Review: Solidlights 1203d (long)

In ,
Andreas Oehler tweaked the Babbage-Engine to tell
us:

Lots of battery lights and gadgets are known for poor contacts. Some
modern LED-flashlights or even battery powered LED-lights switch
themself permanently off, if the battery looses contact while riding
on rough terrain. You have to manually operate the switch to switch
it on again. Problem is: Battery cells are heavy, contact springs are
relative week...

Indeed. I have a Several of Cateye LED lights which all require a good
thumping to get them to wake up afte rreplacing the flatteries.

--
Dave Larrington
http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk
You can't have ham!

Andreas Oehler wrote:

Which type of headlight? If it's a classic round Lumotec the brass spring
which makes contact to the center of the bulb might have beeb bent back.
Use a small screwdriver to bend it a little to the front again.

The Basta (looks a bit like a round Lumotec) that Brompton now supply as
their standard front dynamo lamp. Was fine yesterday, I imagine just a
contact problem.

Lots of battery lights and gadgets are known for poor contacts.

I know that, and you know that, but Scharf is in denial about that...

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

In article , Peter Clinch wrote:
Alan Braggins wrote:

But how many of those millions of people are fitting cheaper Shimano
dynohubs into Bromptons, rather than standard width forks?

Fair point: not many. Most just use bottles, and find them
perfectly acceptable.

Which is why I said "at least if you have to deal with the sort of
slush where a bottle dynamo often slips". After all, you do have hub
dynamos on several of your bikes for a good reason even if you do find
the bottle acceptable on the 8-freight.

Alan Braggins wrote:

Which is why I said "at least if you have to deal with the sort of
slush where a bottle dynamo often slips". After all, you do have hub
dynamos on several of your bikes for a good reason even if you do find
the bottle acceptable on the 8-freight.

The primary reasons are no noise, no problems with bumping the mount and
other such convenience and aesthetic reasons.

A bottle can always be supplied with a serious wire-brush roller
designed specifically for slush. I actually posses such a thing but
have always found the variable spring tension adjustment on the basic
B&M is quite sufficient to cope with slush so haven't had to try it.

For regular riding in slush, I'd really say you can do better than a
Brompton, never mind better than a bottle dynamo! (btw, the SON on my
Brom is not an XS, 'cause they didn't exist when I bought it. Ben
"Kinetics" Cooper spread the fork a little and it doesn't seem to have
caused any problems).

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Peter Clinch wrote:

SMS wrote:

Reliability wise, nothing beats an LED light that can run on AA
batteries.

Unsurprisingly, a remarkably selective piece of information from Scharf.
I can remember more than one ride I've been on where AA powered LEDs
used by more than one rider have run out of juice. At which point they
weren't lights any more, so were very easy to beat.

yup and as they don't come with battery meters it can be easy to run
them flat.

i do use them but on the commutor bike i have a number, low flying ufo
to borrow wafflecats words. it would be better to have a dynmo system
and probably that will get fitted at some point. it would be much more
useful.

snips

Pete.

roger
--
www.rogermerriman.com

Dave Larrington wrote:
In ,
Andreas Oehler tweaked the Babbage-Engine to tell
us:

Lots of battery lights and gadgets are known for poor contacts. Some
modern LED-flashlights or even battery powered LED-lights switch
themself permanently off, if the battery looses contact while riding
on rough terrain. You have to manually operate the switch to switch
it on again. Problem is: Battery cells are heavy, contact springs are
relative week...

Indeed. I have a Several of Cateye LED lights which all require a good
thumping to get them to wake up afte rreplacing the flatteries.

Back when I had a lot less clue than now, I went and got a set of
battery lights from Halfords, their own brand ones. They haven't worked
since the first time I took them out when it was raining. It tends to do
that a bit around here.

--
Don Whybrow

Sequi Bonum Non Time

'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.

Don Whybrow wrote:

Back when I had a lot less clue than now, I went and got a set of
battery lights from Halfords, their own brand ones. They haven't worked
since the first time I took them out when it was raining. It tends to do
that a bit around here.

Yes, there are definitely a lot of sub-par lights in terms of quality of
construction, though this spans both battery and dynamo lights. It's
rather ironic that the only place to buy dynamo lights in most parts of
the U.S. is at drug stores and hardware stores, you'll almost never see
them in a bicycle shop. Of course these $10-20 toys are not going to
work very well, i.e. "http://tinyurl.com/yvafzj".

Don't buy bicycle lights at a store where they sell aspirin or paint.
Except of course in Japan, where the department stores sell an amazing
variety of bicycle accessories.

On Sep 19, 3:39 pm, SMS wrote:

Yes, there are definitely a lot of sub-par lights in terms of quality of
construction, though this spans both battery and dynamo lights.

I imagine it also includes homebrew units. ;-)

It's
rather ironic that the only place to buy dynamo lights in most parts of
the U.S. is at drug stores and hardware stores, you'll almost never see
them in a bicycle shop.

It is ironic. It comes mostly from the fact that most bicycles in the
US are used only as toys. Vehicles that are used for practical
transportation have headlights that are always ready to use, no
regular maintenance required. That includes no battery charging.
(Can you imagine having to do that for your car's headlights?)

Of course these $10-20 toys are not going to
work very well, i.e. "http://tinyurl.com/yvafzj".

Some of them do. I set up a commuting bike for a person who I knew
would never keep batteries charged or replaced. I put one of those
inexpensive generators on. The only upgrade it needed was a halogen
bulb to replace the stock vacuum bulb. It's lasted for, oh, about 8
years now, I think.

Don't buy bicycle lights at a store where they sell aspirin or paint.
Except of course in Japan, where the department stores sell an amazing
variety of bicycle accessories.

I was in Austria recently, and found a wide selection of bike
generators available in a large car parts & bicycle parts store. And
yes, they sold paint as well. Given the prices and brand names of the
generators, I'm sure many of them were fine. Remember, this is a
country where people know and use these devices regularly, for their
transportation bikes.

(I really hate to disagree with almost everything SMS says. IOW, I
wish he were actually correct more often!)

- Frank Krygowski