Conference noted::bicycle

    See also note 10.*

    
    Depends on how you plan to use the lighting.  Do you need:
    
     - security at high speeds (high light intensity)?
     - long life between recharges?
     - low weight?
     - low cost, period?
    
    If you are commuting, then the 2-4 capacity of gel-cells (say, a
    Brite-Lite or NightSun) will be adequate.  If you're randonneuring
    through the night and not screaming along, then a Union with a 6V
    lantern battery may be for you.
    
    I believe you said (in CYCLE_RACING) you wanted something brighter than 
    the Cateye Halogen.  The basic Union won't be brighter.  It will last
    longer with a lantern battery, and will fall in your price range.
    It is dependable enough if you wire it up very carefully and 
    methodically.  I used one with no problem on PBP, but in the past
    have come to grief if I mounted it more casually.
    
    Note: for PBP I used a Union for normal lighting (remember, I was
    cycling under a full moon in the country, often in the midst of
    other cyclists), with a Cateye Halogen as a "high beam" aimed such
    that the two beams overlapped.  This set-up worked fine.  It also
    came in under $50.
    
    If I needed raw intensity, I'd forget the $50, and go for:
    
    	- a NightSun (friends have them & like them, including
    	      RAAM-contenders and Charlie Lamb), or
    	- a Brite-Lite, or
    	- a Turbo-Cateye.
    
    Not the final word, just some thoughts...
    
    -john
    

    I've got a souped-up Union halogen system.  Used a 6 volt 4 amp-hour
    Gel Cell and changed the bulb.  The Union comes with a feeble 2 watt
    bulb; you can get a 5 watt bulb that just drops right in.  Will give
    you the part number if you want.  I've also mounted the light on my
    helmet - it's much more useful there than on the stem, even if its
    weight and the dangling wire are a nusiance.  The trick is that you can
    aim the light right into the eyes of  oncoming threats.  It's bright
    enough to make them switch to low beam.  The same trick also earns you
    a little bit of respect at intersections.  And you can aim the light to
    illuminate sharp corners, potholes and such.  In 20 years of night
    riding, it's the best lighting system I've come up with.
    
    Rick
    

    re:.3 "And you can aim the light to illuminate sharp corners, potholes and such"
    
    Really?  The biggest complaint I've seen relative to helmet mounted
    systems is the lack of shadows so you can't pick out the potholes
    when they are in front of you.
    
    ed

    
    Yes, I've heard Ed's complaint, too, about helmet-mounted lights.
    They may have a benefit looking around upcoming curves.  And on PBP
    some people used them for picking out the route-markers, which were
    placards mounted "somewhere" near the roadway at intersections.
    
    But it would seem to me that pointing a helmet light where you are
    "looking" doesn't always let you see what you need to ... e.g., the
    immediately upcoming roadway.  Your field of vision is much larger
    than a headlamp's coverage.  When you glance momentarily up toward
    traffic, your peripheral vision can still keep track of the road
    surface, if it's lighted, which it probably won't be when you glance
    up with a helmet lamp.
    
    So of course the best-of-all answer is to carry both. If I had to choose
    between one or the other, I'd go with the bike-mounted light, though.
    
    -john

Yeah, I agree fully with Ed and John Lee that the ideal is to have both a
helmet mounted and a bike mounted light. That is why I said I have both in note
3. That way one can give a general illumination to the road, but also you can
fill in as necessary with the mobile one. There is no doubt that the lower the
light is, the better it will show up a hole in the road. But, against that, a
higher one will allow you to see into that same hole better.

I have found a big limitation is that trying to get reasonably priced bike
lights is not possible. I paid �25 for my helmet mounted light and �10 for my
handlebar one. They may not be good enough for tearing down a single track on a
moonless night at 30 kph, but they'll do for around town commuting and a bit of
slower off road riding. The trouble is moving up to the Velolux or NightSun
systems is around �150-200 here and that seems excessive.

On that issue, does anyone have any input into the relative merits of Velolux
and NightSun? I have heard a lot of comment about their relative customer
relations merits. Unfortunately, Velolux doesn't seem to be imported into the
U.K. I would be very interested in knowing if anyone here has tried out either.

