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I'll be riding a double century next month, and I'm concerned about keeping my rear tail light charged the whole time (maybe 15 hours including stops). I certainly have the option of turning it off for most or part of the daylight, but I'd prefer not to. It's a Dinotte Quad Red light (nice and BRIGHT), and I'm looking at likely needing a recharger powerbank, but the recommendations I'm seeing online are heavy. Also, after speaking with Dinotte this morning, the gentleman told me that they don't recommend external powerbanks for their lights, as a safety reason (he mentioned overheating).

Any thoughts out there?

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For those jobs i use an exposure mk3 light which can go well beyond 24h.

Now I'm actually wondering if a powerbank will charge a tail light if the tail light is on and flashing. Anyone know?

rfield54 wrote:Now I'm actually wondering if a powerbank will charge a tail light if the tail light is on and flashing. Anyone know?

I just tested my exposure and a lupine light and they dont work while they are plugged in :/

The Dinotte will run for 8 hours on rapid pulse mode, so recharging will make it last 16 hours, problem is, it takes a while for the bank to charge the light, maybe a couple of hours for cheaper ones, which means you won't have a light running during the charge time. However, Anker 335 Power Bank will charge up a light like that in less than 30 minutes but will cost $60 from Amazon. The problem with high-speed charging is that it takes a toll on rechargeable batteries, slower charge rate is better, but you don't have 4 hours (which is the speed recommended by Dinotte) to wait in the middle of a ride for a battery to recharge.

So not sure what you can do, a power bank is not the way to go if you can't wait 4 hours to charge or don't mind trashing the battery to get it charged in 30 minutes or less, which means you would have to buy another taillight sooner rather than later. Maybe consider buying a second Dinotte, then simply swap the lights when one dies. The Quad does have a replaceable battery but it can only be done by Dinotte and cannot be done by the user on the side of the road.

The Lupine Rotlich is a great light! The regular version lasts 30 hours and the "max" version up to 60 hours.

jayjay wrote:The Lupine Rotlich is a great light! The regular version lasts 30 hours and the "max" version up to 60 hours.

Brightness need to be adjusted to the lowest setting for that to occur. But yes, lasts awhile.

froze wrote: ↑

Sun May 07, 2023 1:20 am

... Maybe consider buying a second Dinotte, then simply swap the lights when one dies.

Though I was initially hoping (and assuming) that a powerbank would charge the light while it was running (as one did for my Garmin Edge in the past), I actually do own two Dinotte Quad Red lights; a 2014 (new battery installed in '19) and a 2019. Now that I know the addition of a powerbank is not an option for a long ride, I'll bring both Dinottes. The 2019 runs about 5 hours (brightest flashing mode), and the older one runs about 11 hours (brightest flashing mode), so I'll be set for the ride.

FWIW, the reason why the newer Dinotte gets so much less run time than the older unit, is because it's brighter than the older one (250 lumins vs 200).

Get battery powered rear lights e.g. Cateye. Just replace when the times up.

jlok wrote: ↑

Mon May 08, 2023 2:14 am

Get battery powered rear lights e.g. Cateye. Just replace when the times up.

a couple of problems with that idea. One is Cateye will not tell us how many lumens their tail lights put out. Second, all the AAA type of tail lights I've seen will not put out more than 45 lumens which are quite dim, so dim I doubt the poster would want to trust his life with such a light.

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How about just taking 2 lights?