Brake Sensing Backlight for Increased Security
Increase your security with an affordable, brake sensing, bicycle backlight. This light helps to be visible by others and makes group rides as well as dense traffic even safer.
When riding your bike, being visible to other others is your life insurance. Whether it is from dusk until dawn or in the middle of the day, using a backlight is always a good idea and helps to be seen. Whereas standard backlights have been around for a long time, recently some more advanced models become more and more popular. These models introduce gyroscopes for brake sensing, as you would find on any car, which can increase security when riding in groups or in city traffic. Compared to the radar backlights, that help to know what's going on behind you, these brake sensing lights are relatively inexpensive and even work well without a head unit.
Enfitnix Cubelite III
One good example, for a brake sensing backlight, is the Enfitnix Cubelite III, which is available for about $16. The Cubelite III is constructed from an IPx6 waterproof aluminum frame, giving it a premium, high-quality feel. The set includes mounts for the seat post as well as the saddle rails. The weight including the seat post mount is exactly 40g. The light provides four different blinking patterns, all in combination with the additional x-shaped brake light. The brake light turns on as soon as you hit the brakes, and stays on for some seconds when standing still or accelerating again. The four different blinking patterns are slow flashing, breath/pulsating, fast flashing, and constant on. Furthermore, the light can run in automatic or manual mode, whereas in automatic mode it turns off after 10 seconds of inactivity (no movement registered via the gyroscope) and turns on automatically when movement is detected again. Everything is controlled with one button using long press for on and off, single clicking for switching the blinking pattern and double-clicking for switching between manual and automatic mode. Further, there are two LEDs in the back. One to indicate the charging status (red — charging & green — charging complete) and one to indicate if the light runs in automatic mode (blue flashing light) or not (off). Charging takes place from the back using a USB-C cable.
The Battery life, according to the manufacturer, is dependent on the looks as follows:
- slow flashing/fast flashing ≈ 30h
- breath/pulsating ≈ 14h
- constant on ≈ 10h
Conclusion
Being visible to others is key to improving your security on the bicycle. Even during the day, a backlight can make sense to further increase the chance to be seen by others. Adding features like brake sensing is another step into this direction. These kinds of lights like the Enfitnix Cublite III can be purchased for relatively little money, leaving no excuse to invest into your security.
Moondust Cycling Blog
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