Thanks for tuning in this is The Sweet
Cyclists, today we're gonna be reviewing
the Lupine Rotlicht Max bicycle
taillight.
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Here we have the Lupine Rotlicht max
taillight, you might be more familiar
with Lupine due to their mountain biking
lights. They're pretty well known for
their high build quality and high output.
They've applied a lot what they learned
to their one and only taillight and this
is the Max version which has the higher
battery capacity. The packaging is
pretty simple, you have a plastic cover
here which just pops open and a
cardboard sleeve on the inside. Lupine is a
German company, and the light
name actually means red
light in German which is interesting as
Topeak has the Redlite and
Planet Bike as the Rojo which means red
in Spanish, so everyone's just using
foreign languages. While we pop this open
I'll go over the specs, this is quite an
expensive light as a lot of Lupine
lights are at 140 dollars. As I
mentioned this is the higher battery
capacity version which has up to 60 hours of
runtime. It also has two different
sensors here you have a ambient light
sensor and you also have a motion sensor
so it has a brake braking feature which
will throw it in a higher output mode as
well as adjust the output based on the
ambient light. What also sets this
apart is the amazing build quality as
you can see it's really robust. The back
of this is not plastic, it's actually
aluminum so it's quite a bit heavier
than a typical taillight. You get a
single LED here and four different modes
of operation, however I think what really
sets us apart from other taillights on
the market is the fact that it's USB
rechargeable and the battery is
replaceable. The battery is
significantly cheaper than the purchase
price which means you can actually
continue to use this light instead of
having a throw it out once the battery dies.
So this can definitely outlast your bike
if you just keep purchasing new
batteries over the years. It's a really
nice touch and makes us it more
future-proof than a lot of lights. It's
also IP68 rated which means you can
actually put this under water for a
prolonged period of time so it's
definitely a very robustly built.
For a replaceable battery it's really
impressive to have such a high water
rating. Now let's throw Rotlicht
Max on to the scale, as I mentioned this
is the Max version which has the
higher battery capacity and with the
aluminum housing I certainly expect a
higher weight. Not surprisingly it's
80 grams. So now let's take a closer look
at the fin=t and finish of the Rotlicht Max
light. Lets start from the face of the
light, you can see it has this clear body.
They also sell a red version cover
that's optional that you could screw
back on the place and replace this. It's
a single Cree design. You have to double click to
turn it on and you can see the one LED on the top.
It's rather bulky for a single led
design and I think that's because the
bottom houses some of the additional
sensors. As with other tail lights you
can see the circuit board through the
transparent body, you have a nice big
rubber button here. It is really easy to use
and it's almost as large as the lens cover
itself. On the sides you have not too
much going on, here you have the wide
back face of this and this is aluminum
as I mentioned not plastic so it feels
quite robust. On top you have Lupine
printed and on the other side again not
too much going on. The mounting bracket
here is a simple rubber mount which is
surprising
especially at this price point. You would
expect something more secure
however you can see this feels quite
thick so I think I'll actually survive
daily use. They also offer an optional
second one inside the packaging that you
could swap out for. This is a little
bit longer so if you have a thicker seat
post. You could use that or if you want
to mount it somewhere else. They don't
include a body clip however you can
purchase that separately again. The build
quality is really nice, you have these soft
rubber pads here to prevent scratching
your bike. This won't work for Aero
frames
obviously because the angle here will
slide side-to-side. Now as with
other lupine lights it's highly
configurable, there's four different
modes here. You double click to turn it
on you have a nice pulsing mode you have
a
impulse mode you have a steady mode and
then you have a normal flash mode.
Within each of the modes you can
actually adjust the output for five
different settings, some of the modes
only have four though so the low setting
is the same as the second highest. To
adjust the different modes you hold this
down the button and you see that
green light. Now it will flash through five
different settings of the light output,
depending on which mode you were on. It
has mode memory and will
adjust the mode output. If I click now
I've selected the high setting for
whatever mode I happen to have been on.
When I turned it off so if I switch to a
different mode turn it off turn it back
on hold let go
I can now configure each mode
independently of one another. That's a
pretty nice feature I think most people
might not use as the factory settings
are pretty good. I feel like it's a
really clever way to do this. They also
have additional options which I was
really surprised to see and you can
actually see the little cheat sheet here
if the camera focuses. If I hold
this down you see green light now I get one
beep, two beeps, three beeps... Each one
of these is a setting and if I let go I have the
different setting activated.
