dynamo lighting

Zebee Johnstone said:

Well right now I have a homebrew battery setup half made - the rest
will be done tonight once I have done this stuff work wants me to do.

1 55 watt, 1 10 watt. The 10 will be the usual one, the 55 will be
"high beam"....

A while with that and I'll have a much better idea of what I need.
And will probably go to dynamo if the battery gives me the [censored].

Major hassle I can see with dynamo is not having enough light after
playing withthat...

Are you planning to ride around the streets in town with that, or off-road
trails and country lanes?

If it's around town you're really going overkill. Even on quiet residential
streets there's enough ambient lighting from street lights, home lighting,
city light loom, etc, that a good 3W light should be quite OK. Your main
traffic concern is the rear anyway, and a couple of bright LED flashers and
well placed reflectors will set you up in that regard.

These super-duper batttery light sets are often poorly designed and actually
a hazard for other cyclists, especially on the bike paths. Think 'high-beam
blindness'. Proper bike lights for road use (eg. 3W dynamo lights) have
better optics that cuts out the high beam element. In the extreme case of a
55W light, do you really want to blind that car driver approaching you a
80kmh?

--
Cheers
Peter

~~~ ~ _@
~~ ~ _- \,
~~ (*)/ (*)

In aus.bicycle on Thu, 16 Mar 2006 00:30:54 +1100

Peter Signorini said:

Are you planning to ride around the streets in town with that, or off-road
trails and country lanes?

The main hassle is bike paths at night. Which, judging by the other
night, need serious lighting.

I suspect the lights I'm playing with at the moment don't have a good
lens, so I'll be checking out other people's dynamo lights as well to
see what they are like.

Quoted message said:

These super-duper batttery light sets are often poorly designed and actually
a hazard for other cyclists, especially on the bike paths. Think 'high-beam
blindness'. Proper bike lights for road use (eg. 3W dynamo lights) have
better optics that cuts out the high beam element. In the extreme case of a
55W light, do you really want to blind that car driver approaching you a
80kmh?

I'm unlikely to use it on the road, and I'd dim the light for an
approaching driver just as I would if on a motor vehicle. That's why
it is switched.

Zebee

On 2006-03-15, Peter Signorini (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

Are you planning to ride around the streets in town with that, or off-road
trails and country lanes?

If it's around town you're really going overkill.

Because you are better dark adapted when there are no street lights, I
would say it was overkill for unlit roads, but not on the streets.

I have often been jealous when a motorbike passes me, when I have my
15W blaring away. 15W is plenty to see obstacles closeby, but it's
not enough to see some potholes. It's also not bright enough in
bright shopping centres like bridge road, Richmond, where the general
din of lights makes yours fade into the background. That's precisely
the place where you want car drivers to see you before they see other
things, so they don't feel tempted to pull out in front of you from
that carpark while you are riding next to tram tracks.

Quoted message said:

Even on quiet residential
streets there's enough ambient lighting from street lights, home lighting,
city light loom, etc, that a good 3W light should be quite OK.

We evidentally disagree here. 3W is a great be seen light, but when
there is street lighting around and your dark adaption is destroyed,
3W has never, for me, lit the ground up any more than the street
lights have, which is of course, inadequate.

Quoted message said:

Your main
traffic concern is the rear anyway,

Eh? It's always been people turning in front of me, or pulling out in
front of me.

Quoted message said:

These super-duper batttery light sets are often poorly designed and actually
a hazard for other cyclists, especially on the bike paths. Think 'high-beam
blindness'. Proper bike lights for road use (eg. 3W dynamo lights) have
better optics that cuts out the high beam element. In the extreme case of a
55W light, do you really want to blind that car driver approaching you a
80kmh?

That's why high beam switches were invented, Peter.

--
TimC
Tim flies like an arrow -- Donald Weldh on RHOD

cogcontrol said:

Can you imagine how many people would drive a car if every time you
wanted to drive after dark, you had to carry a battery out to the car
to run the lights.

Why not mount it permanently.
If your a weight weenie, back/buy a bottle cage pack.
Otherwise a bit of ironstrappong and some bolts securely fastens it to
the rack.

Peter Signorini said:

Zebee Johnstone said:

Well right now I have a homebrew battery setup half made - the rest
will be done tonight once I have done this stuff work wants me to do.

1 55 watt, 1 10 watt. The 10 will be the usual one, the 55 will be
"high beam"....

A while with that and I'll have a much better idea of what I need.
And will probably go to dynamo if the battery gives me the [censored].

Major hassle I can see with dynamo is not having enough light after
playing withthat...

Are you planning to ride around the streets in town with that, or off-road
trails and country lanes?

If it's around town you're really going overkill. Even on quiet residential
streets there's enough ambient lighting from street lights, home lighting,
city light loom, etc, that a good 3W light should be quite OK. Your main
traffic concern is the rear anyway, and a couple of bright LED flashers and
well placed reflectors will set you up in that regard.

These super-duper batttery light sets are often poorly designed and actually
a hazard for other cyclists, especially on the bike paths. Think 'high-beam
blindness'. Proper bike lights for road use (eg. 3W dynamo lights) have
better optics that cuts out the high beam element. In the extreme case of a
55W light, do you really want to blind that car driver approaching you a
80kmh?

Why not? he blinds me with his 200 watts!