Bike lights
4 December 2025 12:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeMy front bike light started reporting low charge and then went out altogether on my way home tonight, although it can't have been on for more than a couple of hours; most USB-charged lights are normally rated for at least three hours on maximum beam, and for what I knew was going to be a long journey I was deliberately using this one on what should have been its lowest power consumption, the slow flash mode :-(
I was wearing reflective arm- and leg-bands and a reflective vest, and the red rear light (which consumes far less power than a bright blue/white LED) was fine, so since I was riding on well-lit main roads my only real concern was being stopped by the police for not having a roadworthy vehicle... and, of course, being hit by someone turning right across my path or deciding to do an overtake-and-left-hook from behind and doing a standard "Sorry, mate, I didn't see you". (Both of these did in fact happen, but they tend to happen anyway...)
After about fifteen minutes with no front light at all I managed to coax enough juice out of it to do the remaining half hour on the lowest possible steady beam of nominal legality (i.e. you are displaying a visible light). Theoretically this uses more power than the flash modes, but having got it to come on and stay on, albeit while displaying a 'warning: low charge' light all the time, I didn't dare fiddle with it any further. The wisdom of this was demonstrated when, after arriving safely back at my front door, I tested to see whether I could get it to switch modes and was unable to get it to come on at all for more than a second or so before shutting down -- I think part of the problem is that it always comes on at the brightest possible setting to start off with and has to be repeatedly adjusted downwards from there, so if it doesn't have enough power to sustain the initial setting you're pretty much done for :-(
So whether the low level steady beam actually requires less power overall than the bright flashes I still don't know. But if I can't rely on the lights to run for more than an hour and a half, then my journeys at this time of year are going to be extremely limited :-(
This is the trouble with getting a second-hand bike with second-hand equipment; everything is already wearing out. I know I need a new rear tyre because the current one has no tread left to speak of; the pinger-bell is not working properly; one pedal seems to be wobbly; the gear train overall feels a bit rough, no matter where I oil it; a mysterious spring-like piece of metal came out (I assume) of the front luggage mount and had to be pressed back in; the seat-post keeps slipping -- overall it needs a heavy general overhaul and probably several hundred pounds worth of work, and the money might possibly better be spent on saving up to buy an actual brand-new bicycle that would last longer. The trouble is that they don't actually make this model any more, which was one reason, apart from the cost, that I went second-hand in the first place...
A new front light on its own will probably cost £50 or so, but I can't go through the winter without a front light :-(
I was wearing reflective arm- and leg-bands and a reflective vest, and the red rear light (which consumes far less power than a bright blue/white LED) was fine, so since I was riding on well-lit main roads my only real concern was being stopped by the police for not having a roadworthy vehicle... and, of course, being hit by someone turning right across my path or deciding to do an overtake-and-left-hook from behind and doing a standard "Sorry, mate, I didn't see you". (Both of these did in fact happen, but they tend to happen anyway...)
After about fifteen minutes with no front light at all I managed to coax enough juice out of it to do the remaining half hour on the lowest possible steady beam of nominal legality (i.e. you are displaying a visible light). Theoretically this uses more power than the flash modes, but having got it to come on and stay on, albeit while displaying a 'warning: low charge' light all the time, I didn't dare fiddle with it any further. The wisdom of this was demonstrated when, after arriving safely back at my front door, I tested to see whether I could get it to switch modes and was unable to get it to come on at all for more than a second or so before shutting down -- I think part of the problem is that it always comes on at the brightest possible setting to start off with and has to be repeatedly adjusted downwards from there, so if it doesn't have enough power to sustain the initial setting you're pretty much done for :-(
So whether the low level steady beam actually requires less power overall than the bright flashes I still don't know. But if I can't rely on the lights to run for more than an hour and a half, then my journeys at this time of year are going to be extremely limited :-(
This is the trouble with getting a second-hand bike with second-hand equipment; everything is already wearing out. I know I need a new rear tyre because the current one has no tread left to speak of; the pinger-bell is not working properly; one pedal seems to be wobbly; the gear train overall feels a bit rough, no matter where I oil it; a mysterious spring-like piece of metal came out (I assume) of the front luggage mount and had to be pressed back in; the seat-post keeps slipping -- overall it needs a heavy general overhaul and probably several hundred pounds worth of work, and the money might possibly better be spent on saving up to buy an actual brand-new bicycle that would last longer. The trouble is that they don't actually make this model any more, which was one reason, apart from the cost, that I went second-hand in the first place...
A new front light on its own will probably cost £50 or so, but I can't go through the winter without a front light :-(
no subject
Date: 2025-12-04 09:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-04 10:12 am (UTC)But as the bicycle is my primary means of transport I need to invest in it from time to time in order to travel 'for free'.
(The lost cycling gloves had cost me forty pounds to buy -- it was birthday money, which was one reason I was annoyed at losing them...)