Lighten Up
Fotag writes of bike lights and his irritation with riders who won't use them. I concur with his assessment of the rear lights. The Blackburn Mars 3.0 is handy, clips on the back of my Bell Metro, and is visible from a number or angles and relatively cheap.
I haven't used a front light that satisfies me yet. Riding in the city, I simply need a "be seen" light most of the time with all the streetlights. I'm intrigued by the Schmidt and Shimano generator lights.
I currently using on my fixed-gear Stella a set of Reelights from Jim at Hiawatha Cyclery. Not that bright, but reliable and no batteries to and no stuff to remember. Just saddle up and ride. The lights are there.
posted by KCJeff @ 9:07 AM
1 Comments:
I really liked my sidewall generator setup while I was using it. But I had one too many times the generator stop working in the rain and/or have mechanical problems of various types.
For a commuter setup were you are not obsessed with absolute speed a shimano hub generator seems ideal. It's not that expensive (the Schmidt by contrast is really quite expensive) and, people say, quite reliable.
The only problem is you generally have to order one from somewhere since local shops don't tend to carry them, and then have a wheel built up special.
I found the amount of light from the sidewall generator to be really quite sufficient. The hub generators put out about the same amount of power so the light will be about the same.
I'd suggest also using some kind of a simple battery powered led front light (like what you are using now) in addition to the generator light, for additional visibility and (more important) as backup.
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