dark nights and mornings
chopchopchop
Posts: 98
Really cranking up there miles now on my commute and saving a fortune. Most of my 23 mile route is unlit country roads. Is great this time of year but what can I do when the darkness comes. Any one else do this type of commute in the winter, of so any advice please?
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VOODOO CANZO
Come and see me at https://www.facebook.com/biketyke/
Change your time or route. Ride with extreme caution.
With modern lights + backups, and reflective gear, night-riding is not a problem.
I use B+M lights with a hub dynamo.
Normally you have a main light to see by (always on) and a secondary light as backup set to flash mode to ensure people see you (if for some insane reason they havent noticed your funking great big main light
However: as above... 2 sets front and rear, make sure they are angled down so as not to blind oncoming traffic
I run a Magicshine mj-880e and a Hope Vision 2 at the front, with a Hope District 3 coupled with a Cateye LD1100 at the rear. My commute is 12 miles each way mostly NSL country lanes
I also like to run down the river /canal path alongside the Trent in Nottingham even over the Winter and put the front lights on full brightness when bowling down the tracks... great fun!
2009 Specialized Tricross Sport
2011 Trek Madone 4.5
2012 Felt F65X
Proud CX Pervert and quiet roadie. 12 mile commuter
Obviously he used it responsibly with the light angled down, as in a dipped headlight. He never used it with a slightly loose fitting so he could tilt it up at drivers who never dipped their headlights. No, he'd never do that...give them a dose of their own medicine. I did when walking with a suitably powered and focussed headtorch once down a country lane without a footpath. The guy slowed because he had seen us but did not dip, so I did not dip m,y head but stared straight at him with full beam. Stupid but he was the last in a long line of idiots in cars and got me annoyed.
Anyway, anyone else buy one of the Ebay lights with huge claimed lumen figures?? I heard there were a few that were actually worth getting. My mate';s cost him about £10 and it had a cree LED IIRC and rechargeable batteries. he said it was proving pretty reliable on his winter commute along dark country lanes in the Lakes.
I got one of these last week (getting prepared for winter): http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111250557576 - seems pretty bright when I shone it at my wife... she did throw something at me when I did it repeatedly though...
Revolution Courier Race Disc '14
My Strava
I have one and it is super bright but bought a new higgher capacity battery for it as the ones provided were useless
Nice light but the batteries that come with those are terrible. You can get a similar light with a battery pack that actually runs it for the claimed three hours on high from Trustfire. Also comes with better handle bar mount and a remote switch to mount on your grips (i put mine just above my gear levers).
If you want something more powerful, then the three head version is quite good with the added advantage of being able to rotate the different heads to point at different distances (so you could have one pointing off in the distance, one pointing into middle distance and one point down just in front of the wheel). Same quality battery pack and remote switch.
Or, alternatively, the single head version is quite cheap.
http://www.halfords.com/cycling/accesso ... light-pair
Pinarello Uno
Shwin MTB
http://www.strava.com/athletes/hughes_terry
The 'Chinese' Cree do tend to vary a bit, but the ones I have had have all been good. Not 3 hours run time on max, more like 2, but hey, 15 quid?
VOODOO CANZO
Come and see me at https://www.facebook.com/biketyke/
+1 I have the three lamp version of the Solarstorm, good enough for unlit, off roading but the battery doesn't last long if you use the highest setting. To make it last longer I unplug the battery while it's not in use, it seems to make a difference between daily and weekly charging. The one with the rotating heads looks like a good idea.
I actually ordered a six cell pack with one of the last lights i ordered from Lightmalls (or was it DX, i forget). Binned it the day after i received it. Ordered a eight cell rubberized pack from Kaidomain to get even longer runtimes than three hours with my Trustfire twin head lights.... it could only run it for an hour despite having twice as many cells than the Trustfires. Suspected dead cells or that they might be out of sync so i broke it down and charged them individually........no dead cells. Hour and a half was all i could get from it after i'd finished.
At that sort of quality i'd of needed a 16 cell pack just to match the 4 cell Trustfire packs that came with the lights and a 32 cell pack to double the runtimes.
I also dug out two of the oldest Chinese 4 cell packs i got years ago with my first XM-L lights. Just plain affairs in blue shrink wrap. One of which was dead (drained and rusted from never being used for a couple of years). Managed to harvest two working cells from it and added them to the other 4 cell pack to make a homemade 6 cell pack (half height Green Giant sweetcorn tins make a great battery case)..... Second best battery pack i own, after the Trustfire ones. Even outperforming Magicshine and other 'boutique' battery packs i've bought over the years.
Which says a lot for the quality of current Chinese packs that come with the cheaper lights if they can't even outperform some rusty old cells that weren't considered 'state of the art' even back then. It's something of a false economy in my eyes. Yes, the lights are great at their sub £30 price points but you then have to hunt around and spend anywhere up to £40 on a decent battery to run them. That's why i went for the Trustfire twinhead over the Solarstorm twinhead. When i got mine the Trustfires where about £6 dearer than the Solarstorms but saved me having to splash out on a decent pack, a better 'Hope' bar mount and even had better battery cases (rubberized battery, rubberized case, not fabric.. so easier to clean and with better straps). The remote switch was just a bonus (with a five stage battery indicator built in).
Oh! And if you liked the rotating heads, then also take a look at something like this Ultrafire YL-03 tri-head design.....
The beams point in slightly different directions to give more flood (one ahead, the lower two down and to the left and right) so good for a offroad light.
Built for comfort... Not for speed
I've just gotten around that problem by modifying an old CatEye mount I had lying about.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Just make sure you've got a spare light both front and rear (i.e. min of two) in case of a flat battery (gets us all sooner or later). You can use them one flashing and one steady for attention and distance perception. Reflective clothing or adornments on your feet and consider changes to your route if it makes it safer.
It's always interesting just how dark dark really is on a rural commute!
Hi Viz Backpack Cover, cycle jacket with reflective bits and reflective gloves, 2 of those Hi- Viz plastic trouser clip things wrapped around the top tube for some side-on visibility.
The Moons are usb rechargeable off my work pc, I carry spare batteries for the knogs and a Petzl Tikka Headtorch which is a backup 'get me home' front or rear light.
This might sound like overkill but it seems to do the trick (he says, touching wood nervously...)