Customer Reviews

Planet Bike Blinky "3" 3-Led Rear Bicycle Light

5 star:		(130)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The purpose of any LED tail light is to make sure cars coming up behind you know you're there. The Planet Bike Blinky 3 does a fine job at that, stays put, has great battery life and doesn't cost much. You get two mounting options - a big cheap plastic clip for the seat post and a smaller clip for a rear side strut. I put mine on the seat post. In past years when I had a baby seat I would have used the side strut. You also get two settings - steady and blinking. That's the only negative in my book. I can't imagine using anything but blinking.

This is pretty much a no brainer. My wife's has been through almost 8 years of abuse and has had only one battery change. I didn't think twice when it was time for my bike and my son's to get this safety enhancement. I now bike a lot during the late night. I haven't had a close call with a car coming up from my rear yet. Enough said.

Update - 8 months later (6/5/09): I added a bike rack over my rear wheel and had to re-mount this because the rack's cargo obscured the seat post. Neither included mount fit the small gauge bars of the rack. I was able to use the small mounting clip by adding a small strip of black rubber (cut from an old inner tube scrap I had lying around). Because of the orientation of the rack's bars my light is now sideways. This arrangement works fine for me. I'm still on my original set of batteries and I use the light at least once a week.

Nice and bright, different flash settings, great visibility, mounting needs a little improvement. If there's one piece of advice I can give is check your seat-post before using this light. The seat-post is the ideal spot for placing this since you want the flashing to be as high as possible. Unfortunately my Raleigh SC40 has a seat shock post which is far too wide to use the mounting :( The rear forks also do not accomodate the mounting so there are precious few places this can be done. Unfurtunately, this means my flashing light is relegated to operate from a plastic bag dangling from my seat :(

This rear light can be seen for BLOCKS!! A great feature is the clip--it can be either clipped onto its seat post attachment or to a piece of clothing, if you walk at night. Battery life on blink (which is IMO much safer than constantly on) is weeks, if not months. Small enough to easily fit into a pocket, if you need to take it with.

With today's cheap electronics and LED technology it's trivial to make a super bright bike tail light. What you are really paying for here is the housing and mounting bracket.

I bought four of these when there was a blowout sale at REI. They're not terrible as other people have mentioned (cheap, small, light, bright, cheap, long running, clip for clothes, cheap, and did I mention, cheap?)

What I don't like is that the light snaps together - this is not unusual but the plastic on mine are thin enough that dropping the light onto a hard surface means you might be chasing the batteries on your hands and knees. Also, it's the plastic on the mount/clamp isn't very sturdy and if you put it on a mountain bike, it will need to be adjusted after every hard bump. Basically the plastic is so thin that you can't really tighten the adjustment screw sufficiently to keep it from slipping.

Do a search here at Amazon or the other online bike retailers - it appears you can definitely do better for the same price or even get something better for less!

Cateye makes top notch stuff, and it appears they have one which is the same price. (LD-130) I ended up with a more expensive Cateye tail light LD1100 and do not regret the extra $20 I paid for it.

Princeton Tec, Marwi, Blackburn and Topeak make good stuff - not as good as Cateye but certainly better than this.

Ride safe! Be seen!

If you've found this review to be helpful, please let me know!

This is a great product for the money. The mount was a cinch to install on the seat post of my bike and took only about 10 minutes. It comes without instructions, and I was a little puzzled at first as to how to install the batteries. That was a minor hurdle and certainly no reason to rate the light down at all. It was a simple matter of pulling the red lens cover away from the black part. It takes a little effort, and I was afraid of breaking it. However, it proved to be up to the task so don't be too worried about that--you should be able to do it with just your hands easily enough. I can't speak to the battery life at this point, but the light is BRIGHT! When I held it at arms length I was seeing spots afterwards. A driver would have to be asleep at the wheel not to notice me.

I found out about this brand when I almost literally stumbled across their 2watt LED headlight while walking. It was on the side of the road and had exploded - like an exploded diagram. Literally the thing had come apart in pieces and all of them were sitting in this tidy little line. I grabbed it all up, took it home, hit the one broken connection with solder, and everything just "snapped" back together. I then contacted the company to say I was impressed, and they told me they are so in favor of their stuff being non-disposable that if you're willing to fix it, they pay the shipping for parts. Not sure how much difference that makes in our throwaway world, but I appreciate the gesture.

On to this light in particular, well I figured I (actually my wife) now needed a tail light to go with the headlight, and this was the natural choice. Lightweight, seems sturdy (my wife just clips hers to her seatbag, and it doesn't seem to mind the jostling). It is very bright - bright enough for even the brightest daylight use - and that's because the fairly bright LED's are focused through extremely tight lenses - just a couple degrees of arc in any direction it would seem (in fact, this makes for a nice little spot-flashlight that won't ruin your night vision!).

So, that focus is good and bad. Drivers directly behind you can see you for a long way off, but drivers off to the side won't really see much - also if the light isn't pointing perfectly backward, then it won't be doing its job. Point being: If you really want to light yourself (or a kid) up, you might want to look for a light that has more LED's and has some of the LED's pointed out to the sides a bit. If you just want to let people behind you know where you are, however, then this is an inexpensive, tough, small, lightweight and battery-thrifty little unit that gets the job done.

I just ordered another.

I found this on the street after it came off somebody's bike. It has flown off my bike once, luckily I heard it hit. Use some rubber bands or stretchy tape to help secure it to seat bag loop.

Not as sophisticated as the super flash models, but not bad at much less cost. Less likely to get stolen too. But, if you want the best get a super flash.

All tail lights should be tested and alignment checked before leaving the house. Alignment is critical and sloppy installation can degrade performance of lights by 90%.

I like to take evening bike rides, and this light keeps me safer. Its very bright and comes with 2 light settings. Its somewhat hard to get it open so that you can put the batteries inside. I recommend using a quarter to slowly pry it open.

This light is as advertised: bright and easy to install. It comes with two installation brackets to fit your biking neede; one for the seat post and the other for the tire frame. I didn't have space on my seat post, so I put it on the frame and it works great. It is easy to take on and off (to prevent theft). It seems to be waterproof (I've ridden in the rain a few times without problem).

I would buy this product again without hesitation.

I've seen all sorts of bells and whistles available on other rear bike lights out there, and while having a light that can flash in 10 different patterns might be amusing it's really not necessary. This Planet Bike light does exactly what it needs to, and nothing more. It's very bright so as to be highly visible on the road, and can be put into a repeating flash mode. Secures very easily to the seat post. I'm all about bargains, and this is an outstanding light for the price asked.