Rear rack lights

[stevecoh1]

Why have all the bike light manufacturers seemily decreed "Thou shalt not install a rear light anywhere but on the seatpost?" In previous years mounting a tail light off the rear of a rear rack was a commonly supported option. Nowadays, such a light is almost impossible to find.

I use my bike for commuting. I carry a laptop with me. I have a rear rack to which I attach an Arkel Briefcase pannier. I want to use my seatpost for attaching a little minibag for stuff such as keys and tools that I don't want to put in the briefcase. But I have no room there because of the tail light. And yet my rack has a predrilled hole in the back that could support a light bracket. But lights that mount on light rack brackets seem to be a thing of the past.

Does anyone know of one?

 

[rcrampton]

I saw the same thing. I did find a model (cateye I think) that has a clip on it and I can clip it to a piece of material on the back of my saddle bag under my seat. I have a rack-mounted light... I'm worried it will break one day and I'll never find another one!

BTW, how do you like the briefcase bag by Arkel? I have their GT-54 and GT-34 touring bags and love them. I can imagine they'll last me over 10 years no problem. The briefcase bag would be a good purchase for me, I carry my laptop 17 miles each way to work when I ride with it.

 

[rcrampton]

I just searched nashbar, I think this is the light I have that can clip on:

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?...rand=&sku=1511&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=

Cateye LD500RC. I do get around 100 hours when I run it in blinking mode. This just determined how many times I can leave it on overnight because I forgot to turn it off

You might also check this one out, although it looks sort of goofy to me:

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?...rand=&sku=9979&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=

 

[pegbullet]

I actually just found a pretty good solution for rear rack lighting. I'm using a trunk on my bike, and it was blocking my seat post back light. I decided to use a 20mm socket from my socket set, passed a single bolt through the top of my rack, and secured it with a washer and nut to the bottom of my rack. It basically makes a seat post mount on my pannier rack. Now I can use any seat post light on the market no problem. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has this problem. I can provide pictures if anyone is interested.