
Using one massively bright .5W LED (in the white section of the light) and two smaller LEDs (behind the red plastic), the Superflash has a distinctive blink-blink-BANG flash pattern. This thing puts out more light than anything I've seen this side of DiNotte's $160 140L-AA-R rechargable tail light. Eventually, I tracked one down at the local hipster bike shop and sprung for it.
Like all LEDs, the Blinky Superflash's output is very directional- the closer you are to viewing it head on, the brighter it gets, making proper mounting (facing straight back, parallel to the ground) essential. From head-on, the Blinky Superflash is, basically, unviewable. The primary LED puts out a massive amount of light, making the other two (standard brightness) LEDs look quite feeble by comparison. Planet Bike claim that it's visible from a mile away, and I don't doubt it.

For the ride to and from work,
I opted to leave a Mars 3.0 on my each of my commuters' seatposts and mount the Blinky Superflash to my helmet (to further set it apart from other drivetime tail lights). With careful positioning, it's visible to drivers and sits in my locker all day, all tosty and dry. So far, so good. I've had comments from coworkers on it's brightness and I feel just a bit more secure with it up there. At $25-30 in shops, it's $10 more than the Mars, but considerably brighter. The advertised battery life (on 2 included AAA batteries) is 100 hours (flashing)- twice that of the Mars. It's not cheap, but if it saves you one ER copay, it's more than paid for itself. Oh, and Planet Bike donate 25% of their profits toward bicycle advocacy. I'll run it all winter and let you know if anything changes. So far, though, it's hard not to recommend.

marc
www.planetbike.com
2 comments:
This is a great light. I started riding myh bike to work and, with shorter days in winter, I felt vulnerable. I looked at many lights before buying this one. It is REALLY bright and noticable. Dallas isn't very cyclist friendly, but two drivers slowed down and commented they really like the light because they saw me from several blocks away.
Jim, That's great- glad to know you're happy with the light and riding safe! marc
Post a Comment