Commuting lights

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
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Tangled Metal
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Re: Commuting lights

Post by Tangled Metal »

Ask a forum about how to change a light bulb and you'll get 3 pages on the benefits of b22 compared to e27 bulbs. Perhaps if I started a thread about whether dynamo lighting systems or battery systems are best I might get a recommendation for a good battery light.

Thank you to all who have tried to answer my query about battery lights. I think I'll step out of the debate over lighting types.
on6702
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Re: Commuting lights

Post by on6702 »

Brucey

Have you had any experience with the B&M Dynamo lights?

In particular the newish cyo premium 80 lux front model and the topline rear models?

This is what I'm thinking of converting my current battery set up to via a Rose Bikes wheel built with the shimano 3n31 hub.

Seems like a pretty solid and cost effective set up.
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gaz
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Re: Commuting lights

Post by gaz »

Tangled Metal wrote:Road legal? I think you are making too much of this. I'd be very surprised if you can find one case of someone getting "done" for cycling with a light that works for visibility but does not conform to the rvlr in the U.K.

I'd be very surprised too. Once a collision has occured which involves either death or serious injury I'm happy to speculate that the insurance company will look for every possible opportunity to lower their liability with accusations of improper lighting.

I'm confident that a set of approved lights would not have prevented the death of Michael Mason. It's not that hard to speculate that the driver did not get "done" for causing his death because his cycle's lights did not conform to the RVLR.

YMMV.

Tangled Metal wrote:Ask a forum about how to change a light bulb and you'll get 3 pages ....

This is an above average forum, it was nine pages last time I checked :wink: .
Last edited by gaz on 21 Jan 2016, 12:30pm, edited 1 time in total.
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roubaixtuesday
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Re: Commuting lights

Post by roubaixtuesday »

One or two people have claimed 'good reliability over many years' from battery systems; I'd argue that this is

a) very much the exception rather than the rule and
b) total failure has only ever been avoided by carrying backup lights of some kind.

By contrast with a hub generator reliability is the expectation rather than the exception.


If you spend good money on high quality lights then they are very reliable. I've been using exposure lights every day through the winter for five years. I have never once had to rely on a backup. Not once. That's about 1000 rides and 10,000 miles. "Total failure" is really of the fall off and suffer damage kind, and I don't see why dynamo lights are any better in that regard. I can completely see the advantage in avoiding the need to recharge and the good reliability. I can also see why not everyone would want a hub dynamo.

I do usually carry a battery light with me, but that is mainly so that I can find my bike, and in case of punctures etc


So yes, even if you do use your preferred option, you *still* need a backup of precisely the sort the OP asked for advice about in the first place...
Brucey
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Re: Commuting lights

Post by Brucey »

on6702 wrote:Brucey
Have you had any experience with the B&M Dynamo lights?
In particular the newish cyo premium 80 lux front model and the topline rear models?
This is what I'm thinking of converting my current battery set up to via a Rose Bikes wheel built with the shimano 3n31 hub.
Seems like a pretty solid and cost effective set up.


not personally with those lamp models. B&M have occasionally sold lamps that are duffers, but if/when that happens they usually sort themselves (and their customers) out reasonably quickly. I quite like the beam pattern on most cyo models I've used.

The 3N31 hub is a cost-effective choice; just be sure that the bearings are adjusted/greased correctly. With any 'bought wheel' of that sort I'd take the precaution of stress-relieving it and retruing it before use. This may not always be necessary but it won't do any harm and it might do some good, so if you can do so, do so.

cheers
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mjr
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Re: Commuting lights

Post by mjr »

[XAP]Bob wrote:Every time I go into a bike shop I look through the lights to see if I can see *any* than are UK road legal (i.e. that satisfy the requirements for a main light under the existing RVLR). I am yet to find one.

As far as I know, the only UK chain shop selling one isn't a bike shop: it's Clas Ohlson. I have no idea if the light is any good, though. I think it might be http://www.clasohlson.com/uk/Asaklitt-L ... ht/34-7815 which they're now selling off at £10 (with another £1 off if bought today) but the online description doesn't claim British Standards compliance and I think the box of the one I saw did.

