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Old March 14th 17, 04:59 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Joy Beeson
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Posts: 1,638
Default AG: Light, light, and there is no light.



Over on rec.bicycles.tech there's a long thread that consists of the
same two posts being badmintoned back and forth, each side so intent
on defeating the enemy that no communication can take place. Such
emotions are contagious; every time I read the thread, I'm tempted to
dive in and point out that the whole discussion is moot; for most
people, battery lights are available and hub dynamos don't even exist.

Thank goodness most of the combatants are in my kill file! I suppose
that I could mark the thread Ignore, but I keep hoping that somebody
will accidentally say something.

The battle reminded me of my Ed Kearney light. It held up so well
that when the bulb fell out of the housing, I was too old to go out
after dark, so I never repaired or replaced it. I had added an
emergency-in-case-of-failure red blinky when L.E.D.s came in, and that
is still on the rack. Pauses to run out to the garage. The battery
is dead. manages to pry open a case that was glued shut with at
least fifteen years of road dirt

Rotating the A cells in their sockets repaired the light. Batteries
sure ain't what they used to be! We recently found a radio that still
worked after being forgotten for twenty years, and a ninety-cent crank
flashlight that was found after being lost for a year lighted up
without being cranked. (I suspect that the flashlight had a supercap
instead of a battery.)

(For young whippersnappers: disposable batteries used to have a short
shelf life, and sometimes burst open and ruined your flashlight if
left too long.)

I'm planning to give the still-functioning blinky to Goodwill instead
of putting it back on the rack; the odds of needing it are slim, and
the odds of remembering that I have it are slimmer still. But I might
go to the Trailhouse to see whether they have any non-blinking red
lights.

I have two automotive-style reflectors that work whether I remember
that they are there or not -- perhaps I should drop in at the
auto-parts store instead, and put a third reflector where the light
was.

------------

Ed's lights were well designed, and composed entirely of off-the-shelf
components. I had a motorcycle battery in my saddle bag (I think
that I replaced it more than once) and I think that the headlight was
meant for a motorcycle too. You could get the clamp that attached the
headlamp to my handlebars from the plumbing department of a hardware
store.

I bought two sealed-beam bulbs, but the first one never gave out.

The taillight was meant for the corner of a semi-trailer. It had a
red lens pointing back and a yellow lens to light up my back: red to
say "this is the back of the vehicle" and yellow to show what kind of
vehicle; I wonder whether modern lights have this back-light feature.

The double lens also made it easier to see that the light was on.

A feature of that taillight that I didn't like was that if you took
either lens off, the light fell apart completely. I *think* I
replaced that bulb more than once, but I'm glad that I never had to do
it along the road.

The taillight turned on and off by plugging and unplugging; there was
a switch on the headlamp, but I always unplugged it when I unplugged
the taillight. Then I'd plug the trailer connects on the battery into
each other to keep them out of trouble and stuff them into the saddle
bag. I'd wrap the free ends of the light wires around -- the seat
stay, I think -- and plug them into each other to keep them there and
protect the sockets from rain.

I was so *thrilled* when the light came in the mail: no more having
to be home before four O'clock!

I withstood cold quite well in those days -- there were only a couple
of days a year cold enough that I could wear my alpaca tights, I was
merely annoyed when the cars on Karner Road threw blobs of salted
slush into my face, and when I found icicles hanging from my fenders,
I made a game of trying to get home without knocking them off.

I didn't mind coming home tired; one just goes a little slower and
shifts down a little more.

Riding in the dark is actually quite pleasant, if one sticks to roads
that have fog lines.

But riding home in the dark when I was tired and it was cold added up
to more than the sum of its parts; lifting the curfew didn't give me
the freedom I'd expected.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

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