Tim

Can't help you with actual experience, Tim, but the most recent "New Cyclist"
had a big feature on lighting. It included Nightsun but not Velolux - logical
if you say the latter isn't imported to the UK.


Rod

I have an issue from Bicycling 11/89 magazine with a section on lighting.

Here is what they said about VELO-LUX

(Remember it's a couple years ago when they worte this.)

Velo-Lux ($100 with charger and tail light.)

This model is unique because of its large square lamp with internal batteries, a striped
rectangular lens, and curved rectangular reflector. The nickle cadium battery is in the 
bottom of the plastic light housing. The switch is on the back, along with plugs for the
charger and taillight wire.

Velo-Lux uses a stainless steel bracket that attaches to the stem with two screws and wing
nuts. There are no wires unless you use a taillight. once the bracket is in place the 
light can be removed in seconds.

True to its shape, lens pattern and reflector, the Velo-Lux throws a beam unlike that of
other lights tested. Curved stripes of light fill the area just in front of the bike
and a long, bright beam floods the road ahead. With it we were able to descend faster 
than with all the other lights except Nightsun Team Issue ($195).

Velo-Lux
802 Northport Dr., Ste. 1
W. Sacramento, CA 95691

Weight 		1.6 lbs
battery		6volt Nickel Cadium
Charge time	10-14hr
light duration	2hr
max speed	33mpr


Hope this helps. 

    
    And the latest issue of Bicycling (January, 1992) has an article
    on light-weight lights.
    
    -john

The clocks have changed and it is now dark at 5:00pm. Time to put a light on 
the bike. 

I ride the 2 miles to work and back and get my real riding done at lunch. I
try to leave the one car with my wife as much as possible, so putting the bike 
in the car to get it to work is out. This means riding home the 2 miles in the
dark is now an issue that I need address.

The small lights such as Cateye and now Specialized and Vistalite have out don't 
really seem to light up the ground but make motorist know your there.

Performance came out with a new 15 watt light for $69.95 called Radius L15. 
It doesn't come with a tail light but I have a Vistalite for the tail light
already. Has anyone tried the LS15 yet?

I talked with someone that bought the Performance 10 watt system (Radius Plus) 
and he found it worked petty good. It has a tail light and cost $89.95.

How about home made? What was the cost and would you do it again?

Tom

    re: homemade... curious if anybody has tried to take advantage of the
    new notebook PC battery packs too; esp Nickel Hydride.
    
    (p.s. I realize most of the gains in notebook battery life have been in
    the 3.3v part area, but bateries have been getting better too)
    Kratz

    Tom,
    
     I ordered the Vistalight VL430 from Performance last night. I should
    get it in today or tomorrow. I will then give a first person account of
    this light for deep woods nite ATBing. 
    
     I also looked at (in the catalogue) the Radius lighting system. The
    mount didn't look ridged enough for off-road bouncing. I didn't want
    the light rebounding from every root and rock. I also prefered the 2
    light bulb system...if one fails I still have the other and won't need
    a seeing eye dog to get home.
    
     Regarding Performance's 100% satisfaction guarantee, Is this only a 30
    day guarantee or is theirs forever?
    
    Regs,
     PM

    Folks,
    
     The results are in. I installed the Vistalight VL430 in about 8 mins,
    I then read the directions to ensure I did it correctly. I then plugged
    in the charger for the initial 16hr charge before the first use. The
    next nite all systems were go, nearly a full moon (just in case) very
    cold ~30 F. Put on my long undies, 2 sweatshirts, wool shirt, helmet
    liner and wool gloves. I felt like I could hardly move with so much
    stuff on, but I thought I'd rather be warm than cold. 
    
     I fired up both lights in the yard and thought that they weren't
    really that bright, that is untill I got to where it was really dark.
    These little lights produce allmost as much light as a motorcycle does
    on low beam.
    
