Worst possible time...

...to make modifications to your bike? Why, the day before a brevet, of course! The Eastern PA 300K is this weekend, so I couldn't leave well enough alone, now could I?

As mentioned previously, I felt a need to over-complicate my nice, simple, and reliable SON dynamo lighting system with a handlebar-mounted three-position switch. The concept was simple; center position == off, other two positions correspond to primary (LED) headlamp only and primary + secondary (halogen) lamps. The execution, well, let's just say that A) it's a prototype and B) I still have some strategic work to do with heat-shrink tubing and sealant of varying forms.

Pictures(please excuse quality: rushed lunchtime camera phone shots are not my forte)

Sheerest elegance in recycled design. Note the velcro strap holding the case together.

Glorious proliferation of unrestrained cables

Note lack of bulb in front view. Silly-looking, eh? Cries out for something to fill the aching void.

The interior. Actually, this looks neater than it has any right to...

Extra quick-connects at the hub, so I can readily rewire the lights directly to the hub if necessary

I ended up cannibalizing an old Schwinn halogen handlebar light for the main housing; pulled out all of the guts, and did some drilling and filing to get an el cheapo SPDT center-off switch to fit nicely. JB Weld-ed a two-position barrier block inside, just so I didn't have to twist all the wires together, and did up a bunch of connectors using 18ga speaker wire and standard 1/4" quick-connect terminals. I was clever enough to wire it such that, if needs must, I can throw in a little 2" jumper cable and cut the switch out of the system completely, effectively going back to the original wiring plan if the switch barfs.

I still need to do some weather-resistance work on most of the joins, and may well throw some dielectric grease in all the contact points while I'm at it.

It's ugly as sin; the old Schwinn light is huge, and having the empty reflector in front just looks silly; I'll probably throw in a blinking "be-seen" LED at some point. For that matter, I'm giving thought to attaching a LED reading light to the housing as well, for cue sheet perusal in darkness.

Long term, I'd like to fabricate up something more polished, maybe design it in kit form so that it can be readily added to an off-the-shelf dynamo system.

Lighting system plotting

I'm not one to leave well enough alone. I've had the SON hub, Lumotec LED, and E6 halogen lights running for a whole week, so of course it's time to screw about with a perfectly good working system. It's just so terribly inconvenient to have to stop the bike to turn lights on and off.

Being the lazy sort that I am, and in the interests of experimenting with just how much difference in pedaling effort I can perceive with the lights on and off, I've decided to build a remote switching system for the lights. I figure a nice three-position OFF, PRIMARY ON, and PRIMARY+SECONDARY ON switch mounted on the handlebars would be cool.

Now, the problem. I'm barely competent to plug in a soldering iron, much less do even the simplest of circuit designs. Of course, ignorance has never stopped me before, but I figured consulting someone who has a vague idea of what they're doing would be wise, when it comes to potentially screwing up a $mumblemuttermumble lighting system. Enter the patriarch, the wise engineer, my dear old Dad, who was courteous enough to suppress laughter at my feeble excuse for a schematic, and kind enough to transcribe into legible format:

So, the next step will be to swing by Radio Shack and source a nice switch, plus some simple weather-resistant disconnects, extra wire, silicone sealant, heat-shrink tubing, and all that good stuff. I figure I'll bodge something together, get it working, then plan to do a nicer setup later, based on the mistakes I make on this version. (I'm envisioning marine-grade illuminated LED rocker switches and all sorts of similar craziness...probably will never do it, if the first version works, but what the heck.)

Night ride, pavement, gravel, and dirt

Went for a spin last night with Brian to test out the new lights; looks solid to me for the most part. Rough roads definitely induce a bit of a strobing effect with the LED, probably because it's mounted on a Terracycle accessory mount well off the front of the boom.

I may need to think about moving the primary LED down to the fork, and leave the E6 halogen mounted on the boom; that would give me a bit more light on the tighter turns.

Lost one of the bolts on the left water bottle cage; luckily, the other one held, so I transferred bottle to right cage and tightened the heck out of the single remaining left bolt. Memo to self: Loctite the crap out of everything.

I still need to get the tail lights and the cycle computer tightened down as well, as they still tend to rotate fairly freely with enough vibration.

On the bright side, I threw some Koolstop Salmon pads on the front brakes; that, plus some heavy toe-in, and the worst of the squealing has stopped.

Pretty Lights...

Just mounted up the SON wheel with DLumotec primary and E6 secondary lights and shod with a 406x40 Marathon Racer, after a certain amount of time spent swearing at the various bits and pieces I'd chosen to use. Took it for a quick spin around the block and, well, DAMN, if you'll pardon the profanity. I'm sure I'll need to mess about with proper angles and positioning and whatnot, but that thing puts out a lot of light even at "sandals on brick streets" speeds.

I'm going to head out for a proper test tomorrow night, with Brian and whomever else shows up at Your Inner Vagabond at 10. I'll try to get some pictures then, too...