Revolution Flash Silicone Rear LED Light

The Flash rear LED from Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative's Revolution range is a pretty good option and a bargain at under a tenner. It's integral mounting system means it's very quick and easy to put on or take off your seatpost. It charges via a USB cable and, as long as you remember to charge it, battery life won't be a problem.

The best thing about this light is the mounting system. The whole light is encased in a silicone moulding; this includes a strap that you put around your seat post and hook back onto the light. Very easy, very simple, very quick; no tools required. Good news, as long as your seatpost is where you want to put your rear light. If you have a saddle bag taking up that space, for example, you're out of luck.

Although the Revolution Flash does a good job, it's not up there with the brightest rear lights. It uses a single LED and makes the most of it with a clever lens, pointing all that red goodness right behind you - but hardly any to the sides. I think it's best used as a back-up or secondary light to a brighter main light. At only 36g on the Road.cc scales, it is ideally suited to this job.

Charging takes under 2.5 hours and is done via a USB cable that plugs into the back of the light. Revolution don't claim this design is waterproof. Although I've not had any problems riding in the rain, I would be careful in the wet if you don't run mudguards or if you're planning to take it off-road.

The USB cable is the same as you get with many other electronic devices, so you might well own a spare cable already. According to Revolution, the light is good for 500 charge cycles.

In use, the light has two settings: constant and flashing. The runtime on flashing is up to 11 hours. On constant I found it to be nearer 3-4 hours.

Verdict

It works well as a secondary light, but not enough visibility to be a main light.