Light & Motion brought their newest commuter lights front and center to this year’s Interbike. Both the Vis 360 and Vis 180 were the centerpiece as you walked up to the Light & Motion booth. The VIS 360 is a combination headlight and taillight that snaps easily onto most helmets. Light & Motion claims it’s the first bicycle light to offer a full 360 degrees of visibility for the bicyclist. Daniel Emerson, CEO of Light and Motion spent a lot of time researching and found that intersections are the most dangerous places in traffic for the bicyclist, with over 72% of accidents occurring there.
“We specifically chose to position the lighting on the helmet – fore and aft — because it raises the light above the fray of other vehicle lighting and puts it at eye level for car drivers.” says Roxy Lo, Industrial Designer for the Vis 260. “The Helmet light is easily directed by a nod or turn of the head, animating the cyclist and reminding car drivers to be more careful.”
The complete system weighs in at just 130 grams and is hardly noticeable on the helmet because of the split design.
Eric from Light & Motion gave us a closer look at the 360, as well as a tour through the entire lineup at Interbike…
“The world’s brightest taillight…” = 35 lumens?
They must not have heard about the Dinotte 140L & 300L & 400L, Exposure Lights Redeye…
Its kinda sad that an otherwise nicely designed and manufactured product is spoiled by this marketing BS.
Have you actually used this unit? I have commuted with it, and the rear of VIS 360 has a rather large surface area, and is wickedly bright. It is quite noticeable when coming upon it when driving in a car (tested), which is what I really care about. In addition the unique side lighting lets you be seen in the blind spot as a car passes you by. It’s a great product for commuting.
>>They must not have heard about the Dinotte 140L & 300L & 400L, Exposure Lights Redeye…
Its kinda sad that an otherwise nicely designed and manufactured product is spoiled by this marketing BS.
I have all these tail lights that you mentioned. Most of them are just headlamps with a red lamp and mounted on the rear. They’re good and are probably the brightest out there.
But…. this new ones from Light and Motion are really really good. They have a lot design thought into them like side lighting visibility and New flashing modes, and less annoying modes to cars or riders behind you. I can’t wait to test them but they’re one of my show top picks.
Are they ‘the best in the world?’. They certainly think so. I’m sure not everyone will agree, specially the competition.
Thank you for posting this video – it was very informative. I wish that you could have done similar videos with other companies, like Giro, Fox suspension, Intense cycles, etc.
>>Thank you for posting this video – it was very informative. I wish that you could have done similar videos with other companies, like Giro, Fox suspension, Intense cycles, etc.
John, We have about 45 videos that are being edited right now that are much, much more detailed. Check them in the VTSB (virtual tradeshow) section of our Interbike Coverage.
fc
>>They must not have heard about the Dinotte 140L & 300L & 400L, Exposure Lights Redeye…
Its kinda sad that an otherwise nicely designed and manufactured product is spoiled by this marketing BS.
Kinda sad that Dinotte would claim that a 9.6 watt-hour battery (4 of the Sanyo Eneloops, their suggested battery on their website) could produce 140 RED lumens for 4 hours. As far as I read the specs for bright LEDs out there, it’s not mathematically possible and that doesn’t take circuit loss, optical loos, etc into account. 140 white lumens? Sure, the bright LEDs put out more than twice as many lumens in white as they can in red. All these companies use the same components (LEDs, batteries) and are governed by the same laws of physics.
Is Light & Motion’s claim true (brightest in the world)? Looks like it isn’t. According to the L&M website they actually tested and got 35+ Lumens. Is Dinotte’s? No way.
I picked these up a couple weeks ago and commute thru franklin canyon at night and they light up the road perfectly. I don’t get to worried about lumens I work more about light pattern and light color. I can’t feel them on my helmet when Im riding – the on off switch is large and easy to toggle on and off – They are bright as F and have a lot of depth and cover – and the tail light is so bright you can’t stare at it! I have denotte lights as well which I use for single track and 12 hour races, but for commuting the 360 is perfect – my 2 cents