Blink Steady Rear Light

From Brooklyn, New York comes the Blink/Steady, a sleek and stylish LED light that came about after a successful Kickstarter campaign over a year ago. It functions well with a motion sensor automatically switching it on and off when you start riding, the battery life is good too, but it's extremely expensive and it's hard to see the benefit over a more affordable light.

The Blink/Steady LED light is very nicely machined from aluminium and is very compact. Fitting it requires removing the seatpost and tightening up the tiny Torx screw, the tool for which is supplied in the box. You have a choice of flashing or steady mode depending on which way you orientate it. I went with blinking mode.

Once it's fitted to the post it's very secure, and certainly poses less theft risk than most other rear lights, because getting it off is a bit of a fiddle and most multi-tools don't have a the relevant Torx tool you need. A potential thief is going to have to be pretty determined, but there's nothing to stop them just taking the whole seatpost away. And with it your £115 light.

Inside are two AAA batteries which the manufacturer claims is good for 200 hours. I didn't have the opportunity to test the light for that period of time, so I'll have to take their claim at face value.

There are no on/off buttons on the light. Instead, the light is activated by motion, with an internal accelerometer. It doesn't take much movement to switch the light on, just moving the bike in the hallway kicks the light into life. Left stationary, the light switches off after about 30 seconds. That's enough to cover any stops at traffic lights, and given how sensitive it is to movement, I never had it switching off when I was paused at the side of the road.

There's also a photosensor that means the light can distinguish between day and night, so it doesn't switch on during the day. It's pretty sensitive, I found it activating on a particular gloomy and cloudy day recently. That's good, because I often ride with lights on dull days when the level of light is low.

The unit houses two 0.5W LEDs. It's not the brightest combination and there are much cheaper lights that are brighter, and really that is the number one criterion for rear lights isn't it? That and battery life and durability, both fronts which the Blink/Steady does redeem itself.

As a fit-and-forget light though, it works brilliantly and not having to worry about switching the light on or off is strangely something you easily get used to. It's a lot better looking than most other rear lights, which tend to have a cheap plasticky feel. This one feels solid and robust. My only gripe is that it's quite wide, and you can feel it occasionally brushing the inside of the thighs when pedalling.

The light is fully waterproof and and weighs just 60g with a 25-27mm seatpost clamp. It's available from www.patterrn.com/shop; the price includes VAT and delivery.

Verdict

A lovely piece of design and genuinely offers good functionally, but it's too wide and intrusive when pedalling for me to want to keep it on my bike, as nice as it looks. And as nice as the light is, that price is hard to justify