Commuting - cold weather lights

here i go with another question about riding in crappy weather:

i've had problems keeping bike headlights working in cold weather. does anybody sell a headlight (or headlight-plus-taillight?) that's designed for the batteries to go inside your pockets so they don't freeze? (cold batteries work about as well as no batteries...)

One of the advantages of rigging your own lights is that you can do exactly that if you want. I wouldnt recomend building your own reflector or lamp housing, you can buy those very cheaply. Just wire up some batteries (2 for balance ?) using crimp connectors. Any electronics store will sell a variety of different shapes and sizes. I use a lead acid, for ease of maintainance, but you can use nicads . A recharger from an electronics store will be more sophisticated than one in a cheapo rechargeable bike set.

Hey,

Just rode in nasty wet snow last night for 40 minutes on my Tek carbon racing bike. bhech.

So...what do I use? A combination of things...

On my helmet, I have (this winter new) a Lupine metal halide light, which has a smallish battery pack that I could keep close to me if I needed to ensure that it stayed warm. I'm pretty happy with the amount of photonage coming out of this unit. http://www.lupine.de/en/start/index.html

On my bike, I have a NiteRider Blowtorch which is bluer than the aforementioned Lupine. I've never had problems with cold causing the light to cut out (the coldest that I ride is about 10-15 C below) and the bottle mounted battery seems to do the job for about two commutes (about 2 x 30 min) w/o problems.
http://www.niterider.com/products/bike_blowtorch.html

On my MTB which I use when I can't use my carboni, I have a Schmidt Nabendynamo (hub dyno) which prevents me from not having light if the batteries somehow crap out. The Bisy light affords me sufficient light to be SEEN, but I like to be able to see even when the streets are wet and are eating all of the light.
http://www.nabendynamo.de/english.htm
or http://www.nabendynamo.de/ for those who sprich Deutsch...

I also have a small set of blinkenlights to afford me better positioning lightage, but then again, it almost looks like a Xmas tree anyway...

Lemme know if you have any questions,
Tom

I never want to live in a place where I have to worry about my batteries freezing.

However, as things progress, Canada is sounding GREAT!

I use lithium ion batteries with LED lights. These last a very long time. My understanding is that lithium is less effected by the cold.

I use a combination of Cateye EL-300s and eternaLight Ergo Marines. My batteries last all winter...and it gets quite cold here in Maine.

>I wouldnt recomend building your own reflector or lamp housing, you >can buy those very cheaply. Just wire up some batteries (2 for >balance ?) using crimp connectors.


I'd like to wire together :

2 Front AMBER LEDS for turn signals 3-13V
2 Rear AMBER LEDS for turn signals 3-13V
1 Brake light 3-13V

So I found the LEDs at this site

http://www.brakelite.com/ this site has the parts and I can wire them and add a switch. But how do I calculate how much AA battery is needed?

Like Tom_The_Bikeman I run a Schmidt dynamohub and I´m very pleased with it. Just fit and go, no adjusting, no maintainance, no worries at all, just ride the bike. I find the light good enough for my needs. OK it´s a little pricy. Why not considering a regular dynamo? If you rid in bad weather a regular dynamo may slip and not giving the light needed. A dynamohub never slips.

Good luck.

There is another very good hub dynamo on the market; it is the Shimano Dynohub NX-30. It has the same advantages as the Schmidt (i.e. no noise, no slipping, good lighting for the road -- not for the trail), but it costs only $55 U.S. rather than some $200.

OK, there is a little bit more resistance, but it still is minimal.

Regards,