Every Day Adventurers

Owning an Xtracycle means more real estate for fun gadgets like air horns, electric motors and lights. One of our perennial favorites is Rock the Bike’s Down Low Glow. Their dual tube offering meshes perfectly with an Xtracycle’s long wheelbase, casting a fun glow that is guaranteed to excite passersby.

On my own Xtracycle, a Surly Big Dummy, I’ve rocked out a Down Low Glow for over a year and love it. But, it does have its drawbacks. I have to charge the battery after two-hours of use, the brightness dims after about 75 minutes of use and The lights last a useful four hours on a full charge, with the lights dimming around 3 hours*. The only downside? The transformer/battery/cables add visual clutter to my already over-cluttered rig, but I don’t lose sleep over it.

I wanted to see if another option existed for sweet ground effects that did away with the cluttered look, gave me longer battery life and still made me visible to others on the street. I figured an LED setup would be the way to go considering their low energy consumption and bright light output. A couple Google searches landed me on Bike Brightz. Their lights feature 6-LEDs, three functions (steady, slow blink, fast blink) and come in a variety of colors. Would this compare and offer a good replacement for my Down Low Glows? Well, I had to get some to test first!

After an email to the company, Ron mailed me two units to test (green to compare to my DLG green tubes). Here’s the packaging breakdown and instructions. Very straight forward and easy to install. Think it took me about 2-minutes tops.

Of course, installing isn’t the fun part, riding around with green light emanating from your longtail is! My beau and I hit the Oakland streets to put my Down Low Glow and the Bike Brightz head to head.

The Bike Brightz have a slightly brighter light intensity and project light a greater distance. Mind you, they’re brand new versus the 1-year+ age of the DLGs. The DLGs have a larger glow area, but only when close to the ground. The farther away the more the light effect dissipates.

The flashing functions on the Bike Brightz are a bonus since it’s been proven that flashing lights are recognized by drivers sooner than steady lights. The flashing kills some of the glow factor I love from ground effect lights though, and if you stare down too much you start being thankful for not suffering from epilepsy.

Based on the photos, you’d think the Down Low Glow has seen better days, but seeing it in a video (0:40) you realize how much of a beautiful light cloud is produced by their 180-degree cold cathode tubes. You lose some of the ground effect glow when you mount the tube on the bicycle’s down tube, but you’re also exposing more of the tube’s face to other drivers.

I didn’t like the on/off action of either lighting setups. While the Bike Brightz has a one button option, it’s too easy to set it to the non-steady mode as the switch is very sensitive. The Down Low Glows are a plug/unplug operation that is difficult to operate while riding, especially if the system is mounted low.

Regarding weather proofing, I’ve yet to experience a weather-related malfunction with the Down Low Glows. I can’t attest to the water resistance of the Bike Brightz, but it seems if it got direct and constant water exposure, moisture may seep in through the battery cover.

Verdict? They’re different beasts trying to achieve the same effect: bright, colorful light that not only looks cool, but alerts drivers and others on the street to your presence. If cost is a factor, the Bike Brightz win hands down. At $19 each, you can have 7 of them on your bike for the price of one trickle-charge (the fast charge is more expensive) dual tube Down Low Glow ($149). But, you’d have to press 7 different on/off buttons to get them all to turn off. If a steady, full glow is your desire, then the Down Low Glows are a great choice.

I’m going to keep rockin’ my DLG setup, but am going to augment it with one unit of the Bike Brightz to better catch the attention of my fellow humans as they motor around in their cages. Ride on!

*Update

I had mentioned in the first draft of this post that my DLG’s were fading after 1.75 hours of use. Paul Freedman, of RockTheBike.com, wrote me asking to see my unit because that time was especially low for my setup. Not wanting to spread falsities, I setup my camera, bike and Down Low Glows to test their brightness using time lapse photography.

I started the test at ~11:48PM and the camera finished shooting at 5:35AM. The interval shooting was set at 3 shots/minute, it stopped at 998 frames = 333 minutes, or 5.5 hours. I then imported the image sequence into After Effects at 30 fps, shortened the time duration by 50% for a final playback time of 16.2 seconds with every 3″ = 1 hour elapsed time.

From the footage, it looks like the DLGs are performing great, lasting a full 3 hours instead of my initial, crude, observation of 1.75 hours. Cheers!