Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Friday, August 29, 2014 7:51:05 PM UTC-4, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 8/29/2014 7:01 PM, Joerg wrote:

Frank Krygowski wrote:
The problem is that (at least in the U.S.) few people ride at
night. People think it's hideously dangerous. And of course
they all have cars. So the market is small. And most of those
who do ride at night tend to do it pretty rarely, only in
near-ideal conditions, because they're doing it only for fun.
So they tend to be pretty easy on their equipment. If it lasts
only 50 hours, they'll get perhaps ten years use out of it.
That is because hardly anyone commutes anymore which is sad.


Oh, but that's not true! Everyone knows that bike use is surging!
Why,

as this article states,

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slate...t_popular.html


"Bicycle Commuting Rates Rocket From 0.5 Percent to 0.6 Percent in
Only

32 Years!"



According to the League of American Bicyclist's usual modus
operandi,

that should be trumpeted as a 20% increase!!! ;-)



Serious

commuting means including winter and then one or both trips will
require lights. So 50 hours would be gone in a month or two. I
run through batteries as if it was popcorn. Environmentally not
so cool. Luckily the front one on the MTB is Li-Ion but one of
them already starts to fade.


Yep. Another couple reasons to love generators or dynamos. They
last

damned near forever, and low temperatures don't bother them.



Also, regarding one of your specific complaints, most people
don't see a need to run wires from a central battery to a
taillight. AA or AAA batteries in taillights last a long, long
time and are easy to buy and change.
You cannot get any serious light out of AAA and that's all you
normally find. A 2W LED will suck AAA dry in very few hours.


Do you really need 2 Watts into a rear red LED? Even bog standard
red

LEDs are pretty efficient, in terms of lumens per watt. And since


you're moving with traffic, motorists generally have plenty of time
to

spot you.



Everyone else has heard this from me before, but: I heartily
recommend

enlisting a helper, and observing your bike and it's nighttime
equipment

in your normal traffic conditions. Have your helper ride the bike,
and

drive past him from various directions.



I've done this every once in a while since about 1978 or so.
(Actually,

in '78, I did the riding, my wife did the driving, and my son did
the

note taking.) I've also done it several times with bike club
members, a

couple times as a formal "night lighting workshop."



I mention this because people have invariably learned that it
doesn't

require huge outputs of dollars or lumens to make a cyclist very

conspicuous at night. Except for my now modern headlights, most of
my

night equipment is very ordinary, and there have been many times
(at

least six) that I've gotten spontaneous compliments from motorists,


pedestrians, and other cyclists on how well my lights and
reflectors

show up. (And don't forget, reflectors and reflective tape can work
very

well - especially low on the bike, and on moving parts.)



You should try testing your bike's lights that way. It may give you


peace of mind.



--

- Frank Krygowski

Joerg has often lamented tthe breakages of lights he's tried. In the
severely rough usage he subjects them to I think and exposed wire
from a dynamo would be very quickly snagged and broken or ripped out
of the hunit or dynamo.


Actually, no, provided it's done right. I have used wires on my road
bike that was extensively used on trails and dirt roads in the 80's and
early 90's. Stuff never failed back then, the quality of bicycle gear
seemed to have been better.

For cables in rough turf there is a very simple solution. Run then in
conduit. Look at the hydraulic brake likes of the shifter cables. Do
they ever tear off or get crushed by a rock hit?


Many AA or AAA tail lights are quite bright especially on trails and
some are too bright for a following rider.


But you never know when they run out of juice because the manufacturer's
engineers can't get it into their heads that there should be a charge
level indicator. Technically a piece of cake, you measure the voltage
sag upon pulsing and when that exceeds the 80% or whatever discharge
mark let the light flash a bit more irregular than usual. Then the rider
would still have time to get homes safely but would know that a fresh
set of batteries or a Li-Ion recharge is required soon. When do they
wake up?

I've had it happen twice that my front light faded out during a ride.
That is not cool at all. And fully avoidable.

Because of this I use two independent tail lights on my mountain bike
and while on roads during the night both are turned on. On rural roads a
tail light that has gone dark is almost a guarantee to get hit by a car
from behind.

[...]

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/