On the ride in
to work the other day, it occurred to me that between Pete and I, we have quite
a bit of knowledge of bicycle commuting.
I thought “Wouldn’t it be great to share this knowledge with our friends
and customers?” mentally patting myself on the back. As I proposed the idea to Jan she replied
“Oh, yeah, I saw you riding home the other night, and your taillight wasn’t
doing anything (woops!)”. Seems the
batteries were on their way out, and the light was quickly dimming after start
up.
The three
tenants of bicycle commuting are:
·
get
from point A to B in a timely fashion
·
obey
the law
·
And
not get dead!
Having a dying taillight potentially violates all three of
them.
I changed my
batteries and decided I needed a better solution.
We just got
(more of) the better solution into the shop on Wednesday, the Nite Rider Solas.
A 2 watt, USB rechargeable taillight.
Ah, that’s 2
freakin’ watts!
The best replaceable battery taillights are .5
watts.
The
difference is amazing. Testing it out
behind the shop, it illuminated a good 15 to 20 feet behind my bike. Not just
visible, but actually lighting up space.
A quick glance behind me on an unlit road revealed a reassuring bright glow
cast on the pavement.
Being
rechargeable, I no longer have to worry about replacing the batteries before
they are a mere façade of safety. On the
standard 1st flash setting it has a 18 hour run time; on the
brighter 2nd flash setting 7 hours.
Once a week charging should give me a sufficient buffer zone to not have
to worry about it running low.
Paired with
the Solas is the Nite Rider Lumina 650 headlight. Also a USB rechargeable light. It offers 4 light levels from walking to 650
lumens, as well as a flash setting.
When I first
got it, my ride home would start before it was dark, and I would progressively
toggle through the settings as it got darker.
Since the end of DST it goes right to high. At 650 lumens it is more than adequate for me
on even the darkest unlit roads and has a 1.5 hour run time (up to 18 hours on
the walk setting), which is more than enough time to get me home safely. I run it on my handlebar, but it also comes
with a helmet mount which Pete uses (I think he just doesn’t want to mess with
the aesthetics of his Pinarello).
So now I’m
safe, next we’ll talk about staying comfortable in the coming Winter months.
2 comments:
One of the major issues I have with lights is that you get what you pay for. I'm alright I reckon, for the most part, as I don't do trails and my cycling is mostly done in well lit streets of the 'deen. So I'm more interested in getting noticed as seeing what's infront of me is all ready taken care of. A couple of sets of £10-20 lights does me fine. But the thought of forking out £30+ for one set of lights does chill me slightly.
Mx
Check out this light my commuting crew and I have been using for the last couple of years. It is a little expensive but worth while. We use it day and night-
http://store.dinottelighting.com/300r-red-taillight-with-built-in-battery-p111.aspx
Evan
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