Full moon ride

[TML]

Went out last night for a little spin about the neighborhood. What a great night! There was definitely a fall nip to the crisp air. I tooled on down though a couple of streets then hit the Sucker lake trail. The moon was amazingly bright and you could, for the most part, navigate without a light on the paths. I turned mine on though shortly after being startled by two deer that bolted after I practically rode into them. I don't know which of the three of us was more suprised by the incedent. :crazy: I then stopped for a while on a bridge that crosses over the creek between Sucker and Vadnais lake. The moonlit fog rising off the surface of the water was amazing. Kinda eerie, but a very cool effect. I did a little more riding, checked out a bike that was in someone's garbage pile, then headed for home. A great night for a little ride. Should be another good one tonight. Get on out!

[Trevize1138]

I was riding at Leb last night with lights. Ran into a guy named Greg and then our very own Ken Yakonovich! Man, what a beautiful night for a ride :). Only trouble with Leb, of course, is there are so many dang trees that the moon doesn't help at all, so you still need lights to see.

[gopherhockey]

I thought someone was posting that they were riding without pants... thank God it wasn't true. (or at least anyone would admit it anyway...)

http://ronslog.typepad.com/ronslog/images/ridedraw.gif

[KleinCrazy]

I was riding at Leb last night with lights. Ran into a guy named Greg and then our very own Ken Yakonovich! Man, what a beautiful night for a ride :). Only trouble with Leb, of course, is there are so many dang trees that the moon doesn't help at all, so you still need lights to see.
You should have ridden Salem Hills Last night, only needed the light in the tree's and oh how beautiful it was!!!

[TML]

I thought someone was posting that they were riding without pants... thank God it wasn't true. (or at least anyone would admit it anyway...)

http://ronslog.typepad.com/ronslog/images/ridedraw.gif

How'd you know I didn't have any pants on?? I thought I was the only one out there! :shocked:

[TML]

You should have ridden Salem Hills Last night, only needed the light in the tree's and oh how beautiful it was!!!
James,

I rode Salem last night. Wanted to give ya a call, but when I found out I could go I didn't have a phone. It was another great night for a ride. Salem is riding really nicely! We just need to get some more people riding out there. I think I like counter-clockwise the best.

[bigwheel]

After two nights riding with under-powered lights (and being a cheapscate), I finally started working on my homebrew handlebar light. I hope to debut the prototype at Buck Hill on Saturday night.

The whole project looks like it will be fairly cheap, with the light housing roughly based on http://www.rf.org/farmers/aa4hs/bikelight/

At Home Depot, you can get a 12v 20-watt MR-16 15-degree light, plus the handy PVC fittings, and a couple pipe brackets that will be wonderful for mounting on your handlebars.

From what I have read and verified, you can get a *lot* more light out of these suckers by overvoltage. There is a nice graph at http://www.myra-simon.com/bike/lights.html#overvolting

With a 20% overvoltage (14.4volts), it looks like you can get a halogen light on par with HID efficiency, although, you will lose 90% of the bulb life. However, with a 5000 hour rated bulb life and a $5 replacement cost, I'm willing to take the chance. If it dies on the trail, I can get back with my helmet light.

I plan to build a dimmer/regulator circuit later, but will probably just use brute force for the first prototype. It's doubtful that I will have overvoltage working right by Saturday. I'm having problems with the load pulling the battery voltage down when running, so it's difficult to walk the fine line of having lots of light without popping the bulb. For now, I might just run over to ax-man, and pick up a 12v sealed lead-acid brick. (I'm already slow on the uphills, so a few extra pounds won't matter much.)

We'll see.

[robc]

I am also working on getting my homebrew setup going. I started with the PVC fitting based lights with mr16s and they are solid. I was using a 7ah 12V brick as well. (Got mine at the hobby store for $18). Lots of run time, and the weight is OK in the camelbak for helmet lamp.