You can turn on the light sensor on and off
as well as
adjust the sensitivity between low and
high. I can also adjust the sensitivity
of the brake sensor between low, medium
high or completely off as well.
Lights with ambient light
sensors and brake sensors typically are
not adjustable so it's really nice to
see note from the factory. The light
sensor is disabled and this is
consistent with other brands by default.
They turn it off as it's a little
confusing especially when you're in a
store setting. Now I want to show you
how the ambient light sensor works, as I
mentioned it's actually disabled from
the factory and there's also a brake
sensor so you can see the brake sensor
here if I'm in a normal flashing mode it
will always revert to the highest power
steady mode if it detects
motion. Now one problem with this feature
is you will get erratic battery life as
your battery life will be a mix between
whatever mode you're in and the steady
mode. The other feature I wanted to
show was the how the ambient light
sensor works and by design it's supposed
to take the current mode and bump it up
to the highest power setting available.
I can trick it by taking another light
and pointing it toward it. Now as you can
see the steady mode ramped up to a
higher power and as I pull it away it will
ramp down. That's a nice feature so if
you have a car behind you this will
actually ramp up to make sure you're
actually visible. Now let's compare
the Lupine tail light versus some other
tail lights on the market. Here I have a
selection of different form factors, I
have the Bontrager Flare RT and you can
see similar style form factor. It's the
same thickness but the Lupine is 50 percent
bigger.
This is a $60 taillight and it does have an
ambient light sensor but just like the
Lupine disables it from the factory. It
does not have the brake sensor. For a
brake sensor you can actually buy the
Magicshine Seemee 60, a 60 lumen
$35 light so quite a bit cheaper and
actually has a metal housing on here
similar to the Lupine but with a plastic
body. This is USB rechargeable and has
the brake sensor but not the ambient
light sensor. It feels brighter on
certain settings but doesn't quite have
the configurability or the
replaceable battery which is such a
great feature on the Lupine. A simpler
option is the $35 Rojo 100 from Planet
Bike. It has a similar size here but again
plastic body and non replaceable battery and
no sensors. So if you want
sensors and high configurability I think
this is one of the only taillights we've
seen so far. Now lets take a look at the light
output of the taillight. There are four
different modes and what I'm showing you
here are the factory settings along
with the power output and claimed run
time. There is steady mode, blinking mode,
pulse mode which ramps it up and down
and finally steady and pulse which
combines it to it for a really cool
effect. I really like this, especially for
nighttime riding.
It's also worth taking a look at a
different brightness setting which are
adjustable for each mode. As
you can see the lowest setting is quite
a bit dimmer than the brightest setting
so depending on the ambient conditions
you can really adjust it to optimize
runtime or brightness.
It's also worth taking a look at the
braking feature here you can see me
coming to a stop and it goes from pulse
to steady. Now let's go over the pros and
cons for the Rotlicht Max. One of the
best things about the light is the build
quality, it's one of the best quality
lights we've seen. Really well put
together with the aluminum backing and
the polycarbonate lens as well as
the really impressive IP68 rating. This
means this should be more durable than a
majority of the taillights on the market.
Also the replaceable lithium polymer
battery is a huge plus you rarely see
this outside of the AAA versions of
taillight. It's really something that
can make this future proof and the
battery itself is really cheap
compared to the actual light. It's also
really impressive amount of
configurations, I haven't seen a light
that gives you so many options you have
sensitivity settings on/off for both the
light sensor and brake sensor. You can
really customize it to exactly how you
like it. Some of the cons, aside from the
higher purchase price is the large form
factor. This is fairly bulky particularly
here in the max form. It also lacks a
clear battery indicator which is kind of
surprising as Lupine has some really nice
SmartCore batteries that have
audio and visual indicators. It's also
curious that the taillight lacks
the auto on/off feature or the day/night
options that other smart taillights have.
Taking everything to account I would
give they light a 8.5 out of 10
rating. I really like the fact that this
is a replaceable lithium polymer battery
and I really set that apart from other
taillights on the market. Thanks for
watching this review if you like the
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This is The Sweet Cyclists reminding you to
enjoy the ride!
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