I have dynamo lights on one bike and old-but-good battery lights get used on the rest. The difference is sufficient that the dynamo-equipped roadster gets used for rides in total or partial darkness even when another bike would be slightly better, as long as there's no compelling reason not to use the roadster.

I do keep trying (and occasionally buying) new battery lights in the hope that I'll find something better than my old-but-good ones. I think I've got to bite the bullet, accept that I'm never going to win that lottery and equip the rest with dynamos of some sort, probably the folding bike next. Battery lights sold in this country seem to be aimed at MTBers and scofflaws, not commuters and tourers.

I carry small get-me-home lights in my tool bag but that's mainly because I've needed them several times while using battery lights and I don't often add/remove things from the tool bag as it moves between bikes. They're not sufficient to be legal, but you're allowed to complete your journey if a legal light fails (RVLR section 23(3)(c) ) so it's only to give me a rear light or help me see through the totally-unlit bits, albeit at reduced speed.
Last edited by mjr on 21 Jan 2016, 12:50pm, edited 1 time in total.
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TrevA
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Re: Commuting lights

Post by TrevA »

I've been searching for the battery light Holy Grail for some time.

I started off with a B&M Ixon IQ. I bought one for my son who had a 15 mile each way country lane commute. He was well impressed with it and is still using it 6 years later. I bought one for myself, used it for about 4 years and it's now on my wife's commuting bike. I found that I could get 4-5 hours on high beam and 10 hours on low. Beam good enough to see by on a dark lane, though it doesn't turn night into day.

I replaced it with a Phillips Saferide. Probably brighter than the Ixon but i've been disappointed by the run times and it's a weight old beast and also a bit of a lump, stuck on the bars and takes up quite a bit of space. I've also lost one of the brackets in a recent house move. I only have the oversized bracket, so it can only be used on my audax bike. I mainly commute on my tourer with 26mm bars.

I bought a Cateye Volt 400 and was impressed with it. Not as bright as the Saferide but very light, small and doesn't take up much room on the bars. It's just about bright enough for dark country lane riding. I've now bought a Volt 1200 (£105 in the Evans Warehouse sale). This has all of the advantages of the 400 but it's much brighter, similar run time - in fact it lasts longer as I can run it in a lower mode, with equal brightness. I use this as my main light with the 400 as back up. I also have an extra back up of a cheap "be seen" led light from Halfords.

For rear lights, I use a Cateye Rapid 3. Bright enough, has several modes, it runs off a single AA and I find it last for about 50 hours before the battery needs changing. Back up is a Halfords cheap LED.
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661-Pete
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Re: Commuting lights

Post by 661-Pete »

Tangled Metal wrote:Ask a forum about how to change a light bulb and you'll get 3 pages on the benefits of b22 compared to e27 bulbs. Perhaps if I started a thread about whether dynamo lighting systems or battery systems are best I might get a recommendation for a good battery light.

Thank you to all who have tried to answer my query about battery lights. I think I'll step out of the debate over lighting types.
Words of wisdom from the OP - take heed! :)

I'm sticking with this forum (as compared to one or two Other Places which I mentioned on the "should we discuss politics.." thread) because I think it's one of the best of the bunch. But even here, there are moments of arrogance, of the "Me me me!!" factor, of the mindset "my opinion is the right one, so go **** yourself...".

As far as I'm concerned, I'm not going to dictate to anyone what technology is the 'only one to consider'. I've already said, I choose the battery option because I think it's most suitable for me, and I'm happy to share my experience of the set I'm currently using, with others who may be thinking of going the same way. Others may prefer dynamo, OK. I'm not about to tell people "don't go dynamo because I don't like it". Nor should people be saying "don't go battery because dynamo is best...." At least, not unless the OP's question was "Battery or dynamo?"

