Commuting - Talk about a near miss.

I was on my way home tonight at midnight, and was only a few miles from home, cruising down a long slow descent at a good 25mph. This is all fine and dandy, but my problem was, about 30min earlier, the 10 watt bulb on my Cygo-lite burnt out, leaving me with only my 6 watt flood. Luckily it was a bright evening with the moon out, and clear skies, etc.

Anyway, right on the far front edge of the beam, I see something in the bike lane. By the time my brain registers and I finally begin a good defensive swerve, I realize there is a full size truck tire lying right in the middle of the lane.

As I swerve past, my chain ring just barely scraped the edge of the tire with my right foot at the top of the stroke. Luckily my foot was up, or I would have really smacked that thing.
I am glad I was really paying attention. If I had not, and was going just 1-2mph faster.......

Bye-Bye Patriot.

I could've been lying half dead on a country road in the middle of the night with no one in sight to call for help. (Left the cell phone at home too). That would have been a bad situation. It was a strange feeling. I felt almost like my preverbial life was flashing before my eyes. For the next few minutes, I thought about my little girls, and my wife an aweful lot. I slowed down a bit, looked at the stars, and had some deep thoughts for the rest of my ride. It actually turned out to be pretty nice ride after that. Strange how that worked out.

I almost got sucked into a semi hauling two trailers today. I was riding no-handed and drinking from my water bottle. I was most shocked by how little it bothered me. No life flashing before my eyes. No deep thoughts. Just "wow, I just recovered from being about 45 degrees off the ground and a foot from 4 giant chest-height tires. Man, I really am thirsty." I've had more emotional moments dodging big rocks on an empty road.

One of my Cygo-Lite bulbs has burned out, too, after two uses! I found a review where someone said Cygo-Lite replaced the bulb, free of charge, after he faxed his receipt. I'm going to give them a call Monday. If you haven't had yours too long, you might want to give it a try. Their phone number is on their website.

Oh, and I'm glad you avoided the tire!

Yeah, they'll send me a new one. I emailed them and they're sending it out first thing Monday.
I think what happened was they got a bad lot of bulbs from China or Taiwan or something, because normally the halogen don't burn out like that. Apparently they have had quite a few burn out right after getting them within the last month or so. At least they are honoring the warranties, and taking care of it.
I didn't even send my reciept, I just told the guy I bought it from Airbomb a few weeks ago, and it only lasted 5 or 6 uses. He took my address and that was it. New 10w bulb on the way.

Thanks, Patriot! I'll go ahead and email rather than call and see if I can get mine in the works.

This is the reason why any serious commuter should either carry a spare lamp and ride slow with it or buy a dual setup, that way if one bulb burns out, the other keeps you going.
I think the NR digital dual systems are even better, those actually let you put more power into the remaining bulb to get you on your way home. (I could be wrong).
I actually switch the high and low beam bulbs on my light & motion dual. The reason is that the high beam uses a focused reflector while the low beam uses a wide reflector. When I switched them, I get a longer range using the low beam bulb cause it now uses the focused reflector and I get slightly more spread (but less range) using the high beam bulb. If either one of them burns out, I don't lose as much range or spread compared to what I'm normally used to.

You'd probably still be here, just in a lot of pain. 25mph into a truck tire, that'll probably throw you off, you'll land on your side probably, completely bust up one side of your body, your front wheel would be taco'ed (might be ridable depending on how tough your wheel is), you'll be in shock so you won't feel much initially. You'll now be lying on the side of the road for about 5 minutes before a driver notices you and calls the cops.

5 minutes? You obviously live in a city.

:roflmao:

Out here, at that time of night, I'd be lucky to see a car every half hour. Many times I have ridden down that rode, and not seen any cars at all. Plus, the area is heavily vegetated (Western Washington). If I ended up in the ditch, I probably wouldn't be found till the next day, or even longer.

That's why I always carry my cell phone. Just happens that was the one night since I have started commuting that my wife took it with her when she went out that night, and left me without it. There must be a God, because someone was sure looking out for me. :)