A mate of mine is a self confessed "anal retentive roadie" who is dead
against riding anything other than a road bike. He has two identical frames
("Mausser" i think), one of which he uses to commute and one to race.
He is also right into having all of his attachments as neat as possible and
so recently he asked me to shorten one of his light leads. This was a
pretty simple job......basically just cut out the "curly bit" in the middle
of a standard Vistalight cable, re-solder wires, wrap with black heat
shrink. It now runs straight from the "Nightstick" (that I recently
repacked for him using 3000mAh NiMh cells), up the frame and to the
light.....looks really neat.
He also asked me to see what I could do with an old Vistalight rear LED
flasher (one of the rectangular ones with 5 LEDs and a yellow rubber cover
on the switch) as he wanted it to be brighter. Basically he is going to
mount it on his Zefal rear mud guard (One of the gucci curved ones) for use
when commuting in the wet.
Anyway, I went to Jaycar and bought 5 red LEDs at 4000mcd (only $1.00 each)
and put them in tonight (not sure of beam angle but they are pretty tight).
It is now retina burning bright (I am still seeing spots). I put it on
outside and it throws a red "torch like" spot on the side of the house from
at least 15 metres away. I am going to give it to him tomorrow and i reckon
he is gonna love it.
At Jaycar, they also had some 20,000 mcd red LEDs (the brightest I have ever
come across in 5mm LEDs) but I think they have a forward voltage of over 3V.
Might be the basis for my next home made rear light.....my only concern
being that if it is too bright, it might draw the eye of drivers too much in
my direction (like when you are riding single-track and actually look at a
rock or ditch on the trail, you usually end up hitting it).
Could be a good laugh as front lights for a "Stealth Mode" trip down some
single-track though.
Gags