Its time for a lights thread

UndercoverElephant

MonkeyMonster wrote:

However do I need something more to physically light my path out in the stix?

You'll be amazed how feeble your front light is when there's no street lighting. You'll definitely need something with some oomph if you want to go at a reasonable pace, potholes can sneak up on you in the day sometimes, but at night they make straight for your front wheel.

tgotb

Veronese68 wrote:

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Seajays wrote:

I ordered myself some new CREE lights on eBay, in preparation for when the nights start getting darker (no streetlights on the cycle path). Parcel arrived last week containing this:

:shock:

Not exactly what I was looking for... no idea how to attach it to the bike.
Now waiting for lights to arrive again (apparently problem was a "new guy" in the warehouse).

You'll have plenty of light on tap, that's for sure...

I think there's a Y piece missing. You appear to have 2 tap connectors in regular 15mm to 1/2" but only one large union on the bottom of the tap.
Thought I'd shed some light on that for you.

I don't quite understand that. I agree that there appears to be a single union at the bottom of the tap, but the bit above looks like a mixer. Must be more to that big union than meets the eye...

veronese68

DrLex wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

I think there's a Y piece missing. You appear to have 2 tap connectors in regular 15mm to 1/2" but only one large union on the bottom of the tap.
Thought I'd shed some light on that for you.

If it's like the one I had, then the flexible hoses screw into the bottom of the tap body; the threaded section you can make out is for the plate to clamp it to the underside of the worksurface. Alas, tap did not pass WAF, and was swapped out for a 'normal' mixer within a year...

I didn't look at the picture properly. :oops:
So male thread into the tap body, but that would leave the wrong fitting on the other end. That should be a connection to mate to a 15mm pipe, not a female thread.

MonkeyMonster

so alongside lamps... 4 seasons, durano or ultremo or mich endurance 4's? My rear is now rather flatish and with 30 miles each day approaching as I follow rule 5 I am in need of new tyres!

rubertoe

I'll be going with a micro drive front, exposure Flash on the helmet along with with an leyzene femto at the back.

I will be looking at another light for the front as well in case of failure.

on the back of the bike i will have an exposure flare/traceR (as yet decided) alond with several cheap smart R2 knock offs from planet X. I'm not having and SMIDSY's this year.

arthur_scrimshaw

rubertoe wrote:

I'll be going with a micro drive front, exposure Flash on the helmet along with with an leyzene femto at the back.

I will be looking at another light for the front as well in case of failure.

on the back of the bike i will have an exposure flare/traceR (as yet decided) alond with several cheap smart R2 knock offs from planet X. I'm not having and SMIDSY's this year.

The femto is only a backup light isn't it, you need more rear facing firepower!

rubertoe

Arthur Scrimshaw wrote:

rubertoe wrote:

I'll be going with a micro drive front, exposure Flash on the helmet along with with an leyzene femto at the back.

I will be looking at another light for the front as well in case of failure.

on the back of the bike i will have an exposure flare/traceR (as yet decided) alond with several cheap smart R2 knock offs from planet X. I'm not having and SMIDSY's this year.

The femto is only a backup light isn't it, you need more rear facing firepower!

The femto is just for my lid, I have two.

All the firepower is on the bike. 3 x smart lunar knockoffs and a supplementary flare/traceR

arthur_scrimshaw

For some reason I didn't clock your last paragraph at all?

roger_merriman

Got a Knog Blinder road 3 for the old MTB which I use for commuting, and road (ish) stuff. claimed 300lumins and 1hrs ish life on full.

Went for a ride this evening around the lanes, lit the road ahead in a with a good bright spread, felt perfectly safe decending in pitch black at 20-25mph.

Downside of built in batteries is if you go for longer rides, no way of putting fresh batteries in.

But on the whole very impressed.

iwantblue

Veronese68 wrote:

DrLex wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

I think there's a Y piece missing. You appear to have 2 tap connectors in regular 15mm to 1/2" but only one large union on the bottom of the tap.
Thought I'd shed some light on that for you.

