Planet BikeSuperflash Turbo Bike rear light

UPDATED: This issue seems to have been fixed with the recent batch. PB did address the issue I mention here with the design with the ones made recently. If you find an older one from the older runs, it might have this issue. That said, I have used the updated model of this light with the new switch system for several months, and can wholeheartedly recommend it. The switch can be a bit hard to push, but that is a trivial issue.I will leave the original review of the pre-fixed model below, since i'm not sure what else to do with it.-------------------10/2011I'm dealing with Planet Bike's customer service on this issue, and they have done a great job and made me happy to be dealing with an excellent company. That said, we got two of these lights and they both have the exact same problem - a design defect.They are wonderfully bright, and have a great flash. Lighting-wise, they're everything we hoped for and more. They are amazingly visible and as long as the light is on, I have no doubt that I am safe from not being seen.Alas, when we get to our destination, we invariably find the lights to be turned off. We can't tell when they turn off, as they are behind us. However, from the two of us riding together, we can see that when we go over bumps in the road, sometimes the light just turns off for no reason. We replaced the battery, checked the battery cradles, made sure everything was secure, but the problem persists.A tail-light that is turned off does not help our safety in the slightest, unfortunately, and the roughness of the roads in our area means that we typically have no active lighting for at least three quarters of our journey, unless we spend an inordinate amount of time looking behind us and frequently stopping to turn our taillight back on.Planet Bike's reputation for quality will, I am sure, be justified by them addressing the issues the Superflash line of tail-lights have had with their switches. (The previous Superflash units had a somewhat related problem with the switch and corrosion over time.) However, until then, I cannot recommend this particular product.UPDATE, Nov 2011: Customer Service at Planet Bike confirmed that there is a bad run of these units' switches. They feel that it will be cleared up with the next run of units, sometime in the next month or two. (That is, it should be fixed before the start of 2012.) They offered absolutely amazing customer service. Unfortunately, you'll still want to hold off on this model of light until the switch problem is resolved.UPDATE, Feb 2012: We received the replacement lights somewhere around the end of November. So far the new ones have performed perfectly.

I purchased the Planet Bike Blinky Superflash Turbo 1W Tail light along with the Planet Bike Blaze 2W Bike Light headlight in December 2012 after reading multiple reviews on different forums and websites. I came to the conclusion that it was the best combo for a road bike. The lights were used in rural Texas on early morning bike rides with a bike group on poorly lit country roads. The other members of the bike group (including those that worked in a bike shop) all commented that the light was a really nice light and asked all about it. They especially liked how easily adjustable it is. Since then it has been used on rides all over the country.I have seen the light on the road and it is noticeably more visible than the other biker’s taillights. It was easily visible from far away in a car, and I personally can’t imagine riding a road bike on an open road without one.The lights have been transported on the bike on a bike rack behind the car and never had any issue with the lights falling off, even on very long trips at highway speeds.The battery life seems to be excellent, lasting for months. When paired with rechargeable batteries, you really can’t go wrong.I purchased this light in December 2012 and it is currently February 2018. The light is still going strong. There are newer bike lights on the market today, but this LED light is still functionally excellent, has not been made obsolete by brighter or safer newer taillights in any way. If I needed to, I would purchase another one today.I hope this helps your purchasing decision. If you have any questions about my review, please feel free to message me. I’ll try and reply in a timely manner!

Hey everyone,I wanna focus here on a comparison between the RADBOT 1000 and the new Planet Bike Superflash TURBO. When I was trying to figure out how these two compare I could not find any review about this! So... now I am writing one.The Radbot used to be basically the only mainstream 1 watt tail light at this time, which proofed to be extraordinarily bright. Now the Superflash Turbo comes into the 1 watt league as well, and I just bought one because I am a blinking stuff addict ;) .The Superflash turbo is really bright, a direct comparison of both lights on steady on in my dark basement revealed NO difference. The beam is basically exactly the same, same width, same shades, same brightness. I was surprised by that, but I guess they have the same LED supplier. Positive about the Superflash here: the whole case gets illuminated in a nice red, so the visibility from the side is higher than with the Radbot 1000. So, if you wanna run the lights on steady on, it does not really make a difference which one you get.The flashing mode on the Superflash turbo is superior to the Radbot's rapid flash. The Radbot has a more constant flashing sequence, the Turbo's seems to be very random. However, sometimes the Turbo's flash gets really bright in this mode, which is not the case with the Radbot. The Radbot doesn't reach the highest brightness in the flashing mode somehow. BIG plus for the Turbo since I prefer the flashing modes on my bicycle. I was actually really surprised by this since I LOVE the Radbot. But the flashing pattern with the Turbo is really nice. Of course the 2 additional smaller LEDs help out a little, too.The Turbo does not have the slow on-off mode that the radbot has. I really like that on the Radbot, since it reaches the full brightness for a while and then gets darker again. This is a more "quiet" sequence that is a mixture of the steady on and the flashing.My bike now has both lights mounted, and I run the Radbot on the slow on-off, and the Turbo in the flashing mode. Looks really nice and is highly visible!The Radbot actually comes with more mounting brackets and hardware than the Turbo, plus point for the Radbot. The Radbot also has a nice reflector, the Turbo is a little smaller instead.So whichever light you choose, they are both really really good! You will be satisfied with either one, the Radbot is a little cheaper.So on a scale from 1 to 10 they both get a 10, the next competitive lights on the market get a maximum of 6. Both lights are playing in a different league!Hope I helped you guys out who wanted more of a comparison between these two lights!