Bike lights again

[johnridley]

I've used the Dinotte 200L for a couple of days now. It kicked a low battery indication at me a mile from work today, on the 2nd day. This is OK, since it just strobes for 1/2 second and turns the power indicator LED from blue to red. It still kept going at full brightness. After a while (10, 15 minutes apparently) it would have strobed again and dropped into low output mode, where it would have run for 30+ minutes.

That's only about 100 minutes of runtime on 100% brightness (42 minute commutes, plus probably 15 minutes of playing with it), though to be fair to it, the batteries have been outside in the cold for 4 days and it was about 19 degrees this morning. And I had another battery pack in my bag anyway. I probably could run OK on medium power, which doubles the runtime, but I don't think I'll bother. Swapping batteries takes all of 15 seconds every 2 days.

For anyone who's looking for a nice bike light, they have a sale on these running today at www.dinottelighting.com - this light is now $100 instead of $130, and the taillight is $105 instead of $130. I just ordered the taillight - I don't like winter night riding without my strobe on the back.

[EDIT] - apparently the sales there last a couple of hours at a time. It's over. Glad I checked at 6AM.

Comments

[c0nsumer.livejournal.com]

Dinotte makes some really nice lights. That tail light is also profanely bright. Brighter than automobile taillights, in my opinion. One of the people I ride with on Wednesdays had his light fail on him, but Dinotte shipped out a new one right away without any hassle. The only thing I worry about is the O-ring mounting system and how that'll be after a few years.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

They ship two O rings, and I can buy them at a hardware store for a buck or two.

Dinotte appears to have simply unbeatable customer service. The owner/engineer there, Ray, answers email questions personally within hours, and I've never heard of anyone who ever had a problem with their response to a problem.

Heck, they will even upgrade old models with newer optics for a reasonable fee.

When most bike lights are disposable and not very good, it's nice to be able to buy something that's clearly designed to last a lifetime, and it's made in the US as well.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's really, really bright. There are some people on BikeForums that use Nova Bulls, but I think that's a little crazy. They HURT even in the daytime. The Dinotte is probably about at the top level of what you could consider a reasonable taillight. The fast strobe/pause pattern should be great in adverse conditions, and the 2 Hz should be good in general night riding. I like that the 2 Hz pattern is high flash over low constant - this covers both the flashing and the constant requirement (my own requirement, not legal requirement). I'll still run a SuperFlash, at least until I'm sure about the runtime on this light.

[c0nsumer.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. I didn't know that was how it blinked... We were playing with those lights in a dark parking lot, so it was pretty hard to actually look at them.

I didn't realize that the Nova Bull lights are basically emergency vehicle lights. Wow.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Nova Bulls are THREE 1W emitters slaved to a controller puck. I saw them on a cop car in an Independence Day parade, and in bright sunlight it hurt to look at them.

The blink modes on the Dinottes are (I'm guessing at the speeds)

- 1 Hz full brightness/off
- 2.5 Hz full brightness/low power
- 5 strobes at probably about 8 or 10 HZ at high power, then low power for .5 second or so.

I think the 2nd mode would be good for daily use at night, 3rd in adverse conditions. But I might decide to use the 3rd all the time.