home built lights

[mikee]

just ride the trails you know gazz
they look completely different in the dark
brings a new dimension to them safer too

i always feel that the older halogen bulbs give a better light for night riding,
led's sort of shadow a lot more things, and although they pick things out
farther away ,i feel the pool of light is too harsh ,halogens give a yellower
light that i prefer .

battery life is well in favour for leds tho

 

[The Ken]

When night riding at tentsmuir (a flat forest) I like to go ahead of the group a bit and turn all the lights off, allowing my eyes to adjust - great feeling but there aren't many obstacles to throw me off.

I might have a go at this too.

 

[zigzag]

Glentress, the Friday night of our October meet. Spooky Woods + shonky lights + retro bikes = ?!?!?

Anybody got a link to this 5 quid light? I bought one of the dealextreme jobbies earlier in the year, but thinking some additional cheap lumens might no be a bad idea...

 

[velomaniac]

LGF linked it on his cheap lights thread in General Chat

As for night riding, I've now tried it at Strathpuffer Lite, scared the beejeezus oot of me. The smallest pebble produces a long dark shadow that makes you think is that only a shadow or a gaping bike swallowing hole, bike swallowing holes can seem as innocent as small pebbles :shock: :roll:

Night riding rerquires nerves of steel, reactions of a cobra and blind faith.

Think I'd mount a generator on the rack and a searchlight on the front if I rode offroad at night regularly

 

[zigzag]

LGF linked it on his cheap lights thread in General Chat

DOH! Cheers Velo, don't know how I missed that

Night riding rerquires nerves of steel, reactions of a cobra and blind faith.

Hmmm, this could end badly for me.

 

[GMC]

night riding

we do night rides at the Carron Valley during the winter months! always good fun! and in days gone by i used to do quite a bit og night biking at Mabie down in Dumfries.

All i use just now is HID type LED lights, 1 i got in decathlon and the other is just the same type of torch taped/zip tied to my bike helmet!!

But on the whole they provide enough light, and they weigh very little!! A vast improvement from days of old halfords torches with big massive batteries that added about 2 tonnes to your bike and gave you so little light from the crapy halogen bulbs!!!!

But night riding at Glentress would be mental! might still be up for it though!!

Greig.

 

[mikee]

finally got round to digging these out

made about 5 years ago
12v bulbs , the sort found in low volt house lights
14.4v ryobi batt drill cell ,with a plug in adaptor that fits as per the drill unit
so no re-wiring or cutting of casings ,utilises the charger as well
additional mount added to a stem
and a small bar mounted on/off switch
cnc'd casing and mount
the battery is small enough to fit in a seat bag and carry a spare one in a
camel back
run time 40mins charge time an hour tho new battery packs last 60 mins

just ordered some of the cheap ebay ones ,gonna take a set to bits and see
what i can do with them

 

[Enid_Puceflange]

Cool....

G

 

[dyna-ti]

Super duper excellent job and love the idea of utilizing a drill battery .

Im in the market for a new drill/driver and thought i could kill two birds with one stone,but couldnt think of a way of bridging it to the lamp .
The batteries i had in mind are for the newer bosch mini driver @10.8V Li-ion, only 1.3ah [about the same as the ryobi one you have there]but the big plus with them is they are only 3" long by about 1 1/4" thick,down side is you would have to find a busted driver to use its mount fittings and as its quite a new thing i doubt theres enough around yet.

I have the old nightsun team max lamp hoods and bar mounts but the lamp internals are gone,as is the wiring and switch,though the one that was there looked like a cheap replacement
Its always the lamp units themselves that are hard to come by.Ill have to creep through a maplin catalogue see if i can work it all out :?

I think using two irn-bru can haves,the lower end for strength and a bit of rigidity, side by side would make good hoods.

 

[The Ken]

We're using old L-ion laptop batteries for our construction.