If it's like the one I had, then the flexible hoses screw into the bottom of the tap body; the threaded section you can make out is for the plate to clamp it to the underside of the worksurface. Alas, tap did not pass WAF, and was swapped out for a 'normal' mixer within a year...

I didn't look at the picture properly. :oops:
So male thread into the tap body, but that would leave the wrong fitting on the other end. That should be a connection to mate to a 15mm pipe, not a female thread.

The two 10 mm males do Indeed thread into the bottom of the tap....often with a third female thread about 8mm with a stud and round c/w mounting washer to fix underneath the counter top..... Though this one looks external nut....

The 15mm females thread straight onto 15mm isolating valves before joining the incoming 15mm pipes with the standard compression fitting on the other side.

But unfortunately these10 mm pipes have a detrimental effect on water pressure from the tap uess you have pressurised hot-water......
These monoblock mixers look way neater though.....

Back to the thread purpose... Can somone give me the DX link from supersonic?? I get generic front page......
Ta..

DrLex

Try with some key words in the search box
example
I have one that's coming up to 3 years old - occasional use now, but same battery pack and good run-time.

(Agree on the tap summary)

bendertherobot

Lezyne Mega Drive on front with Micro Drive on flash

Micro Drive on rear on flash. Two red fibre flares on solid on seat stays.

One blue flashing fibre flare on rucksack.

Reflective sidewalls

dhope

bendertherobot wrote:

ftfy

bendertherobot

Yep. It's 20 miles each way. Starting at 6.30 am in the winter. So it's needed.

And the flashing blue light makes people think twice......

EKE_38BPM

bendertherobot wrote:

...And the flashing blue light makes people think twice......

Probably illegal though.

bendertherobot

EKE_38BPM wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

...And the flashing blue light makes people think twice......

Probably illegal though.

Probably not. It's attached to me, rather than the "vehicle."

The RLVR was amended so that emergency vehicle no longer read motor vehicle, thus extending it to cycles. But a rider isn't a vehicle.

richk

Arthur Scrimshaw wrote:

...

I've got something very similar to your link and agree it's a great light apart from the curse of the rubber strap. I bought a Hope mounting bracket which sorted that out.

...

Can you post any link/details on what you bought/did here as it sounds interesting/useful. TIA.

bobinski

bendertherobot wrote:

Reflective sidewalls

Me too after i saw a bike with reflective sidewall tyres lit up at a roundabout. I also have reflective tortec mudgards which might be thought of as overkill.

Does anyone know if there is a reflective comfy handlebar tape? Perhaps with reflective stitching or similar? my Rapha backpack has reflective dots all over the sides and bottom and it really works.

rubertoe

I use tortec reflectors and Marathon plus (which i currently dont use) also have reflective sidewalls, but get filthy and need a regular wipe during the winter.

My kaff also has reflective paintwork, which really works and finally i use reflective tape on my white lomo rucksack.

DrLex

rubertoe wrote:

[...]
My kaff also has reflective paintwork, which really works and finally i use reflective tape on my white lomo rucksack.

I've done a ghetto-version on the winter bike using the reflective sleeve from an old traffic cone and a handful of cable ties - gives a good flare from the side to hopefully minimise T-bone risk when crossing junctions/roundabouts.

Kieran_Burns

rubertoe wrote:

I use tortec reflectors and Marathon plus (which i currently dont use) also have reflective sidewalls, but get filthy and need a regular wipe during the winter.

My kaff also has reflective paintwork, which really works and finally i use reflective tape on my white lomo rucksack.

Spoke reflectors kind of make all those unnecessary to be honest. I have them on the Tricross and will be fitting them to the Felt as soon as I need them. I've thought about some low cost rear led light on the chainstays or seat stays to light them up independently in the past

vermin

bendertherobot wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

...And the flashing blue light makes people think twice......

