The complete lighting system?

[Tim O'Neill]

Hey.

As a newbie road rider to night riding, I wanted to suggest what my
plans are for making the and wearing the following purchases:

CatEye 3 (on main stem)
NiteRider digital headtrip (on helmet)
NiteRider taillight (below seatpost)
CateEye taillight w/ clothing clip (on back of shirt)

Does anyone view this combination as being "complete"? I wanted some
input if some believe this is overkill (yes, I do anticipate the typical
response "oh, ambulance rides are expensive, nothing is overkill" thread),
or if there is a product that may be better in one or more categories... I
sort of think from what have been hearing from listees here is that this is
the ideal combination, although I'm not sure about the HeadTrip (I mainly
listed that as a convient package, since I intend to buy the battery for it
to power the taillight anyway). Also, is the difference between the digital
headtrip very big from the analog headtrip?

I live in a spawled part of a suburb, and intend to ride at night to
commute back from Boston using winding backroads, which is incredibly
dangerous. Right now I'm just entertaining the idea until I can justify
commuting at night over driving a car, which I'd like not to do. This will
be a once-in-a-while commute, so it's sort of just a good peace of mind for
me to know that I'll have a safe system if I ever want to ride at night.

Best,
Tim O'Neill
--
"The war isn't the war between the blacks and the whites, the
liberals and the conservatives, or the Federation and the
Romulans. It's between the clueful and the clueless." (an
anonymous poster on cyberpunks list)

[Alan Felsen]

Tim O'Neill wrote:
> NiteRider taillight (below seatpost)
> CateEye taillight w/ clothing clip (on back of shirt)

I would not recommend the CatEye light on the back of your shirt if it
is an LED light. LED's are bright over a fairly narrow angle. They
become almost useless if not pointed straight at the person you want to
be seen by. I would recommend mounting the CayEye in a different fixed
location on the bike, or using an amber Lightman strobe on your shirt.
(The strobe has a much wider angle of dispersion than LED's. Amber is a
good attention getting color and legal in most places)

Alan
Silver Spring, MD
http://recumbents.com/felsen

[ARM...@cs.com]

In a message dated 05/27/2000 1:18:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
ad...@tiac.net writes:

> Also, is the difference between the digital
> headtrip very big from the analog headtrip?

The Digital Headtrip is 15w. The analog Headtrip is 10w. That is a big
difference.

Andy Milstein

[Peter Jon White]

The Digital Headtrip can be either 10 or 15 watts, as can the analog
version. The heads are interchangeable. NiteRider makes them available both
ways.

At 12:07 PM 5/27/00 -0700, ARMil...@cs.com wrote:
>The Digital Headtrip is 15w. The analog Headtrip is 10w. That is a big
>difference.

Peter Jon White
Peter White Cycles
666 Mass Ave.
Acton, MA 01720
978 635 0969 Voice
978 929 9654 Fax
www.PeterWhiteCycles.com

[Jonathan Edelson]

At 10:18 AM 5/27/00 -0700, Tim O'Neill wrote:
>CatEye 3 (on main stem)
>NiteRider digital headtrip (on helmet)

>NiteRider taillight (below seatpost)
>CateEye taillight w/ clothing clip (on back of shirt)

Personal Opinion: I don't like the idea of a single battery going to both a
light on my body and a light on the bicycle; this implies a wire between
the bike and the person, one which is apt to be damaged (or damaging).

I'd also suggest looking at various reflective options; lights are
essential because they let you see, and let you be seen when headlights are
not striking you (eg. at intersections), but reflective stuff is very
helpful in making one visible to overtaking cars.

I know that you got one comment about the idea of a LED light on your shirt
rather than bike mounted. That comment was correct in that for maximum
brightness the light needs to be well aimed. I suspect that as the
_second_ light in a system, it is reasonable to have a poorly aimed light
which would be helpful when a car is overtaking. I'd suggest having a way
to mount it on the bike if your primary light fails. I will often ride
with a small Vistalite taillight on my helmet, but move it to my bike if
the primary taillight fails.

-Jon

[Baird Webel]

At 13:18 -0400 05/27/00, Tim O'Neill wrote:

> As a newbie road rider to night riding, I wanted to suggest what my
>plans are for making the and wearing the following purchases:
>

>CatEye 3 (on main stem)
>NiteRider digital headtrip (on helmet)
>NiteRider taillight (below seatpost)
>CateEye taillight w/ clothing clip (on back of shirt)
>

> Does anyone view this combination as being "complete"? I wanted some
>input if some believe this is overkill

I do not think this is overkill, what I would add is a reflective band
around your helmet and then clip a small LED light, Vistalite makes one
with 7 LEDs, but I forget the designation, to the back of this helmet. I
think the LED light higher on the helmet is fairly visible and a good idea.
I would probably add a reflective vest of some kind and also reflective
material either on your pedals or shoes.

My setup, which is not quite complete, will be the following next fall:

a cateye helmet mounted "double header" light that is both a 10w headlight
and LED taillight
two Vistalite 10W 500 series lighting heads
one NR 6V tailight tied into the VL battery seatpost mounted
one lumotec 3w headlight powered off a schmidt generator
two LED/reflector taillights powered of the same generator (one rack
mounted, one fender mounted)
One of the highway safety strobes (18LEDs) that was mentioned on this list
earlier, mounted to a behind the seat water bottle mount.
If I have room anywhere, I probably will toss on some other LED battery
powered taillights as well

For passive reflection, I wear a reflective vest and ankle bands and
basically am covering every possible part of the helmet, bike frame, and
the non-braking surfaces of the rims with reflective tape.

My commute is a mix of moderately lighted urban streets and unlit
bikepaths. I have a Cateye Stadium3, and was going to replace the
Vistalites with it, but after using it a couple of times, I thought that it
might really be going a little too far over the top.

Baird

__________________________________
Baird Webel
baird...@stanfordalumni.org
Washington, DC

[alex wetmore]

Additionally the 15w bulb really isn't hugely brighter then the 10w
bulb. It draws 50% more power, but it isn't 50% brighter. At least
this is my experience in comparing Vistalite 10W HOT bulbs and
Vistalite 15W HOT bulbs.

If it was my bike I would put a generator light on the handlebars
rather then a Cateye 3. This way you have a failsafe backup if you
forget to charge your batteries and don't think about it until it is
too late.

alex

[aukhawk]

alex wetmore <al...@phred.org> writes

>Additionally the 15w bulb really isn't hugely brighter then the 10w
>bulb. It draws 50% more power, but it isn't 50% brighter. At least
>this is my experience in comparing Vistalite 10W HOT bulbs and
>Vistalite 15W HOT bulbs.

Yes I'd agree with that - in these specific cases the 15W really adds
very little over the 10W.

I wouldn't consider any lighting rig complete without a white front LED
light - commercial ones are pretty good, I think the Cateye one is
better than the Knightlite - but it's easy to home-build something that
is heaps better.

My latest one, using 4 modern white leds, is easily bright enough to
ride by, at reasonable speed, on a dark road - but actually I use it
pointing straight ahead for visibility on lit roads.

Francis Cooke
--

Francis Cooke
Sheila Simpson
@aukhawk.demon.co.uk