I did try out a Reelight "SL550 Steady Rear Light - No Standby" version.
My initial impression was that they were *adequately* constructed.
But they were definitely not in the same constructional league as other types of rear light at the same price point.
After my usual "adapt any new product that comes into my grubby little mitts", I managed to fit them to my bike
They did work, but the supposedly "steady" lights definitely pulsed in brightness even at quite high wheel revolution rate.
They came with just 2 spoke-mounted magnets. So I ordered 2 more. They arrived but they were no-longer metal+plastic construction. Instead they were magnets encased inside an all-plastic mount.
And the new magnets were thicker and so could not allow all 4 magnets to pass equally closely to the frame (in my case rack) mounted induction coil.
I complained about the different style of magnet to Reelight and they sent me 2 more magnets (of the all plastic style) free-of-charge. Kudos to them for this.
However even with 4 magnets (all plastic mounting) the light was still fairly weak.
Also the plastic mounts all deformed quite a lot so, although the magnets were all equally spaced from the induction coil they could not be as close as the metal+plastic mounted magnets
With 2 magnets and even more so with 4 magnets the energy-conversion from kinetic to electrical is definitely not entirely "friction free*. The magnets are clearly retarded as they pass the induction coil.
So my overall opinion is: Interesting idea, but the light is not good enough and the energy drain and installed weight is not sufficiently negligible for this weak light to be worth it.
Maybe the Reelights that are intended to flash (with or without the "standby" functionality) are a better see-me safety light. The steady version is definitely not really worth the cost + installation effort IMHO.
--
Ian
