I didn’t buy my Reflecta from an official distributor – I bought it from eBay. They seem pretty rare devices though.

When you’ve decided what to buy, please post back here and let us know how you got on with it.

Sorry to hear you’ve had such a bad time with yours. When I got mine I was initially surprised at the low quality of the rubber mounts – I thought they’d point lower and lower with vibrations. But since then I’ve been quite pleased with how well they’ve held their position, and I’ve never had any problems with them cutting out.

If there’s a slightly loose connection, either in the battery pack, the mid-cable connectors or the switches on the lights, this could cause them to keep turning themselves off.

Still, thanks for your comment, and here’s hoping mine will last a while yet.

Cheers,
Jonathan

I’ve had had them for three months. In this time I have sent them back to the place I bought them from as they both cut out on me while I was riding in the dark. The replacement lights mounting straps both snapped as they couldn’t withstand potholes. I made alternative mounts so I could keep using them. Now one of them has cut out again.

I’m really annoyed and would like to request yet another replacement but I can find the manufacturers web-site. What is the web-address for this manufacturer?

Regards,

Fraser

The NiteRider looks pretty good, and it was one of the ones I considered when I was buying lights. I can’t remember my reasons for not buying it now

I think it was the appeal of having lights that could be very bright for offroad use, or flashing for city use. Most “small” LED lights have flashing mode, but hardly any of the rechargeable ones do. My commute takes me through central Bristol and then along an unlit, offroad cycle path – hence I also have the Cat Eye set.

I don’t know how easy it would be to use a custom battery with the NiteRider, but I’ve built a bottle battery for my RSP lights which increases the battery life from about 90 minutes to well over 36 hours (combination of flashing and constant). I didn’t time it exactly, but with roughly an hour’s use every day, it lasted for well over a month on a single charge, with no signs of it fading. The bottle battery cost about £35 to build and weighs in at 750g, although you could build it more cheaply by choosing different batteries.

Re-reading my own article, it sounds pretty critical but actually in the several months I’ve been using the kit, it’s great. My comments about the build quality only seem to come into it when installing the kit. With my bottle battery, it lasts ages, runs brightly, flashes when necessary and is exactly what I was after One day I really, honestly will get round to taking photos of the lights in action!

Cheers,
Jonathan