Cycling Lighting review for those dark fall night rides. Light and Motion Urban 800 and Planet Bike Superflash Turbo.

With fall comes cooler weather and shorter days and night rides!  Our Oakdale Bike Shop night rides start at 6:15 pm so we are riding in the dark now and that means you need to have good lights on the front and rear of your bike!  Lucky for us the LED lighting revolution has resulted in some great lights for your bike. Until now I had been using a Sigma TriLED light on my bike.  It was purchased a few years back and is older technology compared to today's lights.  At about 60 lumens it is just adequate for letting cars know you are there, but for after dark club rides on unlit country roads I needed something more.  This is where the Light & Motion Urban 800 comes in.  This light has a maximum output of 800 lumens with a medium setting of 350 lumens and a low setting of 175 lumens.  The battery life is okay, with an advertised battery life of 1.5 hours on high, 3 hours on medium and 6 hours on low and even longer on pulse mode.  I usually ride on medium as that is plenty bright for up to 25 mph.  My experience is that the battery lasts as long as they say it does.  It takes 6 hours to reach a full charge connected to the USB port on my computer.

The light output is white in color which really helps with my vision on the road.  I have seen other LED lights that are more yellow or blue in color and definitely prefer the white as the shadows of holes in the road are better defined.  The beam of the light is fairly wide and even in brightness across the width.  I have seen some lights that vary in brightness significantly across the width of the beam.  This can result in you not seeing holes in the road!  Even though it is hard to quantify how even the light's output is from side to side of the beam I feel it is very important in the real world when riding a dark, bumpy road at speed.  You need all the help you can get when riding on pot holed roads during dark nights! You may notice that it also has side facing amber lights that help somewhat with visibility from the side, though some of that light is blocked by your hands and arms when riding in the drops or on the hoods.  However, the amber side light does help me see my Wahoo RFLKT+ cycle computer if I have it angled correctly, so I don't need to run its backlight thus saving its batteries.


The light comes with a charging cable, a handlebar mount, a Go Pro mount and a helmet mount.  The handlebar mount is the one that I use.  The rubber strap slips over a hook on the mount and can adjust to different diameter handlebars.  It is generally easy to remove, though sweaty hands can make it difficult to grip the end of the strap.  I had to grab a paper towel after one particularly hot ride as the strap kept slipping out of my hand!  Charging uses a standard micro USB port which means one less charger and cable to keep track of!  Construction quality is very good and Light & Motion has excellent support, especially when purchased through your local bike shop, such as my LBS, Oakdale Bike Shop, which has been rated as one of America's Best Bike Shops for 2013, 2014 and 2015!  The warranty is an excellent 2 years.

    

Of course you also need a tail light for safe riding at night.  I use a Planet Bike Superflash Turbo tail light on my bike. It isn't the sexiest looking taillight, but it does have a pretty bright flash mode, uses standard AAA batteries, and lasts for over a hundred hours on those batteries in flash mode.  The white case lights up with the flashes as well which really improves visibility from the sides.  It can be mounted on a seat stay, seat post or hung on a seat bag. The light angle can be adjusted up and down, a helpful feature for those group rides so you don't blind the rider following you.  We have all had those red spots in our eyes after a night ride following a particular bike with a way too bright taillight pointed straight in your eyes! 

I have used this light for 6 months on the same original batteries, riding with it on flashing mode during night and day rides for 2,000 miles.  I even left the light on over night once when I forgot to turn it off.  I finally replaced the batteries when it started to get dimmer and put in some Duracells so it should last forever now! Some have complained about the clear flashing part falling off during rides.  I have not had that occur to me even though we ride some pretty bumpy roads!  But, I would recommend making sure it is securely connected to the white body before using it.  

