Best Rear Bike Lights of 2024

What's your all-time favourite rear light?

I got the Cateye and i literally hate all of its modes. I got the Olight RN 100 and i love its Comet function best flash mode ever seen in a tail light . Front i got Astrolux Sl01 . Similalry best beam pattern ever seen in a bike light.

Lots of my riding was on dark Hampshire country lanes, in poor conditions. I used at least 2 flashing rear Cateyes, sometimes a third flashing cheapo (but bright) from Panet-X ...
BUT there are some important things to note. LED lights are usually very directional. I took time to angle mine so they shone just up from horizontal (you can use a wall about 20 meters away to check).
ALSO I has lots of retro-reflective stuff going on. No rear light is as eye-catching as a big strip of Scotchlite in car headlights.
I honestly felt more visible at night on the lanes than I did during the day, when the low sun can blind drivers and even bright clothing can get lost in the surroundings.

Lupine Rotlicht, nothing else.

KNOG Rear Cobber would be the absolute perfect rear light if it didn't have that god awful charging mechanism.

The Exposure and Lezyne lights point down at the angle of the seatpost (~16°). Do the lights have optics that compensate for this or are you just stuck with the brightest part of your light pointing at the road a few feet behind you?

I use a Knog Little Cobber rear light. No port. No cable. Plugs straight into a charger or computer. 50, 150 or 270 lumen versions. Looks slick.

Lezyne KTV Smart 75 rear light is my latest. It works as a pairing with the Lezyne 1800i front light. Also really great lights are the MagicShine SEEMEE300 rear light, and CBL1600 front light.

Garmin Varia - nothing else compares.

How about actually showing night & day visibility from multiple distances to get a better gauge of how effective they are?

Garmin Varia. Hands down. Everything else is fighting for second.

Multiple people own Garmin Varias, but other than those, there are as many taillights as there are riders in the group.

I’m a fan of Moon lights. They give you 2 straps with each headlight, for narrow or wide mounting points. Also the straps are very thick, and they hold up to very cold weather, and don’t eventually stretch and snap like every other light mounting strap I’ve ever used. Taillights have 2 mountings included, strap or clip. Batteries are replaceable on their headlights, they give you a USB cable, and they hold a charge well even at -20 C.

Would have been great to see them in the dark rather than flashing in the day

Thanks for your notes about USB-C charging!

Knog Blinder, thank me later.

I've got an Olight seeme that I bought waiting for the brighter rear olights to come back into stock but forgot about it til now. Can't rate it yet but that was less than £20 so these seem quite expensive to me. My Sofirn front bike light was exceptionally good value for money so hoping they do a rear light at some point too.

I’ve owned a number of see sense lights and they all gone wrong within less that a year all due to water ingress customer service is great but as any other Facebook product they lack reliability .

Exspoure flare is the best light I’ve ever owned but the metal gets worn down by the bracket through the act of twisting the release the light from the plastic. If it’s muddy dip the back only in water first.

Decathlon's Elops 900 is a banger for the price (don't cheap out on the Elops 100, the 900 is worth it). Cheap, powerful, charges with an included microUSB, comes with a ton of different attachment options...

I love that they don't include a cable. The majority of people have them and the few people who dont can buy one pretty cheap. It saves wasting cables and reduces cost.

All use degradable rubber mounts which will fail. None hsve any locks or options to prevent thefts .at those prices all should be theft proof and have solid mountings.

I have a set of exposure flash/flare. Whilst they were not cheap, I am very impressed with the performance, the build quality, and the waterproofing. The rear light survived an accidental trip through the washing machine.

The day flash mode is very effective, it was seeing another rider's light from 1/2 mile away in bright sun in the Peak District that made me consider getting it.


Tip: whilst the mounting bracket does not look very secure, I have not lost it on XC mtb or rough gravel, and after market, bolt on brackets are available.

Exposure lights are overpriced piece of junk. Made in China stuff 10 times better and more reliable now.

I always run one blinking light and one static. I love the blinking pattern on my light and motion vya and for the static light I love the massive size of the knog big cobber.

If it’s not Varia with radar there is literally nothing worth talking about. What a waste of a video.

Do I have to wear white shoes and white socks to my knees with these lights?

There is one bike company that spent $$$ on RnD for rider visibility (lights, clothing etc), and that's Trek / Bontrager (as far as I know).
Their bike lights are miles ahead of anything else I've used - and that's coming from a specialized fanboy.
Their visibility (day & night), rechargeability, ease of use and longevity (mine have yet to fail at 8 years of daily use) are best in class.
To omit them from this review is negligent.

Look at this guy shilling overpriced bike lights! 50 pound for a light?!?! Who are you kidding, just use a candle 🕯️

Bontrager Flare R doesn't get a mention.......almost a standard here in Spain! They're everywhere.

eco mode in rockbros can hold to 45hour 😂 if you want last long lamp just but it cheap 20$ but the day not very visible.

The rear grabbing strobe lights are the worst for drivers. I get blinded by the light and have to look away from the cyclist as i drive by, hence losing sight of them. Very dangerous lights.

Love how magicshine is getting their shine 👏👏

Lezyne just brought new versions out with AI Alert, new video went up just today on lezyne channel

Tried Garmin Varia. Too slow as a brake light.

ALDI USB charged options great VFM.

Planet-X used to have value options too, but not checked recently.

You didn't consider a durability test? I've had so many Cateye lights fail. A weather seal test would be interesting?

I like the Magicshine Seemee 300. I also have a Bryton Gardia Radar. I can use the light on the radar as additional lighting or as a backup.

Flock light is something to look into. It shines the light on the cyclist legs.

Varia for road, Exposure trace r for gravel

Bontrager Ion RT and Garmin Varia are the best !!

Where is the best one?
(Lupine Rotlich max)

Unless we are talking about Varia or some radar lights none of these lights are any functionally different than cheap AliExpress ones.

Magicshine seeme 300 ✅

Cygolite hypershot350

Why most of all, you chose bike light with shity mount sestem? Is it not required fore "best tail light" to stay on yore bike?
Also Exposure fore this prise... Why they always suck at mountin system?

Germany with the StVZO: All of the listed rear lights are strictly forbidden, because they have a blinking mode, even when you use a non blinking mode.

Will any of these clip to the end of a saddle bag or rack trunk bag? And will they stay there when hopping up and down curbs and rattling over bumpy roads or speed bumps? When commuting none of my seat post is visible from the rear.

Sadly the more lights I have the more likely drunk the clown will be attracted to me.

Exposure for me excellent had mine years 😊 Pete 🚴🏻👍

just make them smaller and brighter

Bontrager flare - flare rt, the best