# Testing My homemade bike light!



## SimianSpeedster (Mar 13, 2008)

Well, Maybe home cobbled together is a better phrase. 
After a week of night rides with an el cheapo princeton tec light. I decided that a stronger light was in order if I wanted to continue my nightly ride. My decision was made for me when I "outran" my light going down hill and ran over a broken beer bottle. Luckily no ill came of this. Yaay kevlar weave tires! But it did Get me thinking I needed a real bike light. So off to nashbar.com I went only to see that a decent bike light is somewhere north of 100 bucks. 
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This light (the one on the left) on the other hand .. was 30 bucks and 20 minutes of my time. The light is a 115 lumen coleman from the local wally mart. Powered by 2 AA batterys supposedly good for 5 hours of lighting. the bracket is the backing off of a front bike reflector (I have a ton of them in a drawer) that the light is attached to with industrial outdoor foam tape, and 2 wire ties for good measure. 
Confident in my cobbeling skills I headed out for a night ride to take a few pics and fetch my wife something "chocolatey" 
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Edgar allen poe bust on the library of the local university.
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A local church that looked kinda pretty all lit up. 
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Wow that's a bright light  
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My bike back home safely in the basement with all the other bikes The blue schwinn in the background is going to be transformed into a "grocery getter" with a rack and panniers, fenders, and a few other accessories over the winter, and will likely get one of these cobbled lights as well. The skeeball table was my wife's present to me on our wedding, it is out of an old chuck E cheese. 
And the chocolate cake was delicious


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## Ivanhoe (Mar 21, 2008)

good job on the homemade light- you can get an inexpesive light holder here:

https://www.4sevens.com/index.php?cPath=92&osCsid=c37a88d5bf599229d4b547904a1d4a7f

two fish lock block

also many of the fenix lights will flat out blow you out of the water and won't break the bank

I am not afilliated with this co. bla bla but I do own several of their lights! and teh 4sevens
dealer is a great guy to work with.

Rod


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

Where is MY chocolate cake?

BTW yes, it is amazing how good a light you can cobble together for not much money now days.


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## SimianSpeedster (Mar 13, 2008)

*I knew it!*

I knew you'd be asking about the vittles. Realized I should have taken a shot of the food as is tradition with ride reports, but just plain forgot.


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## FatTireFred (Jan 31, 2005)

been wanting to try one of these mounts, looks like it would work for your AA too
http://www.niteize.com/productdetail.php?category_id=28&product_id=79

dealextreme also has tons of small bright led lights, many cheaper than $30


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## Slim Again Soon (Oct 25, 2005)

*Nice light, but ...*

.... how'd you get that chocolate cake home in one piece?


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## Slim Again Soon (Oct 25, 2005)

*And don't throw away those brackets*

I use recycled reflector brackets to mount stuff on my bike all the time.

Brackets and zip-ties --- a can-do combination!


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## SimianSpeedster (Mar 13, 2008)

*Very carefully*



Slim Again said:


> .... how'd you get that chocolate cake home in one piece?


 Very carefully, It was a "single serving slice" but in reality it was more than enough for 2 people .. so it sat in my backpack resting on my tripod and I took the smoothest possible route home. That said I did have to scrape all the frosting from the top of the container and reapply it. It wasn't pretty but was tasty. 

And I never throw away any bike parts .. have a ton of platform pedals and reflectors of all types, as well as most of my old innertubes. Ya knever know when you'll need a part


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## nepbug (Jun 6, 2006)

For $1.99 shipped to you, you can't beat this flashlight bike mount:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.792


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## FatTireFred (Jan 31, 2005)

nepbug said:


> For $1.99 shipped to you, you can't beat this flashlight bike mount:
> http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.792




the reviews aren't very encouraging...


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## SimianSpeedster (Mar 13, 2008)

*That's what I was thinking too*



FatTireFred said:


> the reviews aren't very encouraging...


That's what I was thinking too, Besides Even at $1.99 my light made up of bits of stuff from my "junk drawer" is still cheaper. Don't get any less expensive than free! And I'd actually feel confident enough in it to do some trail riding with it. not so with these cheapo mail order mounts


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## JohnnyTooBad (Apr 5, 2004)

I cobbled together a genuine Frankenlight a few years ago. There may still be pikters of it over on MTBR. Basically, it amounts to a 25w bulb from Performance, a QR mounting bracket from Perfomance, a small piece of 2" pvc, an on/off switch and a wire/connector from radioshack, and a $17 6v lead acid battery from the internet. the whole thing cost about $60, and it still functioning perfectly, about 5 years later. I mostly use it for MTBing. I made a battery cage out of aluminum, that mounts to the bottle cage braze-ons.


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## JCavilia (Sep 12, 2005)

*Battery tip*

Don't use throwaways. Get some NiMh AA's and a smart charger, and you can always have topped-up batteries and spares for cheap. Full charge on the batteries is important, because the LED brightness drops off a lot when the voltage drops a little as the battery goes down.

That looks like a pretty workable setup. I use something similar, except it's halogen incandescent (got it a couple years ago before the latest generation of bright LED's were widely available). It uses higher voltage (2 3.7v lithium ion batteries), and it burns up a bulb every 15-20 hours (which means I go through 2 or 3 each winter commuting season). The bulbs only cost about a two bucks, but after I go through my stash I'll probably update to LED.








https://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4133

I use a bracket that these folks sell. It's not quite as good as it looks. Goes on quick, and easily adjustable, but doesn't latch securely enough for me. But a couple of big rubber bands fix it up.
















https://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1993


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## bigbill (Feb 15, 2005)

When my NR HID finally goes, I will go with something LED. There are so many choices now including something homemade. My requirement is a 4 hour battery life.


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## Slim Again Soon (Oct 25, 2005)

*Great pix of Poe*

I made your photo of Poe my background on my computer screen ...

... nice shot.


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## FatTireFred (Jan 31, 2005)

JCavilia said:


> Don't use throwaways. Get some NiMh AA's and a smart charger, and you can always have topped-up batteries and spares for cheap. Full charge on the batteries is important, because the LED brightness drops off a lot when the voltage drops a little as the battery goes down.
> 
> That looks like a pretty workable setup. I use something similar, except it's halogen incandescent (got it a couple years ago before the latest generation of bright LED's were widely available). It uses higher voltage (2 3.7v lithium ion batteries), and it burns up a bulb every 15-20 hours (which means I go through 2 or 3 each winter commuting season). The bulbs only cost about a two bucks, but after I go through my stash I'll probably update to LED.
> 
> ...




newer LED lights- even flashlights- are digitally regulated for constant brightness, so the dimming effect does not occur


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## JCavilia (Sep 12, 2005)

FatTireFred said:


> newer LED lights- even flashlights- are digitally regulated for constant brightness, so the dimming effect does not occur


The good (expensive) ones are. Inexpensive ones, including the red blinkies of which I use many (and most bike rear lights for that matter), and lots of inexpensive flashlights, are not. Do you know whether the Coleman light used by the OP is voltage-regulated? If so, the feature is trickling down the price ladder nicely.

Rechargeables are still a good idea for the other reasons, obviously.


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