I wrote to SuperNova asking them about my dying stand light on the front light and the one rather dim rear diode (of three) on the rear light and that I had lost one light in the Blue Mountains.
They came back and told me that it was probably a faulty tail light. What really knocked me off my seat was that they offered me a whole new set: front and tail light, wow! All I had to do was to pick which mount and the colour I wanted.
Thank you very much Supernova Lighting Systems, I shall ride with my two new lights with pride.
We also decided to pick up a set for Peli, though the slight difference was that we picked the seat post fitted one for the rear light, since I carry the tent. Yup, I know you are slightly confused but it will all become clear shortly.
I really do like the light coming from the SuperNova, they have the right “temperature” which is not too bright but still bright enough so that you can see where you are going.
I picked the symmetrical Iris lens over the glare-free Terraflux lens because I would get a better spread of the light. Which would make it easier to see the road signs and what is around me while touring or commuting. The Terraflux would give a very centred spot, which you can see on the photos on supernovas site, which I’m worried would night blind me and it wouldn’t let me see outside of the beam. The symmetrical Iris lens really give a good spread of light without being too weak so that you can’t see the potholes at night.
The SuperNova light has the right temperature or warmth on its light beam for me, I’m not scared at all
of going at speed in the darkest of night. As the E3 Pro let me see what is going on in front around of me without being blinded by its reflection, like it did with the Dinotte 600L I tested a few years
back.
Then there is the design of the SuperNova lights, I know that they are built to last, you can also nearly pick any colour of the rainbow.
Since I carry our new tent on the rear rack, it is a bit longer than the rack so it falls over and cover the light. And the mudguard of ExtraWheel trailer also covered the light when seen directly from behind, the rear light was only when viewed from the side.
So therefore we decided to get the seatpost mounted one for me, as it will be sitting right below the saddle and above the tent and the mudguard on the ExtraWheel and then fit the racklight tail light onto Peli’s Surly.
The “normal” way to fit the taillight to a Tubus rack would mean that you should have some spacers, like on the picture on the left or drill a hole for the wire to fit the tail light flush to the rack. You will not have much rack left when drilling a hole, about a millimetre above and below, though with the tail light mounted on I’m sure that bit of the rack is as strong as ever. Never had a problem with mine for at least 10,000 heavy loaded miles.
The other problem we ran into with Peli’s lighting rig was that her Surly Long Haul Trucker is only a 46cm frame, so very ickle. Along with the small frame, Jeff Jones H handle bars and a Ortlieb handlebar bag we could not fit the SuperNova E3 Pro in its normal way as the handlebar bag would sit right in front of the the light, so no use at all.
SuperNova were very nice and included their new handlebar mount, probably because I lost one light on their Cateye mount, doh. The new mount uses a rubber o-ring as the fastener, which makes it usable on normal sized and over sized handle bars and fast removal when parking the bicycle.
We had a little test and honestly we don’t think that it is secure enough for even light touring or commuting around London. It really felt very loose indeed and would start slipping so that your light will be shining at the stars not where you wanted it. Also the metal bit of the mount was rather sharp, so over time I’m sure that it would cut into the o-ring. O-rings are only so weather proof and after a while will start to become brittle, which I’m sure will cause it to snap when you really don’t want it to.
So we put our heads together and did some scratching(searching on the internet) until our good friend found a Schmidt Headlight Bracket over on sjscycles.co.uk, which did the job, now the E3 Pro is solidly attached to the handlebars.
Last full moon we had a little night ride with a good friend of ours. While riding Peli zoomed off ahead for the first time on a night ride, because she could see where she was going on the dark country lanes.
All together we had two SuperNova E3 Pro, one Solidlight and a HOPE 1 on the front. On the back we had two SuperNova E3 tail lights, two Cateye TL-LD610, one TL-LD1100 and one other rear light along with the moon we didn’t have any problem seeing where we were going. Along with various reflecting things on our bikes, clothing and panniers we must have been a sight for sore eyes.
I also got to see how well the E3 tail light worked, never seen it in anger before, as I was always sitting in front of the rear light (riding the bike) 🙂 when Peli was ahead in the distance. A very nice and a simple bright red dot that was very easy to see from far away.