On Saturday, August 30, 2014 12:39:24 PM UTC-4, Joerg wrote:
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/

My Cygo Lite Rover II has a indicator on top of the headlight housing and tthat indicator glows red when the battery is running low.

Cheers