# Video Review of Plant Bike Super Flash, Cateye and Dinotte 300R



## ronderman (May 17, 2010)

Good review - shows the lights during overcast day, dusk and then pitch black.

Review of bicycle tail lights: cateye, planet bike superflash and Dinotte 300R - YouTube


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## ezdoesit (Sep 7, 2008)

Great review thanks.


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## 7rider (Oct 19, 2005)

Oh, my eyes!!!!

I think I just had a seizure from the Dinotte. I want to get noticed by cars when I ride...I don't want to blind them. That seems just as hazardous as having them not see me at all.


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## ronderman (May 17, 2010)

7rider said:


> Oh, my eyes!!!!
> 
> I think I just had a seizure from the Dinotte. I want to get noticed by cars when I ride...I don't want to blind them. That seems just as hazardous as having them not see me at all.


I've read the "too bright" thing in other reviews. Typically it's said by people who don't have the light - here is what I can say having all 3 lights.

All riding situations are not the same. There are pitch dark roads, there are those same roads at dusk and then there are roads with lots of street lights and there are those same roads at dusk.

Since all riding situations aren't the same the dinotte comes with 3 different settings and 3 different blink patterns - use the one that's appropriate for the road and ambiant lighting conditions. 

Pitch dark, low setting which is 25% is perfectly fine. That same road at dusk, crank it up to 50%. I'd keep it at 50% for roads with street lighting.

Here is the deal, a super flash will let a driver know you're there, but they need to be paying attention. Surely with passengers, car steros and mobile phones complete with texting, email, facebook twitter, and multi gig mp3 players it would be naive to think that all drivers are paying attention all the time. If they were, then get a super flash or a light in motion vis 180 and call it a day - those are GREAT lights.

The reality, and it's a sad reality, is that drivers are not paying attention and it's only getting worse. The Dinotte will get their attention. They will stop whatever it is they are doing and pay attention and get around you. I don't know about you, but that's what I want. And when you get this light, you see it in practice, car go slower and they give you more room. 

All this talking of blinding drivers is a complete red herring and a fallacy.

Use the light with the appropriate setting for the appropriate conditions - get their attention - be seen or be dead - sucks but that's the way it is.

Those are my thoughts.


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## brucew (Jun 3, 2006)

I also own a CatEye TL-LD1100 and a DiNottte 300R (and a DiNotte 140R).

I agree with ronderman that the talk of blinding drivers is a non-issue. It's not any brighter than a bank of LED brake lights on some luxury cars out there.

I've never had a driver complain. I have had drivers thank me of using a "good light", and I've had them ask where they could get one.


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## Tzvia (Aug 4, 2008)

I've had a Superflash, a Blackburn Mars and a Performance blinkee. All three are entertaining the fish in the Santa Monica bay right now- the mounts broke and they ended up in a storm drain somewhere. So I bought a Dinotte 300r when I first heard of them. It gets the driver's attention. Period. I have had one driver come up behind me and say that from a block away he thought I was a motorcycle cop. GOOD. A UPS driver two days ago asked if I had WIFI because I've got everything else. Another driver commended me on my visibility. All in the 4 months or so I have had that light. 

And it's the only light that lasted more than a month without falling off, so factoring in replacement blinkies that I did not have to buy over the last 4 months, it comes out cheaper. And it's rechargeable. I take it into the office and charge it from my PC every day. Not to mention, it's beautifully machined metal- not plastic.

Too bright? Not in my neck of the woods.


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## Bizman (Apr 27, 2011)

I just picked up the 300R/1200+ package. The 300R is real bright, with a varitey of modes and brightnesses to fit the situation. It is well made too!


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## Aushiker (Mar 23, 2008)

Hi

Thanks for sharing the video. One of the better ones I have seen of rear lights.

Andrew


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## cydswipe (Mar 7, 2002)

I would have rather seen the Light&Motion 180 vis light compared rather than the Cateye. IMHO Cateye lights are for backup plans or rides where there are more than one cyclist. If you are a single rider, the Planet Bike, Dinnotte, or L&M are probably the contenders to be taken seriously.