Others in my ride group swear by the Cateye Rapid X2.  It is a slimmer, sexier design that fits nicely on the seat stay using a supplied rubber band to hold it in place. It can also be mounted on a seat post or clipped to a seat bag with an optional mount.  This light is very bright for a tail light at 50 lumens and has six different modes from solid to very rapid flashing.  It is powered by a rechargeable battery that lasts from 4 to 40 hours per charge depending on the mode you choose.  It has six modes instead of just the two of the SuperFlash Turbo which can be useful at night to make it easier for someone following you to identify you by the flashing sequence. Also, the different modes each have a different battery life.  One disadvantage is that you can't aim the light up and down like the SuperFlash Turbo.  Really, the choice between the two lights comes down to which one looks better to you and whether you like the rechargeable battery or the replaceable AAA batteries.

I hope this information helps you get setup to ride safely out on the roads after dark.  My wife feels better knowing that I have excellent lights on my bike when doing the night rides.  The best compliment I received about the lights was from a guy waiting at a stop sign as I drove by.  He yelled out his window to me, "Dam, that is one bright light!".  So, don't let the short days hold you back.  Get some good lights and get out with a group and do some night rides. It is fun!

We speak of cycling computers, iPhones and Strava surfing

Training on a road bike involves a lot of time on the bike, but if it's not on Strava then it didn't happen! Right?!?  So it would seem in today's connected road when friends have uploaded the ride to Strava before I even get home from it!  You can either dismiss this as a fetish, or join in the game yourself and get a cycling computer so you too can upload to Strava.  Most people use Garmin cycling computers to do this.  But, to get the decent Garmin 010-01369-00 Edge 520 Bundle Bike GPS with its bundled heart rate sensor and speed and cadence sensor will set you back $400.  If you have the money this is a great way to go.  If, on the other hand your wallet is still hurting from the purchase of the new bike, pedals, shoes, clothing, and other accessories you may want to look at some cheaper alternatives.

One alternative is to use your smart phone.  Applications are available for both iPhone and Android phones that will track your rides.  iPhone has Strava, Cyclemeter, MapMyRide and RideWithGPS while Android has Strava, MapMyRide and Runtastic Road Bike.  I have not used all of these apps so you will need to go elsewhere for reviews of these apps.  This approach has great merit, after all, you have this wonderful computer in your smart phone with a big display and you are carrying it with you anyway since none of us can go anywhere without our phones anymore!  There are two main problems.  If you want to see what you are doing while you are the ride you have to mount the phone on your handlebars in harms way and you have to run the display which along with the GPS will run the battery down quite quickly. Two to three hours is not uncommon for a max battery life with this approach.  Okay if you are going out for a short spin, but unworkable if you are riding a century.

Cateye Strada Smart

There is another alternative.  That is to use a display that communicates by Bluetooth with your phone.  The phone will also communicate by Bluetooth with the heart rate sensor and speed and cadence sensor.  You still run an app on the phone, but the display is off and the phone is safely tucked in your jersey pocket or saddle bag.  I have tried two such devices out on my bike: The Cateye Strada Smart is running $176 as a bundle with  heart rate sensor and speed and cadence sensor on Amazon as I write this post.  The Wahoo RFLKT+ runs $129 without sensors on Amazon right now.  The Wahoo TICKR Heart Rate Monitor  and Wahoo Blue SC Speed & Cadence Sensor  can be found at costs of about $60 each.

So which of the two is better?  I performed an unintentionally long test on the Cateye earlier this year.  I really like it.... except that it was very buggy to use.  Most of the issues were related to the Cateye Cycling app that you need to use with the display unit.  This is why I tested for so long, since it was software related and I was working with customer service at Cateye I was hoping that they could get it fixed and they did fix most of the problems.  But one issue remained for me that finally killed the deal.  On every ride over 26 miles the display would lose its connection to the phone and I would have to pull out the phone, open the app and re-sync the Strada Smart with the phone.  This was frustrating so I gave up and moved on.

Wahoo RFLKT+

Wahoo RFLKT+ and RFLKT offer the same type of display for you smart phone technology that the Cateye Strada Smart does, but they are open source and work with more than one phone app.  The good part about that is that if one app doesn't do it for you then another might work better.  The bad part about that is the lack of consistency from one app to the next.  Strava works well, but offers very limited screens for the displays and has no plans to offer screen customization.  The Wahoo app offer great customization of the screens and works well except for a problem when on rides longer than 70 miles.  The app will stop and you will have to restart a new ride to continue.  RideWithGPS had the best compromise.  Limited customization of the screens, reliable operations and turn by turn navigation.

