Planet BikeBottle Blinky Bike Side Light

This mounts easily behind the down-tube's bottle cage. It has three light modes that can be described as "crazy blinky", "undulating light" and "steady". The first is bring blinking in a somewhat irregular cadence. This is the most eye-catching mode, and lasts over 100 hours on a set of AAA's. The second setting is "courtesy mode". In this mode, first a single light on each side goes on, and then two more. The two more fade out, and back on gradually. This is probably best for riding in a group, or for if you find the blinky mode distracting. This mode lasts 27 hours. The third mode is just steady on. It lasts about 24 hours.The mounting bracket is plastic. It seems sturdy enough for normal road use.The lighting in both blinking and courtesy modes will do a good job of catching motorists' attention on a dark road. The blinking mode is strong enough to also be noticed by daylight.My use-case for this is that I ride almost every evening for 1 to 2 hours, and wanted to increase my margin of safety a bit by improving my visibility to other users of the roadways I ride. In front I have a high powered headlight. In back I have a high powered blinking red light. But on the sides, I was vulnerable to not being noticed. This fills the need.It is wide enough to be seen at about a 170 degree arc on both sides.Updated after a few months of regular use: Since installing this I feel that I'm noticed better at intersections. Before installing it, I occasionally caught vehicles by surprise as they approached from the sides. That hasn't happened since.

The Good: Works great. I commute at 5am and the increased visibility is fantastic.The Bad: Lack of rechargable battery, need to remove bottle cage to remove.The Ugly: Not waterproof and not really even water resistant. After several rides on wet road, and a few light sprinkle, it became saturated enough with water to corrode the batteries and even after cleaning up the contacts, it lights up but the power button no longer functions.Can’t recommend except for maybe summer night riding due to the lack of weather resilance.

This is a great, low profile side lighting device that will enhance your visibility to motor vehicle operators and other cyclists. When installed as intended, it is very much secured in place. It’s very unlikely that you’ll lose it, ever!Installation is self-explanatory. There are two available strobe modes and one mode available for constant brightness. The unit claims to be water resistant, but I almost never ride in the rain, so I may never know. The LEDs aren’t ridiculously bright, but they’re definitely bright enough to alert others to your presence. Unfortunately, this model is not rechargeable. Power is supplied by AAA batteries - you can opt to purchase rechargeable AAA batteries, but this would also require purchasing a charging station (just a thought).Overall, I like this side lighting device. I just wish it was rechargeable. Even if I were to purchase rechargeable AAA batteries with a charging station, removal of the old batteries require disassembly of the unit, which pretty much guarantees residual tool marks every single time the batteries need to be swapped. Anyway, I’ll give this product two thumbs up for its operational safety enhancement - it isn’t just a pricey strobe light!Minus a star for not being rechargeable.

Excellent product, increases visibility, easy to install, relatively lightweight.Plastic is a bit weak though, deformed when opening with a coin to replace the batteries. Has not affected function, however.Time will tell if this will compromise the water resistance in the future.

There is literally not much competition for a light like this. It works great and its nice that it takes standard AAA batteries. I accidentally left the light on after a bike ride and it was still blinking 24 hours later when I noticed it, so I would expect the batteries to last a long time under normal conditions.

This is a great little light. My main reason for purchasing it was so that I could see my bottle cage during night rides. It is now much easier to return my bottle to its cage with this light installed. It is also a good additional safety measure to have active side visibility when riding my bike through neighborhoods at night.

I look like a Caltrans vehicle from the front and rear, but from the side I am invisible. To many close calls from people coming down side streets. This product fulfills the requirement. No many options are in the market that help protect you from being t-boned.

Very nice product. Only a couple of side marking lights out there and this one is definitely the best.