Category: Bike Accessories

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Bicycle Taillights That Work

Taillights have been a big topic on several cycling forums lately, so I decided to document the taillights I have on my Trek 1220 before I move them to my soon-to-arrive Surly Long Haul Trucker.

I use three taillights mounted to my Jandd Expedition Rear Rack. The first is a RealLite, a 4″ x 6″ 18-LED 4 AA-battery operated light. The vendor claims that the batteries will run about 60 hours on flash. I’ve never timed it, but it does run a long time. I use it in flash mode.

Trust me, it puts out a LOT of light. I’ve had more comments on it than any other light I’ve owned. Here’s what others say.

Check out the warranty. You don’t see many like that. I’ve bought a couple of his lights and only had to return one because of something dumb I did that caused it to break where it was mounted. I don’t recall exactly what I did, but the vendor replaced it with no hassle.

My brother sticks his in his rear jersey pocket instead of mounting it to his bike.

Generator light with battery backup

The middle light is a Busch&Müller 4DToplight Senso Multi from Peter White Cycles powered by a SON generator hub. Flashing taillights are illegal in Germany where these are made, so they are steady-on. Some folks claim that flashing lights are harder for motorists to judge distance with and there are others that think flashing lights attract drunk drivers. I have a mixture of flashing and steady lights, so I guess I’m either more visible and easy to read or I’m a drunk magnet.

Since the generator stops working when the bike stops, this taillight automatically switches to battery power when it senses that the bike has stopped. That also provides a backup if there would be a problem with the wiring.

It has a huge built-in reflector that is highly effective.

The NiteRider is visible in bright daylight

I saw my first NiteRider taillight on Matt’s infamous Full Moon Ride. Matt had just bought his and was firing it up for the first time. It was amazing how far you could see the light in the daytime. I run with mine on any time I ride, day or night. If I could find a way to power it without the heavy waterbottle battery, I’d even forgo the headlight that you need with it.

Bro Mark had one that he had quit using, so I hooked it up as an auxiliary brake light mounted on the top of my bike rack on my van. It’s the brightest thing on the back of the car.

What holds them on the bike?

The challenge was how to mount them. I had an old piece of aluminum that I bent 90-degrees and attached to the underside of the Jandd rack with two nuts and bolts.

It’s not pretty, but it does a good job of holding them on the bike. I haven’t seen any signs of metal fatigue in several thousand miles.

So, how do the look in the dark?

Here’s my first forray into the world of YouTube. After coming home from a ride the other night, I knocked off a quick video of my taillights. It’s sloppy, makes Sarah Palin sound smart and took me half a day to figure out how to edit and upload it. (Any 12-year-old kid could have done it in 10 minutes, but there is a shortage of 12-year-old kids at my house.)

The next one will be better, I promise.

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Stylish, De-Dorked Bike Helmets

My buddy, Keefer, sent me a link to check out high-fashion bike helmets.  I have to concede that they are the un-dorkiest helmets I’ve seen, although I have to agree with one comment to the review that your first reaction to seeing one in the wild would be, “WOW, that dude / dudette has the biggest head I’ve ever seen.”

Here’s the PR Blurb

YAKKAY “SMART ONE” is a new smart design that differs by its rounded ear straps and adjustment buckles in polished stainless steel. But the real difference shows when one of the many different covers is attached to helmet – It changes from its characteristics of a helmet to a hat and becomes an accessory to your outfit. You adjust the helmet to your head with a number of adhesive foam circles which have the added advantage that air can circulate between them. When you are riding your bicycle, air will be pushed into the helmet, and pleasantly cool down your head. In addition, your head will stay dry in rainy weather, as the covers are designed without open holes. The helmet fully meets the European CE standard (EN1078).

Cool looks don’t make a cool helmet

My gut reaction is that this looks like an old-fashioned brain bucket. I can’

t see how that could be anywhere near as cool as my Giro Atmos Helmet. (Temperature cool, not fashion cool.)

The Atmos has eight-gillion holes in it and I still snatch it off my head every chance I get. I can’t see how a half-bowling ball with about five holes in the top of it could work in hot weather. (For the record, I never ride without my helmet. Here’s the reason why.)

Maybe the WEARER makes it cool

Somehow or another, I don’t quite see myself wearing the fur model or the Tokyo Jazz Pink version. If you’re interested in seeing all the models in all their spendor, go to the YAKKAY site.

