I love my geek.

[42itous]

He's building a light system for his bike. This has involved countless trips to hardware stores, online purchase of battery and light bulbs, dissection of storebought electrical cables, purchase of a Dremmel and a soldering iron (useful things to have around the house, no?)... He's in the home stretch of wiring before he can attach the thing to his bike. He searched everywhere for a box of the right size and shape to house the battery and aim the rear blinky light. He sacrificed a wooden ruler because it's just the right shape for mounting the two headlights. I'm impressed with his perseverence. All this so he can continue to make the 20-mile roundtrip to work even as the year gets colder (and darker).

Comments

[xuth.livejournal.com]

Hey... I'd like to see it. I'm still in the contemplative stages for lights for my bike.

I'm wondering how much pain it would be to build appropriate housings for a small compact fluorescent bulb and an inverter to give myself 120v to power the thing.

The other option that I think would be really neat if I can pull it off would be a carbide lamp. I just think it would be cool (well, burning acetylene is a bit warm but you know what I mean).

I'm only doing about 9 miles each day but I'm going to be moving soon (haven't figured out where yet) and that's probably going to add another 2-5 miles each way for me.

[majordomo.livejournal.com]

What I built is a small adaptation of the suggestions from the "Nordic Group" bike lighting page (http://www.nordicgroup.us/s78/). The front lights are a pair of 14W, 12V halogen sealed beams, and the rear light is an amber Xenon strobe (about 1W, also 12V). It's going to get its first night-ride test this evening when I head home from work.

I considered an HID lamp, but those are really expensive. I didn't think to try a compact fluorescent; I didn't even realize there were CFs with the sort of optics you'd want for a headlight. (Then again, mine aren't exactly optimal.) I look forward to seeing what you come up with; I'm sure it won't be long before my shoddy workmanship falls into a pile of broken parts and I'm ready to incorporate new ideas into Version 2.0(beta). ;)