Supernova E3 Tail Light 2 dynamo rear light

Supernova's E3 tail light 2 is designed to be used with their front-facing dynamo lights and it's a brilliant bit of kit in every sense. It's tiny, powerful, well-designed and beautifully made.

Weighing in at just 15g the tail light 2 is effectively just three LEDs and an alloy mount. There's no standlight in there, but if you pair it up with a Supernova E3 front light the tail light will run off that when you stop. Supernova say it'll stay on for four minutes, in reality it's double that.

There are two versions of this light, the one we have (that attaches via two bolts to a rack plate) and a seatpost-mountable one with a rubber O-ring. Since the seatpost one is deisgned to be mounted vertically they're slightly different in design but both have a good range of visibility and are very bright. The horizontal unit has two outer LEDs with a sort of reverse-conical lens that disperses the light, and there are machined grooves in either side so that you can see it well from the side. On top of that, the LED lenses extend out of the alloy body for even better visibility. The middle LED is a standard domed shape and brighter than the other two, and there's a handy groove cut into the top so it's easy to check the light is on when you look over your shoulder.

In use with an E3 Pro 2 front light and an SP hub dynamo, and it's a fit-and-forget joy. I mounted it to a Tortec Velocity rack (I had to drill and tap some holes in it as it doesn't have a standard rack plate) and that's been the sum total of effort. No batteries, no worrying about whether it's on, no worrying about being seen. It's as bright as a battery-powered LED unit, tiny, neat and good-looking. All-round visibility is excellent.

Any problems with it? Not really. It's expensive, and ideally you'll already have an E3 front light which isn't cheap either. But you're getting a quality item here, no doubt about it. Think of it as an investment.

There's been some talk on light reviews in the past as to whether a small light is inherently less safe because drivers find it harder to work out how far away you are. My take on that would be that if you're pinning your hopes of safety on the ability of a driver to succesfully triangulate distance from 100m away based on something that's at best 10cm across, your prospects aren't good.

I'd rather rely on a nice bright light that'll get you seen. This is that. On an overnight ride or on really busy roads I'd be tempted to supplement it with a flasher, but it's plenty good enough for daily duties and should last pretty much for ever.

Verdict

Excellent little rear light that's the perfect companion to Supernova's E3 front beams