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Portland Design Works just introduced the super-bright Radbot 1000 blinkie light featuring a simple blink/steady 1 watt red LED, placing it in the class of the some of the brightest tail lights out there. The integrated reflector is a nice touch for when the battery runs low or you simply forget to turn the light on, especially since many riders remove the cheap stock ones that come from shops. Besides the usual seatpost and seatstay mounts, the Radbot also ships with a rear rack mount for the folks out there sporting panniers for the commute. Expect the light to go for about $30 in shops, with a 1/2 watt version in the same housing available for a few bucks less.
Compared to a Planet Bike 1/2 watt SuperFlash tail light, this 1 watter should really light up. A great combo (for to be seen) would be this tail light and Planet Bike’s new Blaze 2 watt flashing headlight.
Hmmm…only seems to be one LED, no side facing or shining elements…can’t say I’m leaning toward buying one.
Barturtle,
The Radbot is visble from both sides as well as from the rear. You can check a video of it here:
http://www.vimeo.com/7730667
There is also the Red Planet tail light that has five LEDs (three rear ward facing LED’s and one that shoots to each side.)
Thanks, PDW, for including a rear rack mount — why don’t other companies do this?!?
Nice! It’s nice to have a good, bright battery powered option to go to other than the SuperFlash. And the addition of a reflector is superb.
That vimeo link wouldn’t work for me, but a quick search turned up this vimeo link of the RADBOT 1000
http://www.vimeo.com/15601840
The only downside I have read so far is that it will unexpectedly stop working as soon as the batteries discharge a relatively small amount.
I wish people who make videos for comparison would film from a quarter mile away to see how it works where it really counts…seeing a bright light on video doesn’t prove much because of the camera automatic settings. If it were video taped a long way off, you could see how much brighter one light is over another.