They ain’t cheap. $165 plus a ticket to Europe. I didn’t see any U.S. dealers nor anything about shipping to the states.

The site DOES have a short video about how to adjust the helmet that would apply to any helmet. (Don’t have it cocked too far back, nor pitched too far down.)

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Looking Back at My Chuck Harris Rearview Mirror

Even though statistics show that being hit from behind is rarer than a lot of folks would think, I still like to know what's going on behind me.
Over the years, I've tried all kinds of mirrors. One flavor attaches to the bars. They were OK, but the image was too small for me to get more than a vague idea of what was happening to my rear.

They'd also vibrate, change position and get broken when the bike fell over.

How about a helmet mirror?

That sounded like a good idea. I went through several of these. Most of them used some kind of stickum to attach a plastic stem to the side of the helmet.

Since I'm left-eyed, this worked very well because the mirror would mount on the left side of my helmet, the traffic side (at least in the United States). A quick glance up and a sweep from left to right will keep you updated about what's coming up.

Are you left or right-eyed?

[Want to know if you are left or right-eyed? Point your index finger at an object in the distance. Close one eye and then the other. The one that lines up the object with your finger is the dominant eye.]

The only problem was that the stickum would frequently become non-stickum. And the cheesy plastic stems were easy to knock out of adjustment.

I joined the Chuck Harris cult

I read the phreds talk about a rearview mirror handmade by some guy named Chuck Harris out of broken mirror pieces, bent spokes and heat shrink tubing.

Hubbub is my source

I had to see what the mirror cult found so special about this thing, so I tracked them down to treatments of vitiligom.com/”>Hubbub Custom Bicycles in Cleveland, OH. They sell both the helmet mount and eyeglass mount mirrors. They brand them with the store logo and sell them for about half the price I've seen them at other places. (Although, I have to point out that the price has gone up about $6 since my first purchase.) Unfortunately, they are at the mercy of Chuck Harris to produce the product, so they are frequently out of stock.

If you order one, tell Diane Lees hello for me. She's good people, a great bike advocate and a Yoga instructor who can bend you into a pretzel and, hopefully, back again.

I'm a hoarder

Over the years I've bought more than a dozen of them to give to friends and family. Because they are custom-made and hard to get, I never let my home stash get lower than two. I have one eyeglass mount version, but have never used it because my frames are too thin to make it work.

These puppies are bombproof. Once you get it installed and adjusted, you'll never have to touch it again. You can, literally, pick up your helmet by the mirror's stem and it won't change adjustment.

I've only had one mirror fail in eight or so years. On a ride across the state last year, I noticed that my mirror seemed to need adjusting. It turned out that the spoke had broken where it attached to the helmet. Even then, the heat shrink tubing kept it going long enough to finish the ride.

A bargain if you're in Canton

If you live in the Canton, OH, area, the Stark County Bicycle Club will sell them for $10, but only to club members (and they don't ship).

Mark Boyd, one of my favorite phreds and the God of Goop, has been a long-time Chuck Harris user. Over the years, he's worked out several ways to adapt the bits and pieces when they eventually wear out.

MessengerMirror an inexpensive alternative

Bruce, below, suggested I take a look at his mirror. Here's the full review of the MessengerMirror. It's worth a look.

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Looking for Gifts for a Cyclist?

One of the phreds posted a link to a site that had inexpensive
Cycling Posters and Gifts

That word “inexpensive” snagged me because I have quite a few bikers in the friends and family category. (You know the ones: close enough to need a gift, but not a really good gift.)

Perfect for the go-fast rider

I published a picture last week of my brother wearing his I’m With Wheelsucker” T-shirt, so, finding something similar at BicycleGifts
for $6 and free shipping was something I couldn’t pass up. Put me down for three.

It’s always safer to pick small

The Girls Just Want to Have Fun T-shirt for only $6 was perfect for my old riding partner, Mary.

The ad copy warned that “these run very small,” so I was careful to check the sizing chart, which said that a Large would wrap 36-38″. I bought her a medium one time and she complained that it was too tight, so I figured Large would be a safe compromise and XL might be an insult.

They arrived today

The shirts were well-made with nice illustrations. Well worth the price.

When I got to Mary’s shirt, though, I did a double-take. I checked out the web site and it didn’t say that it was for kids.

