Depending upon its mounted orientation, which side of the octagonal shaped tail light or brake light, is placed upwards as the unit is held vertically. Inside the unit are eight very bright LED’s. The light has four options consisting of
1. A steady blinking of lights (LED’s flicker in a star like pattern over and over)
2. a flickering pulse of lights (LED’s light up in a counter clockwise motion)
3. No lights illuminated until braking occurs
4. A dim steady light with all eight LED are lit up.
This light is a brake light. With its accelerometer it will blink faster before braking if a hard braking occurred or just illuminate when braking is going on.
It uses 2 AAA batteries and is turned off or put in a sleep mode by simple placing it face up or face down flat.
When installing the batteries, pay attention to the polarity or + and - of the battery and install them properly.
The unit comes with a few pieces of an industrial type Velcro, so it can be attached to backpacks or the bike.
INSIDER TIP:
(watch the video above on how I did this)
With the back of the light being flat, I have had a hard time finding or feeling comfortable with attaching it to a flat spot. The numerous helmets I own don’t have flat spot on the back of them nor do I have a flat spot along the back of my bike anywhere. To make it usable on the back of my helmet I have gone ahead and rigged up a velcro strap. It runs inside the unit with the cover off and placed between the batteries. The Velcro strap then runs through two vent holes in the back of my helmet and then around the unit again. The second time the strap is holding on to the cover of the LucidBRAKE light stays attached.
1 comment:
Enjoyed you review of the Lucidbrake. I also have one of them and I appreciate the tip of using a velcro strap.
The 3M Dual Lock is very strong and secure only if you can find a flat spot. On a curved surface, the light can rock and pull off easily. How many flat spots does your bike have? Not many, I bet. Something more is needed.
I also used mine on the back of the helmet. I have an urban style helmet, so it has a pretty good, nearly flat area on the back and I used the Dual Lock alone. While it does work, friends I was riding with told me that it often activated the brake light on bumps. I just couldn't see it to tell.
I didn't feel the battery life was very good, either. I don't know whether it is because it is always sensing it's orientation in order to turn itself back on, or whether I was just careless with it, but I went through several sets of batteries in a short period of time. Many other lights I have used last a whole season on a set of alkalines.
It's a lot of money for a light that isn't that bright, is kludgy in it's case and mounting system, eats batteries, and it's brake feature is basically a gimmick.
What this light needs is for a company like Cateye or Serfas to take it, refine the design, put it in a decent case with a good mounting bracket, convert it to Li-ion power and use their economy of scale to sell it for about $40.
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