Which it wasn't.
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
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Brucey
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Re: Commuting lights

Post by Brucey »

BrianFox wrote:
I do usually carry a battery light with me, but that is mainly so that I can find my bike, and in case of punctures etc


So yes, even if you do use your preferred option, you *still* need a backup of precisely the sort the OP asked for advice about in the first place...


well not really; I might carry a tiny torch in my pocket or something. I've never needed to use one as a bike light because a hub generator has failed , not in over 35 years...

I guess I've also done a comparable amount to you of commuting using battery lights (on gravel tracks; I needed more light than was available using a hub generator at that time). I could bore you with the multitudes of in-use failures I experienced (mostly with expensive kit... in the end I took to carrying "back-up back-ups" -if you see what I mean) but I won't.

I will say that I'm impressed that in five years you always managed to have charged batteries when you needed them; chapeau sir! -I've had chargers fail, batteries fail, I've forgotten to charge them, I've had other folk 'helpfully' unplug the charger ("was it important.... :shock: ?").... that kind of thing.... :roll:

BTW the OP did ask about backup lights and that is fair enough; but in a 'just started commuting' context not to mention
the possible benefits of hub generator lighting systems would perhaps be remiss. I don't think this is as strong an argument as for (say) questioning the premise of a similar enquiry concerning "what type of gun should I use to shoot myself in the head with?" but presumably there are some people who think that answers to such a question ought to be strictly confined to the subject in hand too... :wink:

cheers
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mjr
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Re: Commuting lights

Post by mjr »

pwa wrote:I bet they would go for 2 weeks with little dimming if the effort of putting the batteries into the charger on the garage wall seemed too much to contemplate. It takes about a minute to do.

Unattended battery charging? Do you feel lucky, punk?
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(source: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=89640 )
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Commuting lights

Post by [XAP]Bob »

661-Pete wrote:As far as I'm concerned, I'm not going to dictate to anyone what technology is the 'only one to consider'.
--8<--
At least, not unless the OP's question was "Battery or dynamo?"

Which it wasn't.


No, but if I asked you the best place to get square wheels I'd expect someone to suggest that round might be a better option for most people.

And actually the OP asked:
I need to replace these but what is worth getting?


Nothing in there specifies technology - but for quite a few people on here the advantages of a dynamo rig *for commuting* are both obvious and overwhelming.

There *are* decent battery lights I'm sure, but they all suffer from run time anxiety (as explicitly acknowledged by the OP) at some point.
Battery replacement ought to be considered as well (or the lights assumed to have a finite life of a few seasons).
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
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gaz
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Re: Commuting lights

Post by gaz »

[XAP]Bob wrote:...No, but if I asked you the best place to get square wheels I'd expect someone to suggest ...

Hengist Pod, wheelwright :wink: .
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661-Pete
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Re: Commuting lights

Post by 661-Pete »

mjr wrote:Unattended battery charging? Do you feel lucky, punk?
(source: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=89640 )

I didn't know about that, clearly I missed the thread from two years back :( .
Well, obviously that changes my advice about Cree, will have to look into that. And also re-visit the page on Amazon from where I bought the thing, see what the reviews say.
One option is to buy the light itself from Cree but the battery from Magicshine. The Magicshine battery is fully enclosed in an IP67-rated plastic case (which the Cree one isn't) and claims to have overload and short-circuit protection. You should certainly look for a CE mark.
Anyway first step is to place the battery under charge in something fireproof and close to a smoke detector. And no leaving on charge overnight or while out.
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
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661-Pete
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Re: Commuting lights

Post by 661-Pete »

gaz wrote:
[XAP]Bob wrote:...No, but if I asked you the best place to get square wheels I'd expect someone to suggest ...

Hengist Pod, wheelwright :wink: .

Actually, IIRC, the wheel 'invented' by the Golgafrinchams was hexagonal. And their main issue was with the colour....
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Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Commuting lights

Post by [XAP]Bob »

The book doesn't specify the shape, but yes - the colour was the contentious issue...
Can't tell you what was specified on the radio show - or what is considered canon.
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
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