Front lights

[mattr]

Re: Re:

But at least they were easier to mount on your bike.

? Position light.
Do up clamp.
Switch light on.

Unless you have an external battery, that adds all of 15 seconds to installation time

 

[Neil]

Re: Re:

But at least they were easier to mount on your bike.

? Position light.
Do up clamp.
Switch light on.

Unless you have an external battery, that adds all of 15 seconds to installation time

I meant in relation to the lights that preceded them.

 

[mattr]

Re: Re:

I meant in relation to the lights that preceded them.

position light
Do up clamp
Switch on light.
Swear.
Jiggle switch.
Change batteries.
Jiggle switch.
Realise it's actually on
Watch as cheap plastic clamp allows light to slowly point at floor...........

 

[xerxes]

Re:

position light
Do up clamp
Switch on light.
Swear.
Jiggle switch.
Change batteries.
Jiggle switch.
Realise it's actually on
Watch as cheap plastic clamp allows light to slowly point at floor...........

Ah, it's all coming flooding back...

Actually, we found a pretty good cure for the clamps not holding; we would stretch an old piece of inner tube over the ball part of the bracket and wrap a length of inner tube around the handlebars where the clamp went as well.

Sadly, there wasn't such an easy cure for the dismal light output and pathetic run times.

 

[Neil]

Re: Re:

position light
Do up clamp
Switch on light.
Swear.
Jiggle switch.
Change batteries.
Jiggle switch.
Realise it's actually on
Watch as cheap plastic clamp allows light to slowly point at floor...........

Ah, it's all coming flooding back...

Actually, we found a pretty good cure for the clamps not holding; we would stretch an old piece of inner tube over the ball part of the bracket and wrap a length of inner tube around the handlebars where the clamp went as well.

Sadly, there wasn't such an easy cure for the dismal light output and pathetic run times.

Get outta my head!

I did the inner tube thing, too.

Lights were pretty much all crap, back then, really. If you did a lot of cycling at night or in winter, then I used a dynamo - never bothered with those posh ones that had a battery backup.

What was good about these - perhaps the only good thing, was how easily they could be mounted. It was only if they were mounted on handlebars they'd droop, and if so, a bit of handlebar tape or inner-tube would cure that. Sure the output was crap, the batteries awkward to get hold of, but they were much more flexible than most that preceded them, plus they were easily removed when locking your bike up.

'cos clearly, being such awesome lights, they were at great risk of being nicked...

 

[watcyc]

don't forget how brittle the plastic mount was, if your bike got knocked over is was most likely snapped off.