While there are a lot of bike taillights on the market, the Portland Design Works Blinking Of You may be one of the most romantic. PDW has combined a simple square COB LED taillight design with a heart graphic illumination pattern to help you express your love while riding. The taillight has an affordable $25 retail price and features 81 COB LEDs to achieve a 30 lumen output. Runtimes range from 2 to 12 hours depending on the mode with a USB-C charging port. The taillight has a simple strap on design for seat posts with fun animation modes to ensure daytime or nighttime visibility.
The Portland Design Works Blinking Of You uses 81 COB LEDs to display a heart pattern to express your love of cycling.
| Retail Price | $25 |
| Rating | 8.5 / 10 |
| Measured Weight (g) | 21 |
| Likes | + Fun COB LED design + Surprisingly bright despite 30 lumen output + Creative and highly visible light output modes |
| Dislikes | – Limited mounting options – Lacks a multi-level battery status indicator |
| Where to Buy (US) | Portland Design Works |
UNBOXING
The Portland Design Works Blinking of You taillight comes in a compact cardboard box with white, blue and red stripes reminiscent of BMW M graphics. The box has a cutout that lets you interact with the taillight while it is still in the box. Inside the box you’ll find:
- Blinking of You taillight
- Mounting rubber strap
- USB-C charging cable
- Instruction manual
PDW does not include any mounting adapters with the taillight and there are no other options available on the website currently.
MOUNTING
The Blinking of You taillight uses a standard rubber strap mounting design with hooks molded into the plastic body. It’s a very simple design that works well with small and light taillights like this. There is a curved backing with rubber pads on the back of the body to ensure the taillight remains parallel with the road and securely in place. The taillight comes with a relatively short rubber mounting strap to attach the light to a seat post. It’s fairly thick so it should hold up to repeated use, but it’s too short to work to work with aero seat posts.
FIT & FINISH
Visually, the PDW Blinking of You Taillight has a simple square design with red lens and red colored plastic body. The red lens protrudes slightly out of the body and covers the 81 COB LEDs inside it. There is a black power button slightly offset on the bottom to control the light and stands out against the red body and lens. There is a USB-C charging port on the backside of the light with a rubber cover to keep debris and water out of the port. The product name of “Blinking Of You” is a play on “Thinking Of You” with the main theme of this taillight being the heart shape illuminated pattern. It’s a fun concept and makes this a great taillight for commuting or to use on a school campus compared to standard taillight designs.
The taillight has a simple user interface that is controlled via a single button placed on the bottom of the taillight. Holding the button turns the light on and off while a single press cycles through the five available modes. Built-in mode memory ensures the taillight always turns on in the same mode it was shut off in. There is also a low battery status indicator light that illuminates onec the battery is low instead of a multi-level indicator like you see on Magicshine Seemee taillights. Also, unlike the PDW Gravity Plus taillight, this taillight has no additional features such as a brake sensor or Bluetooth control. Instead, it’s really a simple old-school style taillight with more modern USB-C charging and COB LEDs.
LIGHT OUTPUT
The Blinking Of You taillight is pre-programmed with five output modes with two constant modes and three flashing patterns. For solid modes the LEDs are either illuminated in a heart shape (15 lumen / 4.5 hr runtime) or illuminated all the LEDs for square pattern (30 lumen / 2 hr). The flash patterns are more fun with what is called square flash that does a high frequency flash at different intensities between the inside and outside of a heart shape along with full square flashes mixed in at 30 lumens with a 12 hour claimed runtime. For a less erratic mode, the heart fade does a gentle fade in and out between the inside and outside of a heart at 27 lumen with a 12 hour claimed runtime. Finally, there is the Heart Dance mode that does a slower flash between inside heart, outside heart and full square patterns at 30 lumens with a 6 hour runtime.
While the Blinking of You isn’t nearly as bright as the Magicshine Seemee 300 or the Trek Flare R, it is still daytime and nighttime visible. The tight grid of COB LEDs and fast flash modes help keep the taillight visible while the raised lens helps with side visibility. From any sort of distance, the heart pattern tends to blur into a standard square as the taillight is too small. There are taillights like the iGPSPORT ET6 with more complicated emoji animations, but the low price of the Blinking of You makes it a great choice for commuters.
THE VERDICT
Overall, we found the Portland Design Works Blinking of You to be a fun and simple taillight. PDW has taken a modern COB LED design and incorporated a fun heart shaped illumination pattern. Combined with the creative constant and flash modes, it makes the Blinking of You surprisingly effective during the day or night. The small size and simple rubber strap mount also makes the taillight easy to install and remove from round seat posts. Our only complaints with the light is the lack of a multi-level battery status indicator and that there are no additional straps or adapters for different seat posts shapes included. That said, if you are looking for a fun and creative bike taillight then the PDW Blinking of You is one to consider.
Disclaimer: The product for this review was provided by Portland Design Works. The views expressed on this website are solely those of the authors and are here to help people make an informed choice before a purchase. The authors or the blog itself does not get any monetary compensation from the product manufacturer or third-party websites/vendor links that are posted here.