what I used on my bike for years.

My DIY rear light has 48 5mm LEDs - so approx 3.3 watts, and it's more effective than any car fog light I've ever seen.

I have a separate diffused rear light for use on shared paths. In fact I sometimes switch over when I'm in a queue of traffic.

A dyno FRONT bulb is 2.4W. The old tail lamps were 0.6W.
I'm still on Smart 1/2W Superflash tail lights backing up a dyno bulb on the tourer and a dyno LED on the lightweight. The offside Smart I have aimed high and slightly wide, it seems to get me a bit more space.

hi
just got 2 of these http://www.dealextreme.com/p/flood-to-t ... -aaa-26800 dam bright they are to and at that price .. did take awhile to arrive but from hong kong 2weeks not bad..

larry

loafer wrote:hi
just got 2 of these http://www.dealextreme.com/p/flood-to-t ... -aaa-26800 dam bright they are to and at that price .. did take awhile to arrive but from hong kong 2weeks not bad..

larry

Oh I'm glad to read this as I have two arriving soon too!

loafer wrote:hi
just got 2 of these http://www.dealextreme.com/p/flood-to-t ... -aaa-26800 dam bright they are to and at that price .. did take awhile to arrive but from hong kong 2weeks not bad..

larry

Seem to be about the same brightness as these (which I have) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5w-LED-Bicycl ... 19bc307579
obviously not adjustable beam pattern but very decent for the money & the rear isn't shoddy either.

Tonyf33 wrote:

loafer wrote:hi
just got 2 of these http://www.dealextreme.com/p/flood-to-t ... -aaa-26800 dam bright they are to and at that price .. did take awhile to arrive but from hong kong 2weeks not bad..

larry

Seem to be about the same brightness as these (which I have) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5w-LED-Bicycl ... 19bc307579
obviously not adjustable beam pattern but very decent for the money & the rear isn't shoddy either.

Maybe you were lucky and got a genuine one then ?

I have a couple of those - they're good.

I've been a bit disappointed by the flashing mode of the front - it never gets up to brightness....

The knogs I mentioned above are *very* bright - certainly as much as you need, and I imagine just as bright as the delextreme/ebay ones. All the ones mentioned since have the weakness of easily breakable plastic bracket mounts.

Reigncloud wrote:The knogs I mentioned above are *very* bright - certainly as much as you need, and I imagine just as bright as the delextreme/ebay ones. All the ones mentioned since have the weakness of easily breakable plastic bracket mounts.

Coming back from a day ride yesterday I was running late and it was getting dark about 10 miles from home, but I had not brought my main Magicshine front light with me so I had to use my emergency back-up 1 Watt from Deal Extreme, one of these: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/1w-2-mode- ... -aaa-18307 which costs about £4.60. Anyway it was fine for being seen by, as all the reflected flashing from roadside reflectors and signs demonstrated, and OK for up to 15 mph in the dark on a familiar road on steady mode. Also when going up hill at up to 10mph, I was able to switch it off completely and ride by moonlight when there was no traffic heading towards me, i.e. most of the time, and it was actually rather pleasant.

niggle wrote:

Reigncloud wrote:The knogs I mentioned above are *very* bright - certainly as much as you need, and I imagine just as bright as the delextreme/ebay ones. All the ones mentioned since have the weakness of easily breakable plastic bracket mounts.

Coming back from a day ride yesterday ...

Don't know why you quoted my post as the lights linked in your post still have the cheap plastic mount problem I described. The other issue is that the dealextreme/ebay/just about every other type of light also leave an unsightly bracket on your bars and/or seatpost or rack during the majority of the time you ride your bike and don't need lights i.e. daytime (even my beloved Ayups suffer from this). I've messed around with dozens of different 'to be seen' bike lights over the years (both cheap and expensive) and I've basically settled on the USB knogs - no mounts left behind, *very* bright, great battery life, no need to stuff around with AAA batteries (rechargeable or not) and they look good too! I'm planning on these being the last set of lights I buy (though I've said that before! haha)

Reigncloud wrote:

niggle wrote:

Reigncloud wrote:The knogs I mentioned above are *very* bright - certainly as much as you need, and I imagine just as bright as the delextreme/ebay ones. All the ones mentioned since have the weakness of easily breakable plastic bracket mounts.

Coming back from a day ride yesterday ...

Don't know why you quoted my post as the lights linked in your post still have the cheap plastic mount problem I described. The other issue is that the dealextreme/ebay/just about every other type of light also leave an unsightly bracket on your bars and/or seatpost or rack during the majority of the time you ride your bike and don't need lights i.e. daytime (even my beloved Ayups suffer from this). I've messed around with dozens of different 'to be seen' bike lights over the years (both cheap and expensive) and I've basically settled on the USB knogs - no mounts left behind, *very* bright, great battery life, no need to stuff around with AAA batteries (rechargeable or not) and they look good too! I'm planning on these being the last set of lights I buy (though I've said that before! haha)

I have no doubt you are right and the Knogs are far superior, but as I said this light worked fine and I did not have the mount on the bars, it was attached to the light in my saddlebag. I was actually quite surprised how it performed on steady mode, actually usable at a moderate speed, but if I needed something on a regular basis as a light to be seen I would get something better.

Tonyf33 wrote:

gilesjuk wrote:I don't think anyone will claim to have not seen you with these:

http://www.hokeyspokes.com/

Video:

http://www.hokeyspokes.com/videos.htm

They're good for side visibility which seems to be important given accidents happen at junctions a lot.

Sorry but that's a horrible gimmick IMHO, the rider in the video didn't have any light front or rear for one thing (is that how they are promoting it so that lights are not required?) and they look far too distracting.
A normal set of lights is fine and if people are worried about side junctions at night (A front light would be seen by a motorist on approach anyhow) wear a reflective armband or even one of the LEDones which is at a height that is more effective.
Though I don't have any facts I've had far far less trouble at night (in fact never) with cars pulling out from junctions/roundabouts than in the day time so certainly I'd say these are redundant overkill.

thread nearly dying, but I'm scanning through it, because I myself I'm looking for a quality rear one that won't fall apart at the first bump. the Cateye LD1100 seem to be the best option.

But anyway, I saw this and had to reply. I passed a couple of cyclists on a cycle path last tuesday, coming in my direction. As they neared I couldn't work out what this faint green flashing object was. They were lights like those - just one colour, and a couple of flashing lights, but blimey they did my eyes a bit of damage. Visible, yes; but drivers would probably spend so much time looking at it trying to figure it out that they may swerve, causing an entirely new danger.