The daytime running and night lights we use

We have been using the AAA battery powered Dual Eye as rear daytime and night lights since 2009. An equivalent light is the Azur Dual Eye.

Although these are old lights they are still available in some local bike shops.

As the name suggests the dual eye has two light beams with three lighting modes – constantly on, synchronously flashing and alternating flashing.

During the day we use two Dual Eyes mounted on the rear of our pannier racks and we set the mode of both to alternating flash. When the two lights are set to alternating flash they create a very random and constantly changing pattern that is very noticeable to those following.

When we were cycling around Australia in 2009/10 we were told the red flashing Dual Eye was the first thing people would see through the shimmering heat haze distorting the long straight flat road ahead. Across The Barkly and along the Stuart Highway we would get comments that the red flashing lights would emerge from the heat haze long before we did and on a few occasions we were told we could be seen from up to 2 km away. We never verified this 2 km claim ourselves but when following each other we have commonly verified the flashing Dual Eye daytime visibility up to 500 metres. But the most memorable comment was from an Adelaide Metro Bus driver. As we were leaving the Adelaide CBD a bus pulled up beside Denise at the traffic lights and the driver thanked her for being so visible!

A Triple A Battery powered Dual Eye set to alternating flashing will run for many days but its intensity noticeably begins to drop after about 14 hours, so to maintain full intensity we replace or recharge the batteries at the end of each day. We use Eneloop AAA rechargeable batteries with the Dual Eye.

There are now many daytime running lights on the market and most of them are USB rechargeable. Those of you who have been on our tours know we require all our guests who bring their own bikes to have a rear daytime flashing light that is able to run at full intensity for at least 8 hours. To date we have not found a rear light that matches the running time of the AAA battery powered Dual Eye which is why we keep on using them.

We have also found that some flashing rear lights are rendered invisible when the sun is shining directly on the lens of the light, the Dual Eye does not have this problem. After discovering this we now always test and evaluate the effectiveness of front and rear lights with the sun shining directly on them.

We use the same Dual Eye lights when riding at night, however, if left in flashing mode they can affect the night vision of riders following close behind. To avoid this, we will generally turn the leading bike’s rear lights to constant beam and keep the rear bike alternating flashing.

Our go to front light for riding at night is Fyxo’s King Bright High Power Front Light.

Fyxo is the Melbourne based online cycling accessory business responsible for the annual Melburn Roobaix event. If you have never ridden a Melburn Roobaix be sure to add it to your calendar as it is a great deal of fun.

Fyxo’s Ride Safe philosophy blends well with our own of Be Safe Be Seen:

Fyxo’s King Bright comes in two parts - a separate battery pack which is connected to the light head by a cable. We mount the light head on our handlebars using the thick rubber O-ring connected to the light head and we mount the battery pack on the top tube or stem using the included velcro straps. There is also a helmet mount for the light in which case the battery needs to go into a back pocket. The battery can be disconnected from the light head and is recharged using the 240volt supplied power adaptor.

Our King Brights which are many years old have three light modes – high, low, and flashing. The current model comes with four light modes – high, medium, low and flash. We have not used the current model.

The distance and width of the light beam of the King Bright is very impressive and easily illuminates the width of a dark Canberra shared path. When the light head is set to high the battery will give us more than 2 hours of high beam. If we need a longer riding time we will switch between high and low taking advantage of any ambient light. We always adjust our riding speed to match how far we can see ahead.

For a long time we used the flashing mode on the King Bright as a daytime running light. But in recent times we have switched to Knog’s Blinder 900 as our daytime running light. The reason for this change was due to feedback from pedestrians who complained the flashing King Bright was too bright. To stop the complaints we had to point the light towards the ground which reduced the light’s visibility to oncoming traffic and defeated the purpose of using the flashing light in the first place. Nevertheless the complaints serve as a weird endorsement of its suitability for night time riding.

We only use the King Bright when we have the ability to recharge the light after each ride, so we do not use this light when we are on a multi-day tour and away from power.

We came across Knog’s Blinder 900 Front Bike Light when we were looking for a daytime running light for use on multi-day tours where we would be away from an electricity supply and unable to recharge our lights at the end of the day.

Although we carry a 25,000 mAh Cygnett Power Bank on our multi-day bike camping trips it seemed a waste to use the power bank to recharge a flashing running light, so we went looking for a flashing light that was able to hold a charge for at least two days of riding.

The Knog Blinder 900 turned out to be that light.

It has 6 light modes – High Steady, Medium Steady, Low Steady, Steady Pulse, Strobe and Eco Flash. The Knog website lists the lumens and runtime for each mode.

For our purposes we have found the Strobe mode provides the most visible daytime running light and with nearly 16 hours of runtime it is perfect for two long days of riding whilst on tour.

Even though Knog indicates the Blinder 900 Eco Flash mode runs for 120 hours, we came to the conclusion the Eco Flash mode did not provide a bright enough beam or adequate flash pattern to alert oncoming pedestrians, cyclists or motorists as a daytime running light. Similarly, even though the Steady Pulse mode is brighter than our chosen Strobe mode the Steady Pulse flash pattern was not as obvious from a distance as the flash pattern provided by the Strobe mode.

The light attaches to the handlebar using a mount with a stretchable strap. It also comes with a mount that will attach to a Go-Pro compatible helmet mount or underneath a Garmin style 'out front' computer mount. We use the stretchable handlebar mount.

The Knog Blinder 900 is rechargeable using a USB-C charging cable.

Even though we have selected the Blinder 900 as a daytime running light, we also consider it suitable to use to see where you are going at night. Even though it does not provide a wide beam like the King Bright it does provide a substantial amount of light to allow you to ride safely for more than 90 minutes on dark routes when set to the High Steady mode.

We carry two Knog Blinder 900’s for each bike when touring which gives us the flexibility to use them to ride at night if required.