Probably illegal though.

Probably not.

Either way, hugely irresponsible and unconscionably inconsiderate.

asprilla

Since I couldn't get a decent lite to site on an aero seatpost I've decided to back this on Kickstarter.

http://www.bikeradar.com/commuting/news ... ter-40674/

If it fits over my backpack then It should be great for commuting.

supersonic

unconscionably

I had to google that one lol.

bendertherobot

vermin wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

...And the flashing blue light makes people think twice......

Probably illegal though.

Probably not.

Either way, hugely irresponsible and unconscionably inconsiderate.

Why?

vermin

bendertherobot wrote:

vermin wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

...And the flashing blue light makes people think twice......

Probably illegal though.

Probably not.

Either way, hugely irresponsible and unconscionably inconsiderate.

Why?

Because blues and twos are reserved for emergency services for good reason. If everyone decided to wear blue lights because they "make people think twice", then people would stop thinking twice upon seeing them and the emergency services would suffer, to the detriment of us all.

bendertherobot

vermin wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

vermin wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

...And the flashing blue light makes people think twice......

Probably illegal though.

Probably not.

Either way, hugely irresponsible and unconscionably inconsiderate.

Why?

Because blues and twos are reserved for emergency services for good reason. If everyone decided to wear blue lights because they "make people think twice", then people would stop thinking twice upon seeing them and the emergency services would suffer, to the detriment of us all.

Well, I'm not using twos at all. I think using a siren is entirely antisocial and wouldn't advocate that at all.

Blue lights are reserved for emergency vehicles not people. I wear a small blue light on a rucksack. It emits a very small amount of lumens and provides a contrast to the reds on the back. It's the contrast that makes people think twice because it's noticeable. I've no idea if they think I'm a police CYCLIST or not. But I'm fairly sure they're not thinking I'm a fire engine.

Since it's probably not illegal I'll carry on. I don't think it's quite as unconscionable as the situation in Gaza, for example.

EKE_38BPM

vermin wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

vermin wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

...And the flashing blue light makes people think twice......

Probably illegal though.

Probably not.

Either way, hugely irresponsible and unconscionably inconsiderate.

Why?

Because blues and twos are reserved for emergency services for good reason. If everyone decided to wear blue lights because they "make people think twice", then people would stop thinking twice upon seeing them and the emergency services would suffer, to the detriment of us all.

Which is why I said it is probably illegal.

I have a query which will need a person with a greater knowledge of electrics and electronics than me (which isn't that hard) to answer:
I want to move over to a hub dynamo to generate electrickery to power lights and possibly USB for charging electronics (GPS, phone etc).
Would this hub:

be OK to power this light:

Clicky pics.

I'm concerned about compatability with regard to voltage, current AC/DC. Would the light turn off when I stop? Could I power a rear light or would I need a battery light? Is charging USB devices possible? If USB charging is possible, how badly would it dim the light?

Lots of questions that I need the hivemind to answer before I pull the trigger.

bendertherobot

I should add, I trust we're all using our rear and pedal reflectors?

dodgy

EKE_38BPM wrote:

I have a query which will need a person with a greater knowledge of electrics and electronics than me (which isn't that hard) to answer:
I want to move over to a hub dynamo to generate electrickery to power lights and possibly USB for charging electronics (GPS, phone etc).
Would this hub:

be OK to power this light:

Clicky pics.

I'm concerned about compatability with regard to voltage, current AC/DC. Would the light turn off when I stop? Could I power a rear light or would I need a battery light? Is charging USB devices possible? If USB charging is possible, how badly would it dim the light?

Lots of questions that I need the hivemind to answer before I pull the trigger.

Considering that lighting rig appears to need heat fins (suggesting it's powerful), I doubt if the output from a hub dynamo would feed it the power it needs. You'd have to quote the specs of both lights and dynamo to be sure though.