The device I have is the RFLT+ which includes the ability to pair with ANT+ sensors (on iOS devices only) and has temperature and barometric altitude readings.  It pairs pretty easily and consistently with the Bluetooth sensors and the phone.  The display is easily readable and the mount works well.  There are three mounting options that come with the unit.  I am using the infront of bar flyout mount and it has worked well for me.  Just make sure it is locked in place before taking off.  Some people have had it fall off because they didn't properly latch it.  The only real long term issue is the battery is a less common C2450 button battery and the life can be 2 months or less.  Replacing the battery is not something done on the fly either, there are four tiny screws requiring a jewelers phillips head screwdriver and a rubber o-ring to deal with.  Fortunately, if the battery goes dead while you are on the ride the data is not lost as it is still tracked by your phone even though you can't see it on the display.

If your phone battery dies then you lose it all!  Now, I have used this to track several century rides.  To do so I use a tubular backup battery for the phone with a short Amazon basics cable to connect the battery to the phone.  I can get close to the 100 miles without it, but not quite all the way there.  With the battery I can end the century with plenty of juice left.  The nice thing about the battery is that it is light, automatically controls the charging to conserve itself, and has LED flashlight builtin.

Selle SMP Lite 209 saddle makes the miles go by!

On road bikes the saddle makes a huge difference in how you feel during and after a long ride.  A bad seat can wear you out and leave you in misery.  Bike manufacturers tend to equip their bikes with cheap saddles for the bike shop showroom floor.  These uncomfortable saddles save them money but leave us riders wanting something better!  How do you choose a new saddle other than to keep buying saddles and riding them until you find one that works?  Well, if you have a great local bike shop like Oakdale Bike Shop they will have some quality saddles like Selle SMP saddles and they will have some demo saddles that you can try out before you buy!

Before trying the Sella SMP saddles I read quite a few saddle reviews and came to like the concept behind the SMP design.  It is unique in the full length cut out and the turned down beak with a raised rear.  The sides of the seat may look uncomfortable, but Selle SMP has put a great deal of study in to matching the seat to the load carrying parts of your backside.  What are these load carrying parts your ask?  The actual part of the pelvis that we sit on is the ischiopubic ramus.  Steve Hogg has a great discussion about this in his bike fitting blog on SMP saddles so I won't go into it any further here.  The big takeaway from Steve's post is that while you can get a better idea of which seat will be the right width by measuring your 'sitbone' separation width or even waist size the final determination will be made by riding on the saddle.

I reviewed his advice and went into the LBS wanting to try a Glider seat.  It seemed to be the best match based on the waist measurement chart by SMP. It seemed to work alright and was a definite improvement over the OEM seat that came with my Giant Defy Advanced One.  Still, I thought that it could be better and these seats are expensive so I tried another seat, the Lite 209.  The shape of the seat worked better for me and I thought the padding worked will for me.  As a result I ended up choosing the Selle SMP Lite 209 for my saddle.  I have done several century rides since making the choice, including the Seattle to Portland ride, and have no regrets or sore rear ends afterwards!

It did take some effort to get it adjusted correctly.  The SMP seats have a unique profile shape with a down sloping beak and a dip in the middle on the two separate rails.  The rear of the seat kicks up higher than a normal seat as well.  This shape means that you cannot go by the traditional seat adjustment advice of setting the seat level to the ground.  This would result in the front actually angling up and not be very comfortable.  My current adjustment has a 10 mm drop from the back of the seat to the front of the seat as shown in the picture.  Getting the drop right can be a challenge with the typical toothed saddle clamp.  I found it a challenge to fine tune the angle, either ending up with it too high or too low in the front.  I intend to do some slight tuning of the drop in the coming weeks and will be trying out what I hope will solve this problem.  I will be cutting out a shim from an aluminum beer can to fit between the two part of the seat post clamp.  The can wall is thin and soft enough to deform when clamped, yet should allow me to make smaller adjustments that the teeth of the clamp.  I will let you know how this turns out!