     I headed out into the woods and choose to take the cart road over the
    single track for the first section. These lights work REAL WELL, the
    twin beams can be focused for wide or narrow and adjusted with an
    overlap that virtually eliminates the light bulb induced dark areas.
    Riding down the cart road, the light shines far enough ahead to go
    allmost as fast as you want. I did a few small jumps over some rocks
    and the lights stayed in their positions with no rattle from the
    battery pack. So far I really like this, so off to the single track.
    The single track was hard to find because the lights shine mainly in
    front of you with some peripheral lighting. I knew where it was but
    somehow everything looks just a bit different at night. up the single
    track I go, it's a steep climb for about 300 yards and on a good day I
    can make it up to some loose rocks (~200 yrds) but this time I seemed
    to be out of sorts and the first rock I hit knocked me out of balance.
    Then it came to me, you use your eyes alot to help with balance and
    with the lack of peripheral vision it's different! I walked up past the
    loose stuff and re-mounted. This section of single track is in an oak
    grove with large leaveless trees, the lighting was nearly perfect! I
    could see all the rocks and roots well ahead of me, in fact I could see
    good enough to let the bike run out down the backside of the ridge to
    the old rail bed. I rode for over an hour with no apreciative(sp?)
    difference in the lighting output. It will take some time to get used
    to the different balance inputs, but I was out and riding instead of
    watching the tube at home.
    
     I've been out twice at night so far and have enjoyed it very much. I'm
    planning on hitting the Quabbin some night soon to see if I can see
    some wildlife. I did see some spooky green eyes staring at me the first
    nite out..%^0>
    
     All things considered, the light works very well, I don't "FEEL" it at
    all, though the lights are very light the battery pack does have some
    heft to it. I WOULD reconmend this light to anyone that wants to ride
    at night on or off road. I road on-road a mile or two and felt that it
    wiould work well at speed on my road bike as well.
    
     Lets see, 2 times out at $50 for each ride, 3 time at $33, 4 times at
    $25....
    
    Regs,
     Paul

I tried my single beam last night after work for a short ride. I was riding on 
trails that I hadn't been on before and found a lot of dead ends. Actually I
thought the trail continued just on the other side of the picker bushes more 
than once. Ouch!. I was pleased with the 6 watt lights performance. I would 
love to upgrade the system with the extra 10 watt light but all that would save 
me is the adjusting that I was doing to the light as I rode. On slow single 
track I was adjusting the beam so it was wide. I wasn't riding very fast so I 
didn't need to see far. I would adjust the beam to its narrow position on fast 
down hills. 

I have noticed that the darker it gets the better the light works to show 
contrasting surfaces. It was harder to see during twilight than after it got 
fully dark. Off road the light shines on things that reflect light better than 
black pavement. Nothing is worse than riding at night on the road with a thin 
film of water on the road surface to reduce any light reflecting back to you.

I'm interested in trying the 10 watt bulb in my light. The run time is cut down 
to an hour and a half but thats more than enough time for me.

Tom

    It's that time of year again and I'm thinking about spending the big
    bucks on a lighting system so I can continue my Tuesday/Thursday off
    road rides.  I'm looking at Night Sun and Night Rider.  Anyone have
    experience with these?  I get a different story on them everytime I go
    into a bike shop.  It looks like a toss up between the two.  Any input
    appreciated.
    
    Don

 I looked at both Night Sun and NiteRider and bought NiteRider, the
 top of the line.  It has a 12 W spot and 20 W flood that can be
 operated either or both.  I have the "premium" battery that gives 
 3 hr on the 12 W, 1 hr 45 min on the 20 W, and 1 hr on both.  It is a
 watertight unit derived from a SCUBA light.  Night Sun did not at the
 time offer the either-lamp feature and did not have as high a
 capacity battery.  There is a new high power unit out from Night
 Sun that I have not taken a look at.
 
 I ride with the lights mainly off-road and wanted a light that stands
 up to shock, they do.  When riding along roads on the way to the
 trails I have had cars flash their lights at me when I was running on
 the 12 W.  A friend bought Night Sun and has had the bracket break
 twice while commuting, road riding.

    I bought the NightRider (It's at Marlboro Bicycle - have to pick
    it up)... I went with because of all the things I'd heard about
    the system...

 I didn't know the Niterider came in titanium.

     Special Order... :-)