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Cateye Bicycle lightsJul 15 '07 Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Sport and Outdoor
The Bottom Line These bicycle lights are good, but could use some improvements like some way of notifying the cyclist that the rear light needs batteries.
Bicycle lights may seem like an odd subject for a health topic. Well, getting hit by a car is very unhealthy and one of the main reasons people get hit by cars when bicycling is that they weren't seen. Bicycle lights can help out with that. The Cateye HL-EL300 light has five LED's on the front light. They're nowhere near as bright as the halogen lights on cars, but these run for up to 110 hours on four AA batteries. They're nice on a dark bike trail at night if you're into that sort of adventure. They'll light up the path in a ghostly sort of way for more than a hundred feet and you'll be able to spot an object on the trail that you might miss if you try to ride without a light in the dark. On the road at night, the Cateye HL-EL300 can save your life. Almost no one recomends riding at night. I don't know if I agree. If you do, you should have a front and rear light. The Cateye will certainly let people know you're there and it will help you to see the road, but not as well as you might think. Car lights are so bright they affect your nightvision. Once they go by, you'll need some time to recover. Oddly, I've seen some very bright LED technology in use in some flashlights. I've no idea why that technology hasn't been used on this bicycle light. The taillight might be even more important. The Cateye TL-LD1000 has "ten super bright LEDs" that can be "played" in various configurations. The most important thing is that this taillight is also visible from the sides. Some taillights aren't and that can be a crucial weakspot. My tailight does seem to be quite bright. Once again it's not as bright as a car's taillight, but it's bright and it should be obvious to any cars behind and to the side of you that you are there. One big flaw however is that while riding, I don't see the taillight. If the battery runs out, I won't know for awhile, maybe a long while and I may be riding with the false confidence that I am visible. I ride with reflectors because of that but that's not quite the same thing. I wish the taillight somehow let me know that it was off or out of power the moment it happens because I definitely don't want to be riding on a dark road without cars knowing I'm there. I had expected to be able to look at the ground to my side and see the red blinking light reflected there, but that's not the case and even putting my hand towards the back showed no reflection. You have to stop and look under your seat to know your light is working and that's just not acceptable. Because of this you might want to have more than one taillight. A light on the back of your helmet might be a good choice since it's at the highest point and will have better visibility. The directions for installing the lights are in the form of drawings and symbols. There are extra parts that can be a little confusing. Once installed the lights hold their adjustment or can be pretty easily adjusted. When on, they give you good visibility.  |
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