Rear Bike Lights

Bike lights are such a frustrating thing to buy.

Firstly, most rear lights on bikes are simply retarded – they stick out too far from the seat post and then you end up rubbing the things with your leg on every rotation. See exhibit 1 below.

The solution was developed by Knog (of Australia) – a low profile silicone job that is just wonderful. Unfortunately their RRP is around $25. See exhibit 2.

Now the Chinese has knocked off the Knog, but only for the front light, where they sell the same product for $3 instead of $25. See exhibit 3.

This is an example of the original Western product developer gouging their customers with gay abandon. Thank God for the Chinese – they know how to get the cost out of a product.

Knog developed this thing ten years back so they can’t argue that they are still recouping their R&D costs.

Unfortunately the Chinese don’t make a red LED version for rear lights. They seem to think that white LEDs lights are OK for both front and back lighting applications, which they are not.

I suspect this is because the Chinese don’t actually use bike lights (why would you?). Lacking this knowledge and of course not having any product marketing, white LEDs it is.

This is a case of selling something that you don’t understand. It’s generally the same outcome when a Chinese cafe gets a high-end espresso machine from Italy – it looks nice but don’t expect anything resembling a macchiato to come out of it.