Next step is the bar light, and I don't want to try to strap a 6lb brick to the frame, so I just finished a NIMH water bottle battery. Went 13.2 volts and that seems to be WAY brighter than my 12V before. I used 11 C size 4500Mah cells from Batteryspace.com (with the solder tabs) at about $3.30 a piece. Add some shrinkwrap and shove into the bottle. Good to go. Was way easier than I was afraid of.

For the light heads, I ran across a site that described using landscape lights for the heads and this works slick! I got the Malibu LT9 lights from Menards and just removed the little halogen bulb and shoved in a 20W Mr11 bulb, which fits perfecty. The housing has a built in glass cover which is nice. Just had cut off the flange on the front with a dremel. These cost $8 a piece and the bulbs are $4. These heads are about 2/3 the size and weight of the PVC Mr16 heads and look a little nicer too.

I could post/email pics of the light head and/or battery building steps if anyone is interested. I'll be building a second light head and one or 2 more batteries, so I can take pics along the way if it helps anyone out. I just need to figure out a good mounting strategy for the handlebars now. Anyone have ideas of mounts that could be adapted to a light head? It would be nice to have a mount that is fairly quick release.

Peace out,
Rob

[bigwheel]

Cool! If you are at Buck Hill on Saturday, we can check them out on the group ride.

Based on the USHIO spec sheets, the narrow-beam MR-16 lights put out about twice the amount of light as the equivalent MR-11's (my store-bought bike lights). I think the bigger reflector makes a huge difference.

The MR-16 light that I bought came with a built-in glass cover. All I did was pick up a PVC pipe connector (the kind with screw ends on both sides), cut the rubber gasket in half, cut the pipe in half, and grind out the hole a little bit. I'll check out the malibu lights again, but yesterday, I didn't see anything that looked like it could stand up to MTB abuse like the PVC. I also just soldered the wires directly to the bulb, cause I was afraid that any kind of socket would fall off.

For handlebar mounts, you might want to check out the copper-coated straps used for hanging pipes. The half-inch ones will fit nicely on the bars. I picked up a couple of them, and made a nice mount. I also soldered the straps better using a propane torch. (I don't trust their spot welds).

I originally planned on using alkalines for Saturday, but concluded that alkalines suck. Based on the duracell tech notes http://www.duracell.com/oem/Pdf/others/TECHBULL.pdf NiMH batteries are way better, especially when running at high loads. I think I can scare up a dozen AA's from around the house to try it out. I haven't tested them, but am hoping that it will give me about an hour of light for Saturday. For the real setup, I have a soldered 4ah 14.4v NiMH brick from a previous failed experiment, but it at my cabin so I won't have it for this weekend.

BTW, www.businesslights.com sell USHIO lights at a good price. They sell 20-watt 12degree MR-16 spot lights, which put out 3500cd@12v. This will be better than the home depot GE's that I am using for my prototype. I also ordered a couple 35-watt lights, to test them out.

When yours is finished, please post some pics. Maybe we should start a new thread in the gear area. I'll probably also post some pictures once I finish the real one and get a chance to test it out a few times.

[robc]

I also read that info about MR16s vs MR11s which is why I didn't try the 11s to begin with. Maybe I have a better quality 11 than I have 16s, but from some cursory testing in the basement, I don't see much difference at all between the 2. I was amazed at how much the 11 put out at 13.2 V. At 14.4 I would think it would great. Hmmm, I'll have to revisit the 11 vs 16 test again to make sure I am not losing out by not using the 16s.

The LT9s are actually pretty solid. The enclosure is aluminum and seems crushproof enough for biking, and the bulb socket assembly is securely screwed to the back of the housing. The light originally comes with a separate bulb & reflector. If you take out the little bulb, the MR11 fits almost snug right in the existing reflector and keeps it from moving around. Then the glass cover over the whole deal sits right against the glass cover of the MR11 which will keep it from coming out of the socket. This also makes the bulb easily replacable. I think it will work well, and it seems like it should be plenty burly for biking.

I'll take a look those pipe straps you mentioned. Sounds like a good solution. Please post some pics when you get your system completed. I have company this weekend so I won't be at the group ride, but I'll prolly be at Leb some night next week or weekend.

This tinkering has been pretty entertaining...

-Rob