Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 04:20:17 -0400 (EDT) From: Marty Goodman MD KC6YKC Subject: High Tech "Dream" Bike Lighting System Message-id: <01JFEK1SZ1I48X5QOP@delphi.com> High Tech "dream" Lighting Systems for Bicycles (that I customized for two local recumbent commuting riders) Recently I posted some info on a reasonably priced ($150 retail) quite decent commuter lighting system. Some folks felt a need for more light. Well, it just so happens that I just sold off a customized state of the art lighting system of mine. So here's what's at the VERY high end of the spread of bicycle lighting systems: ------------------------------------------------------------- The other day I sold off one of my spare CatEye Stadium lamp systems, and spent some time customizing some other lighting equipment, for a friend who rides an Easy Racer "Tour Easy" long wheelbase recumbent bike. This chap wished to have the brightest available headlamp and the best available tail light. I started with a stock old CatEye Stadium lamp system, which provides a 2.5+ amp hour 12 volt (30+ watt hour) NiCd battery pack that powers a lamp that draws about 20 watts and puts out light equivalent to a 60+ watt halogen lamp, via the use of an electronic ballast and plasma art metal halide lamp. I then modified the connectors between the battery and ballast, substituting 2 pin Molex connectors. I provided a second 30+ watt hour waterbottle battery pack that used the same connector, for a total run time on full brightness of about 2.25 hours, very conservatively. I modified a DeWalt power tool charger with a connector to fit the two battery packs, so that my friend now had a smart fast charger that could charge a fully discharged battery pack of the sort he got from me in about an hour, but to which a battery could be left connected indefinitely without harm. I then took his NiteRider 12 volt 15 LED tail lamp, added some cable to make it reach the rear mount area from the front of the long bike, and provided a "T adaptor" at the end of the NiteRider tail lamp cable so it could be simply plugged in line with the CatEye power cable. I also made a custom 16 ga power cable to go between the CatEye battery and ballast. The person I was doing this for was a friend, and I was anxious to sell off one of my spare Stadium lamps, so I offered him a very low price for the whole package, including the Stadium, spare battery, customized smart charger, and custom cabling: $540. Note that the retail price for a new stock (only one battery, no smart charger, no custom cables) CatEye Stadium lamp was around $425 when they were available. Note my friend provided the NiteRider 15 LED lamp... I merely customized its connectors. My friend now rides with a system very similar to that which Zach Kaplan uses on his commute Greenspeed Trike. The system I customized for Zach has all these features, with the addition of a Lightman xenon strobe used with the NiteRider tail lamp, with the Lightman strobe powered via a custom DC to DC converter off the main headlamp battery (instead of by two AA batteries, as is normally the case). Zach's system also is powered by a very high capacity 60 watt hour 12 volt battery pack that I made up custom for him. And (with some information worked out by Willie Hunt) I modified his Stadium ballast so that he has a high and a low beam setting for the Stadium, via a small switch I installed. Zach often pulls a Bob trailer, hauling stuff around for his business. He's outfitted the Bob trailer with similar tail lamps, which I arranged to easily connect or disconnect via Molex connectors that I installed. These are examples of two commuting riders of recumbent bicycles who have, with a little help and a modest amount of customization from me, installed on their bicycles what can truly be called state of the art lighting systems. Lighting systems that have a retail cost of $600 or more, even without the labor to customize them. Systems that are 3 times more efficient that the incandescent (halogen) lights typically used by most bikes and cars, and that put out about twice as much light as the very highest power non-halide bicycle lamps typically used, and 5 or 6 times as much light as most commonly used bicycle lights. To get a feeling about how bright a CatEye Stadium is, I compared it side by side to my car's ('87 Toyota Camry) headlamp. The Stadium was BRIGHTER and illuminated the road ahead BETTER than my Camry's headlamp on normal beam. When I went to high beam on the car, the car's headlamp was somewhat (tho not immensely) brighter than the Stadium lamp. And what am I going to do with the $540 that I just received? Well, in the next month or two I've reason to believe that not one, but TWO major lighting system producing companies will be coming out with new designs in plasma arc metal halide bicycle lamps. These will almost certainly retail for $400 to $500. So I'll be ready to check out the latest and greatest of the coming refinements in this technology. ---marty p.s. Note that on both the systems I described above, there is NO use WHAT SO EVER of incandescent lamps (halogen lamps are a kind of incandescent lamp)! Light is produced in ways that are physically very different (and more efficient): plasma arc, in the case of the head lamp, and solid state light emitting diodes, in the case of the tail lamp.