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## ronderman (May 17, 2010)

cydswipe said:


> I would have rather seen the Light&Motion 180 vis light compared rather than the Cateye. IMHO Cateye lights are for backup plans or rides where there are more than one cyclist. If you are a single rider, the Planet Bike, Dinnotte, or L&M are probably the contenders to be taken seriously.


my buddy has a light and motion vis 180 - I might borrow it from him and do the big three: l&m vis 180, super flash and dinotte


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## ronderman (May 17, 2010)

Aushiker said:


> Hi
> 
> Thanks for sharing the video. One of the better ones I have seen of rear lights.
> 
> Andrew


Thank you for the kind words, glad you found it useful.


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## Rogus (Nov 10, 2010)

Just from a brightness standpoint I also would be interested in a comparison of the Vis180. I have a Vis180 and really like that it doesn't do the strobe thing. I know most of you commute alone, but some cyclists like myself ride in groups in the dark and the Vis180 is much better for someone following me than a very bright strobe light. I like how it pulses from high to low instead of on and off. This pulsing is very visible from a distance, but is not very apparent up close when in a pace line. It would be very interesting to see a comparison between the two. I appreciate what you've provided so far. I do think that 25 feet behind the bike is not far enough to tell us which light is better for night riding and would like to see shots from much further out. By the time a vehicle is that close it's too late to be noticed.


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## cydswipe (Mar 7, 2002)

I guess, if you could do this safely, would be a test featuring lights in an urban environment, streetlights, traffic, to see how these lights stand out, also in a stretch of road where there are no lights, like in the country, from a mile away, these would be real world tests, I'm not trying to be a creep, but there is no way a motorist is going to collide with you in your driveway, regardless of light.


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## Bizman (Apr 27, 2011)

Ronderman,
I have heard of another poster saying that he lost his light as he was riding. When I watched your video it looked like you slid your light up from the bottom to clip it into place. I have been sliding my light down into place thinking that it would be harder for it to come out of place. Do you think it matters or is it possibly better to slide it up into place like you did. Just an observation I thought I would ask you about. These lights are very nice and I would hate to lose it!


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## ronderman (May 17, 2010)

Bizman said:


> Ronderman,
> I have heard of another poster saying that he lost his light as he was riding. When I watched your video it looked like you slid your light up from the bottom to clip it into place. I have been sliding my light down into place thinking that it would be harder for it to come out of place. Do you think it matters or is it possibly better to slide it up into place like you did. Just an observation I thought I would ask you about. These lights are very nice and I would hate to lose it!


You know, my initial thought was to slide it down, too. When I set it up, it went up - probably how I set it up. So I will change it if I can.

i would hate to lose the light, but that mount seems to be pretty dang sturdy.


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## ronderman (May 17, 2010)

cydswipe said:


> I guess, if you could do this safely, would be a test featuring lights in an urban environment, streetlights, traffic, to see how these lights stand out, also in a stretch of road where there are no lights, like in the country, from a mile away, these would be real world tests, I'm not trying to be a creep, but there is no way a motorist is going to collide with you in your driveway, regardless of light.


I'm going to try to elicit the help of my kids and do this so you can see it on a street with a street light and no street light.

I did what I could and the point was to see the lights on an overcast day - at least at is relates to the driveway shots.


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## Bizman (Apr 27, 2011)

ronderman said:


> You know, my initial thought was to slide it down, too. When I set it up, it went up - probably how I set it up. So I will change it if I can.
> 
> i would hate to lose the light, but that mount seems to be pretty dang sturdy.


Hey, thanks for your thoughts on that. When I set mine up I never considered mounting it so it would do anything but slide down to latch because it seemed harder for it to fall off. Some things are right there in front of you and you don't see it until someone shows you! 

One thing, the mount you use to hold the light to the seatpost with could have a longer screw so I could use the little strip of rubber for grip between the mount to the seatpost and the seatpost. If I try to use the rubber strip I can't get the screw to catch in the nut because its to short. No biggie I guess, but without it, it may scratch the lettering on the seatpost if it were to slide?


