Off road commuting

andy w said:

Early yet, as it's stil nice and light, but my new commute route is along the Leeds/liverpool
canal - lovely at this time of year - but I'm thinking what'll I do when it gets dark?

I have some cateye ABS 20 lights, which apparently give about 50 mins of light with both lights
on, and twice that with only the one. So - do i buy another battery at £20 or so as a spare, or is
off-road (even on quite a nice track) so slow as to make it unpleasant - so should i go for the
shorter, infinitely less pleasant, possibly more dangerous but much lighter run along the road?

Does anyone regularly ride along canal towpahs at night? This stretch has no roads anywhere near,
so there's no chance of even ambient street lights.

I have a hub dynamo on my Galaxy - not as bright as your ABS 20 lights, but no battery to forget
to charge.

Simon

"andy w" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Early yet, as it's stil nice and light, but my new commute route is along the Leeds/liverpool
canal - lovely at this time of year - but I'm thinking what'll I do when it gets dark?

I have some cateye ABS 20 lights, which apparently give about 50 mins of light with both lights
on, and twice that with only the one. So - do i

buy

Quoted message said:

another battery at £20 or so as a spare, or is off-road (even on quite a nice track) so slow as to
make it unpleasant - so should i go for the shorter, infinitely less pleasant, possibly more
dangerous but much

lighter

Quoted message said:

run along the road?

Does anyone regularly ride along canal towpahs at night? This stretch has

no

Quoted message said:

roads anywhere near, so there's no chance of even ambient street lights.

I used to ride part of the Lea towpath at night using a set of Smarts -- cheap, cheerful lead acid
based jobs.

I was doing this for fun and exercise in winter evenings. The path is pretty good -- though there
were always roots etc to avoid (and the odd fisherman!! -- very odd).

Basically, the more light you can put up the better. While you 'learn the route' and can slow down
to account for the lack of light more is certainly best.

Also, things go wrong (puncture fairy strikes for one).

And the character of the route can change with state of the moon, cloud and rain.

I would test out the staying power of your batteries. You may find they are not a full 50 minutes --
or that the life starts to reduce over the period of your commuting. Personally, I would go for a
larger battery to give you more time (rather than a 'spare'😉 and would seriously consider the fall
back -- be it dynamo, second light or whatever.

Have fun. Cycling along a towpath at night is magical.

T

On Thu, 7 Aug 2003 22:37:03 +0100, "andy w" <[email hidden]> wrote
(more or less):

Quoted message said:

Early yet, as it's stil nice and light, but my new commute route is along the Leeds/liverpool canal
- lovely at this time of year - but I'm thinking what'll I do when it gets dark?

I have some cateye ABS 20 lights, which apparently give about 50 mins of light with both lights on,
and twice that with only the one. So - do i buy another battery at £20 or so as a spare, or is
off-road (even on quite a nice track) so slow as to make it unpleasant - so should i go for the
shorter, infinitely less pleasant, possibly more dangerous but much lighter run along the road?

Does anyone regularly ride along canal towpahs at night? This stretch has no roads anywhere near,
so there's no chance of even ambient street lights.

ta

I sometimes cycle along the Union canal (Edinburgh) in the dark, and used a dynamo, plus a
frontlight that took AA batteries, as you can buy loads of these cheap, and be carrying charged
spares with you.

(There are loads of high-capacity NiMh rechargables available these days, plus 1 hour rechargers)

Cheers, Euan Gawnsoft: gawnsoft.co.srgawnsoft.co.srOpen ↗ Symbian/Epoc wiki: html.dnsalias.nethtml.dnsalias.netOpen ↗
Smalltalk links (harvested from comp.lang.smalltalk) html.dnsalias.netsmalltalkOpen ↗

In article <[email hidden]>, one of infinite monkeys at the keyboard of "andy w"

Quoted message said:

I have some cateye ABS 20 lights, which apparently give about 50 mins of light with both lights
on, and twice that with only the one. So - do i buy another battery at £20 or so as a spare, or is
off-road (even on quite a nice track) so slow as to make it unpleasant - so should i go for the
shorter, infinitely less pleasant, possibly more dangerous but much lighter run along the road?

Any time you have a clear night - moon or even sufficient stars - you may be OK on the towpath.

I do quite a lot of offroad riding in the dark, and I've yet to find a bike light that really helps.
They light the way forward, but they're no help with the peripheral vision that helps avoid sending
the front wheel straight into a boulder or down a hole. So basically my safe speed is determined by
the natural light, and sometimes under the trees it can be get-off-and-walk.

At least on a towpath you don't have hills to contend with! Downhill is painful if you need to keep
the speed down, while uphill enfeebles the dynamo lights somewhat. Not that I use the dynamo offroad
... I just thought it might indeed be sufficient on a towpath.

--
Axis of Evil: Whose economy needs ever more wars? Arms Exports $bn: USA 14.2, UK 5.1, vs France 1.5,
Germany 0.8 (The Economist, July 2002)

"Nick Kew" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>, one of infinite monkeys

Any time you have a clear night - moon or even sufficient stars - you may be OK on the towpath.

Wear your trunks ....

Quoted message said:

I do quite a lot of offroad riding in the dark, and I've yet to find a bike light that
really helps.

Lumicycle, but then you can't see the stars ... 🙂

"Tony W" <[email hidden]> wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

I used to ride part of the Lea towpath at night using a set of Smarts -- cheap, cheerful lead acid
based jobs.

This is the route my wife takes, also using a set of Smarts. She says the light is good enough, and
has had a couple of pedestrians tell her to dip her lights. [1]

Toby

[1] In a community spirit, we altered the angle after this to try and avoid the light going into
walker's faces. We did wonder if these weren't the same type of people [2] who'd also complain
loudly if the lights were not bright enough or non-existent.

[2] Moving further off-topic, a number of people seem to think cyclists aren't (or shouldn't be)
allowed on that path. My wife was informed by a work colleague (who claimed to be an avid
rambler and therefore in a position to know) that cycling was forbidden on that route. My wife
pointed out that the Sustrans milestone and little blue sign-posts with bicycles on them
indicated otherwise.

--
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"Toby Barrett" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

This is the route my wife takes, also using a set of Smarts. She says the light is good enough,
and has had a couple of pedestrians tell her to dip her lights. [1]

The main beam on my Smarts is a bit agressive. On road I find it easier to just put a hand over it
when there is an oncoming car. I would imaging a pedestrian would wonder what was coming at them --
a silent motorbike or an alien abduction!!

Quoted message said:

[1] In a community spirit, we altered the angle after this to try and avoid the light going into
walker's faces.

But this compromises the pool of light you throw out.

Quoted message said:

We did wonder if these weren't the same type of people [2] who'd also complain loudly if the
lights were not bright enough or non-existent.

Probably.

Quoted message said:

[2] Moving further off-topic, a number of people seem to think cyclists aren't (or shouldn't be)
allowed on that path. My wife was informed by a work colleague (who claimed to be an avid
rambler and therefore in a position to know) that cycling was forbidden on that route. My wife
pointed out that the Sustrans milestone and little blue sign-posts with bicycles on them
indicated otherwise.

Talk with the guy in Highway Cycles -- he is a volentary warden on the route -- sometimes seen
riding along it on his Brommie with some tools in hand.

I;ve had similar -- I pointed out my British Waterways Permit : )

Its a nice ride. Having moved to Northamptonshire (where the cycling is briliant) I can honestly say
that route is one I wish I could have bottled and brought with me -- there is so much going on on
the river.

T