Bike Lights - A Comprehensive Buying Guide to Finding a Quality Tail Light.

Tail lights:
Everyone knows when riding at night you need a nice headlamp to see where you are going. This is very important but believe it or not an even more important addition to your bicycle gear is a good Tail Light! It is nice to see where you are going at night with a good headlight but its even more important to BE SEEN. Cars are the number one threat to a bicyclists safety at night and a good tail light can be the difference between an enjoyable ride and a downright scary one! When I was researching tail lights again there were two different types, Halogen and LED. I will discuss both options below.

Halogen:
Halogen tail lights are the standard lighting we are all used to from yesteryear from flashlights to automobile tail lights. In my opinion its an outdated technology but it does have its pros and cons. The halogen tail light is typically a bulb in a housing with a red plastic reflective cover over the top. The reason for this is because the bulb will evenly disperse light in every direction and we don't want that. Most of the cars we want to alert to our presence are cars behind us. For that reason the halogen lights have a reflective lens cover that directs most of the light backwards. The reflective lenses aren't perfect of course and you are going to have light scattering all around. This causes light to escape and therefore the further you are from the car in front of you the brighter the bulb needs to be or you won't be seen. This of course in tern burns battery life much faster. What we don't want is a huge bulky battery pack for a little flashing light! Therefore these lights tend to take a AAA battery which runs out of juice pretty fast. In my opinion the LED technology is far superior.

LED lighting is the latest and greatest in bicycle lighting today. It is being used more and more by car manufacturers in their tail lights as well! LED bulbs send a majority of light out the top of the bulb which is the most efficient for a good tail light. This lets the LED tail light work without any restrictive reflective lens stealing the light away. The bulbs are so good at sending light in a certain direction in fact that they are much weaker then the equivalent halogen bulb but in turn can be seen farther away! Sounds perfect right? Well it really is. The LEDs consume far less battery life and I have found a good LED tail light can go months without needed a battery replacement. The other advantage is that the LEDs can be facing in specific directions giving a 180 degree notice to other cars and bikes on that road that you are there. I will discuss that further in the next paragraph.

You will find a hundred different combination of LED tail lights at your local shops and online. They are all very similar except for a few minor differences that are very important based on your riding environment. If you are someone who frequently rides at night on busy streets with many intersections then you will want a multi-directional LED tail light. These tail lights have the standard back facing LED tails but also include side facing bulbs which alert automobiles pulling out of an intersection to your location. This is crucial because these cars cannot see light from a strictly back facing LED tail light. The disadvantage to this is the more LED bulbs involved and the more directions they are placed, the bulkier the light and the faster the batteries drain. If you typically ride around town at night or enjoy riding through some light trails then the slimmer and more energy efficient back facing LED tail lamps are right for you. These consist of only a few LEDs facing directly behind you to alert drivers and other riders of your presence. The extra side facing LEDs are not necessary in this case and can save you a few dollars on batteries.

Remember, no matter what type of light you go with you need to analyze the situations you will be riding in and pick the correct one for it. There is no such thing as too bright! Of course with brightness comes a lower battery life so you need to find that perfect equilibrium in between bright and efficient and pick your tail light. Don't make the mistake I did and buy a cheap halogen light from a big box store because you will quickly regret the decision and end up buying a nice LED tail light somewhere else. Thanks for reading my article and happy cycling!

Everyone knows when riding at night you need a nice headlamp to see where you are going. It is nice to see where you are going at night with a good headlight but its even more important to BE SEEN. Cars are the number one threat to a bicyclists safety at night and a good tail light can be the difference between an enjoyable ride and a downright scary one! I have done all the research for you inside to find the perfect tail light for your situation. Information about the Author: I am an avid outdoors man, skier, and cyclist in Colorado. It is sunny 300 days of the year here and I try to get outside every one of them. I started an online bicycle lighting store specifically because I was frustrated with the prices at the local bike shops and the lack of quality discount products online. The store is called Bike Lights Online and I encourage you to check it out. Bike Lights Online Http://www.bikelightsonline.com Biking Articles: http://www.article-buzz.com

Print This Article Add To Favorites Email to Friends Get Re-print Code

Click the XML Icon for 'Biking' Articles RSS feed