I picked a minor nit

I dropped an email to the company suggesting that “You might be better off to say that the Girls Just Want to Have FunT-shirts are child-sized.

For the price, it’s not worth returning. I’ll find someone who has a kid the right size.

Just a minor nit. No big deal. I figure your other shirts were priced well below market value, so I still came out ahead, particularly with the free shipping.

This is good customer service

Within minutes, Richard Kuhlman returned my message:

Hi Ken

These shirts have been a nightmare since we got them in and even in closing them out. Because they are stretchy they really only work for the very young that like to wear their clothes tight.

Please look at our new version at: http://www.bicyclegifts.com/Products/Jerseys%20and%20Ts/T-shirts/Girls%20T-shirt/girls.html

These are normally sized women’s fitted T’s. Let me know what size you would like and I will ship you one no charge. If you know someone with a young girl that would like the small one make her a present of it. One less aggravation if I don’t haver to try to sell it again.

Thanks for taking the time to let us know.

It’s nice to deal with folks like Ralph.

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Determining How Much Torque is TOO Much

A whole bunch of years ago, I rented a bike from Richardson Bike Mart (where Lance worked as a kid) while I was on a business trip to Dallas. Good folks. I ended up buying my used Trek 1220 from them.

Figuring I’d need to tweak it, I bought a Pedro mini-tool that contained seven fold-out allen wrenches from 1.5 to 6mm housed in a bright yellow handle.

It fit almost everything on my bike

I kept it in my CamelBak MULE and I can’t begin to think how many times I’ve told someone riding with me, ” Hold on, I need to pull out my Pedro.” (Once they found out that “Pedro” was a bike tool, they seemed to look more comfortable.)

It’s going to take a while to get to the sad point

My buddy, Keefer, has reached the point where he has more bikes than room. “Two bikes hanging in the living room are art. A third bike blocking the dining room table is a nuisance.” That doesn’t count the two bents he has chained outside his apartment.

The orphan is a Cannondale T800 touring bike. Ever since my Trek 1220 has been showing its age and I saw a Surly Long Haul Trucker in Cape, I’ve had bike lust. Keefer had long ago promised to leave me the T800 in his will, but now he was willing to part with it for a small amount of money.

We’re getting closer

I hauled the bike home. The rear tire was flat, so I had to take care of that. Saturday morning Keef and I were going to hook up for a test ride. On the way out the door, I realized that I was going to have to swap my Crank Brothers Candy Pedals over to the other bike.

After all these years, I was pretty sure I knew how much torque the Pedro would handle.

Now I know for sure.

It’s less than this.

Right about the time I thought I was getting close to the limit, I felt that sickening OOPs feeling that indicated that I had gone past it.

It was time for a quick trip to Wayne

He didn’t have a Pedro in stock, but he sold me a Park Tool AWS10 that could have been Pedro’s brother. I like the yellow color better, but…

Wayne has a monster pedal wrench with a three-foot cheater handle, so I let him do the pedal swap.

In fairness to Pedro

I’m not sure the tool failed because of torque.

It looks like the nut holding the sides together may have come off. I didn’t see it in the yard, but no telling when and where it may have vibrated off.

That would have caused the plastic case to split when I applied the pressure.

Here’s what the new and old tools look like

So, I guess you’re wondering how the T800 rode.

Well, I adjusted the seat three times in the first 50 feet and tweaked it at least a dozen more time in 20 miles.

It was cheap version of one of those fancy split saddles that are supposed to keep your private parts happy.

Give me back my Brooks

That thing must have had sandpaper on the edges because I was flat rubbed raw. I felt every bump.

Once I got the seatpost up about where it needed to be, then the bars were too low. I woke up in the morning with back, shoulder and hand pains that I don’t normally have, particularly from a leisurely 20-mile ride.

On the positive side, it felt faster than my old bike, even with a headwind, and shifted smoothly.

Going for a fitting

I’m going to set up an appointment with an LBS for a real fitting to determine if this bike can be made to fit me or if I should pass on a great deal (money-wise). To quote someone wiser than me, “The most expensive bike is the one that doesn’t get ridden.”

It IS a sharp-looking bike.

That was taken at the north end of Palm Beach, FL, looking at Peanut Island and the Blue Heron Bridge.

This is how Keefer saw it on Nov. 22.

We, obviously, have different perspectives.