General Cycling Discussion - bike LED lights / "N" battery issue?

so i have 5 of these planet bike led lights on 3 different bikes and they all worked just fine. until i had to replace the batteries on one of them. tried 3 pairs of N size 1.5 volt batteries from radio shack, and a pair of energizers on all of the lights. NONE of them work. i had the radio shack batteries tested at the store and the needle went way over. the only batteries that work are the japanese ones that the lights came with.

ideas? suggestions? my local bike shop where i got them is closed today and i'm too impatient to just chill until he opens again. it's cold and frozen here in brooklyn so it could be a while.
my apologies if this was already covered in a different thread. i did a number of different searches and came up with nothin.g

Maybe someone here will have an answer for you. In the meantime, why not email PlanetBike?

Click here. (http://www.planet-bike.com/contact.html)

i left a message on their answering machine and emailed them as well. will post again when i figure out why this is happening.

ok- i got a call back from planet bike less than an hour after i left the message. friendly guy, he knew exactly what the problem was. turns out that only the japanese batteries were long enough to make contact. he told me to bend the little metal pieces on the positive side to make better contact and voila, it worked. turns out that they had a production run of a few thousand that was slightly flawed. but i still felt a little uncomfortable with the solution. i ride a lot at night in nyc. he picked up on my uneasiness right away and just told me to send the 5 lights back for replacements.

so unless i get back a batch of lights with the same problem, i give planet bike customer service a big thumbs up for customer service.

:thumbup:

sounds like a good concern to trade with:D :D

Couldn't you just stuff some tinfoil in at the contacts to make up for the shorter batteries?

Originally posted by RegularGuy
:thumbup:

I like Planet Bike's business philosopy and their support of advocacy. Their products may not lead in innovation, but they are generally of good quality. It's nice to know that they offer good customer service, too.

.
Couldn't you just stuff some tinfoil in at the contacts to make up for the shorter batteries?


yeah, but what if it moves out of place when i hit a hard bump or something. i just don't want to be caught with no visibility unknowingly when i'm streaking up and down manhattan at night. i'll pay the postage to get it there to have new ones without the problem.

I tend to stay away from lights and other fixtures that take N batteries. I once had a calculator that used them, and not only was it a pain to find new batteries, but when I finally found some, I always felt they had spent all their useful life... on the shelf.

On the other hand, AA and AAA batteries are easy to buy in bulk.

I had the same problem with my lights. I just bent out the tab with a small screwdriver and haven't had a problem since :)

If you have a soldering iron, you could put a bit of solder on the metal tab.. it won't slip out of place and should work forever.