Meet the Designer

[Stephen]

Who am I?
Cycling enthusiast, electrical engineer, certifiable bike light "nut." I've been building and strapping lights of all sorts to my bikes since I was a kid. These lights came about from a desire to increase my safety margin when riding on the road. I knew about Dinotte, but it just wasn't enough... I wanted to really go BIG and see what kind of taillight I could build with a LOT more horsepower.

Which came first?
The taillight (DS-500, think "DesignShine" 500-lumen) as it stands today, was the original concept. Turns out this was a conservative estimate as Lupine recently ran a test on the DS-500 and measured 800 lumens! I wanted to build the brightest taillight in existence in the smallest possible package. Excellent side lighting, flexible mounting options, long run times, and compatibility with all existing 7.4V systems were also requirements. Aside from the sheer power (10 watts at level 5), the lenses being used on this light will allow you to penetrate through to distracted drivers from a significant distance, even at large off-angles, during the day. The light comes with 6 well thought out flash patterns that I've tried to optimize for day and night use. However, each of those 6 "placeholders" can be customized or changed completely to suit your preferences, and unlike some other "daytime" capable taillights, the DS can throttle way back to around 1 watt or less for suitable (safe) nighttime use.

The headlight (DS-1300) was a "natural" progression of the taillight by changing out the LEDs and slightly modifying the case design to provide "shading" from the light getting back into the user's eyes. This light provides a fantastic all-around solution for most needs, on or off road, day or night. It's not the highest power light available, but I firmly hold to the idea that 1300 true lumens of well-shaped light is pretty close to the sweet-spot for 99% of bicycle applications. Although I love this unique headlight, I'm sad to say that it just makes since to retire the design since the headlight market has become super saturated with low-cost, foreign-made pieces. It's such a competitive market that there are now "knock-offs" of the "knock-offs." (EDIT 8/23/2014...OK, I changed my mind last minute, I just had to make a few more with the new power switch design. Limited supply for sure.)

How do you buy/demo the lights?
I'm currently completely sold out of lights (as of June 11, 2014). However, I'm very excited to announce that I'll be putting together a new run of 400 taillights starting late this summer! These lights will have the same great performance that has established the DS-500 as the single-best taillight that money can buy, but with a few new "curves" and a larger power button, along with with a dedicated battery status indicator. Here's an early sneak peak at a CAD drawing.

Up till now, I've interacted personally with each and every customer to ensure that you're getting exactly what you need and that everything works as expected. As you can imagine, this is a very time consuming task. In order to continue to make these lights available on a semi-larger scale, I'll be selling the new batch directly through a dedicated on-line store (not live yet). However, my mission remains the same: to ensure your satisfaction with the lights and provide you with a world-class taillight that will run for years and dramatically increase your safety zone on the bike.

Any questions or if you want to talk about the lights...
Just shoot me an email at: [email protected]

[pkirkll]

Hello,
My name is Paul and I just saw your demos on the web and I must say i would feel very comfortable riding with those lights!!!!!!

I dont know where you are on your builds and i know you are doing this part time with a family and full time job----- of course as a new rider at age of 58 i want to be seen and not run over,,,i am planning a 120 mile road run in 3 months and am training for that now.

My question: Do you have anything left you can part with that would work for me as a road rider????---A daytime road rider.

Any help would be appreciated....and if you have a video or DIY pics of how to build--i am pretty handy....i did see your parts list and will ook around some more and read the forum now that i have registered,,,

Thanks for your work,,,I dont know if i told you this on another video or something, bit i have a lot of Amish friends who could use these on top of there buggies to keep from getting hit,,,there is always one or two accidents a years just around Bird in Hand PA.

My friends operate Carriage Machine Shop so they could probably turn these things out pretty quickly if they had the know how,,,they are very quick to pick it up.
Do you have your lights patented?
OK, thanks again if you have something that may work for me!!!

[Stephen]

Hey Paul,
Thanks for the note... I do have just a couple of headlights left that are available while I'm working on build 3. They do make a nice addition to the daytime arsenal for protection. Email me for details if you like.

I would think that for any kind of carriage mounted "caution" type lighting, some of the surface mount Whelen products might be more practical where the bike-specific small form-factor is not really necessary. Certainly not as bright as the DS-500, but less expensive and several of them would make for a nice setup. You often see these on utility crew vehicles. They run off of standard vehicle power and would therefore likely work fine from a 11.1V li-ion battery or 12V sealed lead acid.

Email me anytime...
Stephen
[email protected]

[markbitter]

Thanks for the note.It was really interesting and informative for me.I will email you Stephen as I need some more clarification about it.


trade mark attorneys Queensland