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## RickB. (May 4, 2009)

I picked up the Planet Bike Superflash "Turbo" for about $25 that I think is worth mentioning. It is brighter than the plain Superflash. Also I've heard good things about the Portland Design Works Radbot 1000, for under $30.


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## Aushiker (Mar 23, 2008)

Hi

A greater range of tail-lights have been photographed which provides some sort of comparison. Details here.

Andrew


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## AndreyT (Dec 1, 2011)

Firstly, the reviewer seems to say about the Cateye light that "there is not a quick release mount on it". That's strange, since Cateye TL-LD1100 does have a quick release mount.

Secondly, Cateye light has two rows of 5 LEDs each, with each row mode selectable _independently_. Setting both rows into the "random" mode looks like a deliberate attempt to misrepresent the light as dim. "Random" and "pendulum" modes are indeed the dimmest row modes in this light, since in these modes only one LED is lit up at a time. "Constant" and "blinking" modes are much much much brighter modes, since they lit up all five LEDs in a row simultaneously. No one in their right mind would use this Cateye light with both rows set to "random" mode. Normally one'd select the "constant" mode in one of the rows and some other (non-constant) mode in the other row to get both the brightness and the noticeability at the same time.


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## AndreyT (Dec 1, 2011)

cydswipe said:


> IMHO Cateye lights are for backup plans or rides where there are more than one cyclist. If you are a single rider, the Planet Bike, Dinnotte, or L&M are probably the contenders to be taken seriously.


The specific Cateye featured in this review is one of the best rear lights for a single rider. I won't claim that the original reviewer decided the misrepresent the Cateye light deliberately, but the fact that it was indeed misrepresented is not debatable. 

Basically, the only thing that is correct about that Cateye in that video is that it is bulky. However, it is a purely cosmetic bulkiness (I personally don't like the way it looks, but I like the way it works), and it is exactly the bulkiness expected from a well-made 10-LED 2-AA light.


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## ronderman (May 17, 2010)

AndreyT said:


> Firstly, the reviewer seems to say about the Cateye light that "there is not a quick release mount on it". That's strange, since Cateye TL-LD1100 does have a quick release mount.
> 
> Secondly, Cateye light has two rows of 5 LEDs each, with each row mode selectable _independently_. Setting both rows into the "random" mode looks like a deliberate attempt to misrepresent the light as dim. "Random" and "pendulum" modes are indeed the dimmest row modes in this light, since in these modes only one LED is lit up at a time. "Constant" and "blinking" modes are much much much brighter modes, since they lit up all five LEDs in a row simultaneously. No one in their right mind would use this Cateye light with both rows set to "random" mode. Normally one'd select the "constant" mode in one of the rows and some other (non-constant) mode in the other row to get both the brightness and the noticeability at the same time.


As the reviewer and some one who purchased the cateye, used it and used it I'd like to think think I was in my right mind using it on random. If this is such an affront, then perhaps cateye should have thought to make it so one row wont go in randon - after all there are two independent buttons. 

I also stand corrected, there is a quick release, but mine broke, the outer tab of the release broke off and negated the entire point of quick release.

I am going to do another review and was thinking of driving my car towards the lights. Still, with the one row NOT set to randon - the cateye is the last of the lights. Also, the LEDs needs to be pointed right at eye level, if they aren't, the lose significant impact and since the light doesn't do much to light up any ambient sections - it's just sort of fails.


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## cydswipe (Mar 7, 2002)

AndreyT said:


> The specific Cateye featured in this review is one of the best rear lights for a single rider. I won't claim that the original reviewer decided the misrepresent the Cateye light deliberately, but the fact that it was indeed misrepresented is not debatable.
> 
> Basically, the only thing that is correct about that Cateye in that video is that it is bulky. However, it is a purely cosmetic bulkiness (I personally don't like the way it looks, but I like the way it works), and it is exactly the bulkiness expected from a well-made 10-LED 2-AA light.


I own the specific Cateye light, I also own it's predecessor, with the single row of lights, the Planet Bike Superflash, and the light and Motion Vis180. Say what you want, it's a forum, but it is a weak light, made as an introduction to tailights. It is not as good as the other lights reviewed.


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