Your super powerful rear lights

[Wendy]

Post your brightest rear lights here:

Mid-category:
Smart 1/2 watt flash
Relatively cheap, popular light.
Approx £12
Powered by 2 x AAA batteries, lasts a claimed 30 hours flashing, 15 steady.
Poor water resistance

Powerful category:
BLT Fantom XR9
Approx £28
Powered by 3 x AA batteries.  Lasts a claimed 20hrs on full, 90 on flash.
Cheap, but limited by poor mounting brackets. This one is extremely bright, but has a relatively narrow beam.

RSP Astrum
Approx £15-20
Powered by 2 x AA batteries, lasts a claimed 8 hours on full.
Has 2 x 1/2 watt LEDs, one has a diffuser lens.  It's bright, brighter than the smart 1/2 watt flash, but not as bright as the BLT Fantom XR9.  It has much better side-on visibility though.

Super powerful:
Exposure Redeye
Approx £35
Lasts a claimed 9 hours on a 1 cell piggyback battery.
As bright or slightly brighter than the BLT Fantom, but over a much larger field of view.  Excellent diffuser.  Runs off the power port on an Exposure front light, or a stand-alone Exposure battery (1 cell piggy back battery costs £36)

Dunno much about the Dinottes or other available lights - please post if you know the gen..

[Greenbank]

Smart 1/2W takes 2 AAA batteries.

[GrahamG]

I had to return a Smart 1/2 watt rear as soon as I got it - switch was haunted and it just turned on-off-flashing almost at random as soon as the bike moved.

[Hot Flatus]

Dinotte 400l rear. 

The only thing brighter is the frankly unusable 600l version.

[Wendy]

Doh, thanks for spotting that typo Alex.  Yes, the switch can be unreliable.  I bent mine slightly and that sorted it.

[vorsprung]

Cateye TL1100 is another "mid category"
Does various flashing modes
Takes AA batteries
Good side visibility
Stupid complicated switches
Over priced but often in a sale

[Regulator]

Dinotte 400l rear. 

The only thing brighter is the frankly unusable 600l version.

Great fun aren't they.  I'm thinking of strapping mine on for the urban Cambridge commute... 

[mike]

I've never tried an expensive one, but three mid-priced lamps:

Smart 1/2 watt superflash:
useless in the rain, hopeless switches that either dont work or work by magic every 2 minutes, and they keep bouncing off the bike.

Cateye 600 / 610:
great, last for ages, very visible, both on sale at wiggle

Blackburn 4.0:
very solid and leak-proof but needs a screwdriver to change the batteries. 

I've just bought a bundle of very cheap 'Antarex Mx-One' single LED lights from on-one (about a fiver each).  A bit like Knog lights which i'm going to use as extras as well as a catye 600 on each bike, they look flimsier than my resistance to cake but are nice and bright.

[anth]

I've got a Cateye TL LD1100 as mentioned above, and it's great. Good side visibility, and I like the fact one row of LEDs can be constant, and the other flashing. Planning on backing that up this year with some Knog Frogs (just bought a set on Wiggle as precisely that, back up lights in case of disaster).

Tried a Blackburn Mars 3.0 on the back (actually, on the back of Mel's bike) and that's pretty good as well. Mid-priced.

[Greenbank]

Smart 1/2 watt superflash:
useless in the rain, hopeless switches that either dont work or work by magic every 2 minutes, and they keep bouncing off the bike.

Absolute opposite of my experience with a Smart 1/2W superflash.

Never had a problem with it and I'm not afraid of a ride in a bit of rain. It survived BCM/LEL/etc, and is my backup commuting light. No problems with water ingress either.

It has never unclipped from my rucksack (very unlikely as it clips onto the elasticated bits) and never from my Creek2Peak rackpack or the Altura pannier cover or the strap buckle on my Carradice Barley.

[delthebike]

British Standard or Equivalent

Busch and Muller, Seculite Plus   

[LEE]

Never felt any practical need to use anything more powerful than a Cateye 600/610.

I've never had any problem with either of them in 3 years of constant use.

If I buy another rear light I'll get another 610.

[nuttycyclist]

Never felt any practical need to use anything more powerful than a Cateye 600/610.

I've never had any problem with either of them in 3 years of constant use.

If I buy another rear light I'll get another 610.

Same here.

When I left Wowbagger's last night my 610 was lighting up the garden gate even though it's a brightly street lit area.

I've used the Cateye 600 since their launch (anybody know when that was?  I'm guessing around the year 2000?)

[vorsprung]

British Standard or Equivalent

Busch and Muller, Seculite Plus   

I have one of these on my audax bike.  Mounts on the mudguard, nice and neat, good reflector.  Not very very bright but good for the "fit and forget" factor

[delthebike]

Busch and Muller, Seculite Plus   

I have one of these on my audax bike.  Mounts on the mudguard, nice and neat, good reflector.  Not very very bright but good for the "fit and forget" factor

I've been told that mine was seen during a heavy downpour one half mile away. I'd say it's plenty bright.
It doesn't need batteries as it runs on magic. 

[rower40]

I've still got a blue patch in my vision from the overdose of RED that I was subjected to by a certain rear light on the Solstice Warty from Glastonbury to Stonehenge.  3 months ago.

Should I name and shame?

[mattc]

Can we have a tickbox for:
seat-stay mountable, angled down/horizontal ?   

And for my use, I'd like something that will go on a rear rack stay (i.e. where a bracket mounts pointing downwards, and typically slides down ... ) without major fettling.

[MercuryKev]

I've got 3 smart 1/2 watt beauties.  Two of them have provided faultless service for around two years; the third was only purchased last month and it's go the ghost switch syndrome.  As for waterproofing, a bit of insulating tape a round the seal sorts that out.

[Zoidburg]

I noticed that Maplins are selling a red 10W halogen bulb that fits my vistalite or a light and motion system.

But that would be crazy.

[CommuteTooFar]

Never felt any practical need to use anything more powerful than a Cateye 600/610.

I've never had any problem with either of them in 3 years of constant use.

If I buy another rear light I'll get another 610.

I get contact problems with most battery lights after time.  These two have the added problem that only one end is accessible for cleaning or re-bending.  I would never trust a rear lamp I do not know is working or not.

[CommuteTooFar]

I have a B&M Seculight on the mudguard and a B&M Flatlight (Battery) on the rack.
Not the brightest but they work.

[urban_biker]

I've just ordered a BLT Fantom XR9. I just couldn't resist the marketing. I mean who can resist a rear light named after a Jet Fighter a popular handgun AND my favourite audax foodstuff.

[Gandalf]

BLT Fantom and a Smart, plus supplementary danglers.

[andrew_s]

I use the Smart 1/2W for my bright light, along with a Seculight Plus and a cateye AU100BS. No problems with either water or auto-switching.

I have previously used the Cateye 600 (battery compartment too short for some rechargeables, can't fit aimed horizontally on most seat stays using the supplied bracketry), and the Cateye 1000 grenade (kept going out & had to be hit to get it to come back on)

[Valiant]

Dinotte Taillight [Upgraded to 140l]
2x Cateye LD600s