Knog Blinder Road R70

The Knog Blinder Road R70 puts its cards on the table right from the outset – if this was a feeble little flasher you'd be pretty disappointed, right? Sure enough, point it into your eyes and it'll have you seeing spots every time you blink. [Disclaimer: don't point it into your eyes.] It provides excellent visibility to road users behind you, although the side visibility is nowhere near as good as some alternatives.

The lowest of the LEDs is crazy, eye-hurtingly bright, with its output focused through a collimated lens such that it is mostly directed horizontally when the light is fitted at typical seatpost angles. It's a pretty directional focus, so you ideally wouldn't fit it to seatstays or a vertical bit of your rack as the angle would be all wrong.

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The other three LEDs are less potent but they combine to offer a range of eye-catching modes and a claimed 70 lumens output. There's a constant on, fast flash, an up-and-down "chaser" and a super-long-life eco-flash. The "peleton" (sic) mode consists of the middle two LEDs on constantly, to avoid irritating those cycling immediately behind you – a good option for winter club riding. Mode memory is good to see, so it switches back on in the mode you were last using.

That focused lower light would make this a top choice for where you want to be seen a long way back by those coming up behind you. Think a winter commute on a dual carriageway or an evening time-trial. For urban use, you want to be visible from all directions, and this is where the Blinder isn't as good. At about 45 degrees to each side there is still plenty of light visible, but not nearly as much once you're past 60 degrees. There is a vertical strip of red plastic on each side, out of which some light escapes, but there are other lights that are an awful lot better in this respect.

Run and charge

Battery life is decent for something so bright – 3.5 hours on constant and up to 20 hours if you choose the eco-flash mode. It's USB rechargeable, pretty much a given in decent rear lights nowadays, although the mechanism is unusual. The plastic tongue of a full-size USB type-A connector forms part of the attachment used to fix the light to your bike. You can plug it straight into your laptop or phone charger, although you'd probably want to give it a good wipe first. Knog says that it's completely waterproof and it certainly looks well-sealed, doing away with the usual need for a rubber bung to protect the more common micro-USB sockets.

Fitting it to your seatpost is very straightforward. There are three chunky silicone bands, meaning it will fit anything from a really old-school 22mm seatpost to a modern aero post. There's a narrow groove down the back of the light designed to hold it in place if you do fit it to something teardrop shaped. The silver plastic catch might look a bit superfluous, but it does make it a little easier to fit than lights that just make do with an o-ring.

The power switch is located at the top, on the back of the light. Either side of it are a couple of small LED indicators, one red and one green. The red light warns you (quite discreetly) when the battery is getting low, and both are used when charging – red meaning charging and green meaning full.

Summer storage

One other unusual feature is a "storage" mode, which can be activated when you're not going to use it for a while. It drains the battery to an optimum level for longer term storage – maybe during the summer months. This seems like a good idea and will hopefully mean you get a good few years' use before it needs replacing.

Generally the build quality is good, as you'd hope with an RRP of almost £50. It feels like a quality unit and it's had no issues with water ingress despite some real soakings on my seatpost. Note that there are older and cheaper versions of the Blinder rear light that look rather similar to this; without the super-bright lower LED the overall output is much lower, though.

> Check out our guide to the best rear lights here

As I've suggested, for certain sorts of riding, the focused and very bright lower beam of the Blinder does a really good job, if a pretty pricey one (at RRP). If you'll be regularly riding in urban environments then I would suggest that there are better alternatives. Principally, I would want more light visible from the sides – here, some does escape through those red strips but just not enough to be noticed in a busy street.

If you're going to spend this much (or even quite a lot less), there are no shortage of lights with much wider-angle outputs, such as the Cateye Rapid X range or the Moon Shield, and that's where my money would probably go.

Verdict

Excellent rear visibility but much less eye-catching from the side and rather pricey