Rear Light
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
Rear lights on your bicycle essentially serve a single purpose. They make you more visible in low light conditions, whether that be at day or at night and help to reduce the chance you will be involved in an accident with another road user.
Most rear cycle lights mount on the seat pillar but there are also some that mount on the bicycle frame. You need to ensure though that wherever you mount your cycle light that is conforms to local legislation as there are, in most countries, minimum height from the ground requirements as well as other requirements. For example it may be illegal to use flashing strobe type lights although they now seem to be more and more widely accepted.
The old filament bulb type of cycle lamp seems to have had its day now with more and more LED style lights coming onto the market with comparable power and usually more favourable battery life.
As mentioned above there may be some limitations as to the type of light you can use on your bicycle and one of the most common restrictions is that the light must be 'steady' as opposed to flashing. You will find that most modern LED lights have a steady mode as well as a flashing mode but you may find it beneficial to have two lights mounted. One steady to meet the legislation and one flashing to make you more visible. Some rear lights come with multiple banks of LEDs that allow you to have some showing steady and some flashing.
One word of caution is that although a flashing light tends to be more visible to motorists and other road users it is sometime difficult to judge the distance to them and there is a suggestion that if the driver behind you is drunk they could actually be attracted to the flashing light. These caution notes though only really serve to backup the fact that you should have both steady and flashing lights on the rear of your bike.
Another reason to have two lights mounted on the rear of your bicycle rather than relying on a single unit is battery life. You tend to find that LED lights will simply fail much quicker once battery power falls below a certain level. So, it is useful to have a second light installed that you can switch to in the case of failure.
So if you are in the habit of riding your bicycle at night, make sure you are safe by fitting adequate lighting to the rear (and front) of your bike, and remember that whatever solution you go for when lighting up your bike it needs to conform to local legislation.
Tamiya 1/14 RC Scania Rear Light MFU Test
|
|
VISION 1995-1999 CHEVY LUMINA MONTE CARLO OEM STYLE REAR RED SIDE MARKER LIGHTS $34.99 |
|
|
F1 FLASHING STYLE LED 3RD THIRD BRAKE TAIL REAR LIGHT LAMP W/O SS PACKAGE BLACK $71.95 |
|
|
1956 Chevy BelAir rear license plate light 4288 $8.49 |
|
|
01 Sporster-Road Glide Rear Tail Light N0. 407B $19.95 |
|
|
03-05 Nissan 350Z Red LED Tail Lights Rear Brake Lamps Assembly LH+RH Pair New $138.99 |
|
|
94-01 RAM 1500 / 94-02 2/3500 SMOKED LED RING TAIL LIGHTS REAR BRAKE SMOKE LAMPS $49.29 |
|
|
OEM CHRYSLER DODGE 300M LHS REAR SEAT ARMREST CUP HOLDER PULL DOWN LIGHT BEIGE $54.95 |
|
|
Calm an English two-decker with sails loosed firing a salute Photo Mugs To the left a two-decker ship is shown coming to anchor in a very light breeze. She has a red flag at the mizzen indicating a Rear-Admiral of the Red, and flies a common pendant below a vane at the main. She is firing her guns in salute. There are many men in the starboard rigging presumably going aloft to furl the sails. A ships barge in the right foreground pulls away from the ship to the right,... |
|
|
Afternoon Delight $7.50 ... |
|
|
NAMCO Time Crisis 3 with Guncon 2 Light Gun $95.00 Time Crisis 3 brings the massive arcade hit to life, with all-new features and gaming modes! GUNCON 2 Light Gun included for superior shooting action... |
|
|
Backspacer $7.70 Deluxe edition features two full concert downloads! 2009 release from Eddie Vedder and the boys, their ninth album overall. For Backspacer, the lasting Grunge rockers decided to do it big. They left label J Records and decided to release to album themselves, since the certainly have enough money to do that. They also hooked up with '90s Alternative Rock producer du jour Brendan O'Brien (Korn, Bruc... |
|
|
Project Limelight Suspension, Brakes and Rear End $1.99 ... |
|
|
iPearl mCover Hard Shell Case for 13-inch A1278 Aluminum Unibody MacBook Pro (Black) $19.51 Made of USA-made high-quality translucent DOW polycarbonate material, which is shatter-proof and will protect your MacBook all around. Completely redesigned to fit the new Aluminum Unibody/Black keyboard MacBook perfectly. Improved design to protect ALL corners for new 13-inch Aluminum Unibody/Black keyboard MacBook.... |
|
|
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101-A1 10.1-Inch Tablet (Dock Sold Separately) $388.99 Asus Eee Pad Transformer Tablet 16GB... |
