Blackburn Flea Taillight Review
As the fall approached, the Tuesday night group rides started ending in near-darkness, and the patron of our ride started growling at us to get taillights on our bikes for safety's sake.
So what type of taillight belongs on a sleek an aero road bike? Surely not one of those gaudy monsters that you usually see in the bike shops. A tailight for a Cervelo should be small, light, and easy to deal with.
So I bought a Blackburn Flea. This micro-light, aside from being small and light, has the additional feature of being rechargeable. Instead of taking AA batteries or the like, it has a self-contained battery. My early model came with a fiddly little set of magnetic-contact wires that would stick to a normal battery in order to charge the internal battery, but later models (I got a second one for my mountain bike) comes with a USB charger that is much easier to deal with.
A charge appears to last forever, especially if you use it in the "alternating-blinky" mode where half the LEDs light at any one time. I only have to charge the light about twice a year. And it is waterproof too - being soaked didn't hurt it.
The lights, being LEDs, are incredibly bright when on-axis with the tips of the lenses, and just slightly less bright off-axis. It certainly does the business of making the bike visible in darkness or rain.
Attachment is done through a Velcro strap or via a spring clip to slide over a strap on the back of a saddle bag. I found that the clip is so stiff though that it won't slide over my saddle bag strap. I just use the Velcro strap to secure it just above the seat stays; I managed to slip a chunk of inner tube over the clip to help provide extra grip.
I did find that, if it gets wet, the light must be removed and dried off - otherwise the spring clip rusts.
It does the job and only weighs 23 grams. Recommended
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