dynodonn 

I take it won't be long before the MS engineers finally get around in designing a tail light mount of their own, instead of giving their business to DiNotte, or the local hardware store.

dynodonn 

I happen to have some scrap schedule 40 in the shop, a large selection of reflector mounts, a little ambition, and some black paint. Voila! a MS tail light mount.

ChrisO

My fix was a bit more permanent than attaching PVC to my rack; here's what I did to accommodate the less than perfect, non-aimable mounting situation.
It's the mounting bracket from a PBSF/Radbot 1000 (they use the same mount) glued with cyanoacrylate (model glue).

ClarkinHawaii

Just got mine--I'm a little concerned about the charger:

After the light has been run for awhile, you plug in the charger and the indicator light (on the charger) glows a visible red. After a suitable charging time (couple, few hours) the red light goes off; but I don't see a green light like I did the first time I charged it. No light on the charger at all. Does the green light come on after awhile of no indicator light? Or have I got a dud? Thanks

GTR2EBIKE

That's weird. Are you sure you have the connectors all the way plugged in? So far no one has run the battery dead on one of these lights(that anyone knows of), it's going to run for a very long time. If you want to see if your charger is fine plug the light in again making sure you have the connectors all the way plugged in and let it sit for a while, then check the light again.
Maybe the green light turns off after it's been sitting in the charger fully charged for a while

rumrunn6

email geomangear

ChrisO

The green light shouldn't go off. I've accidentally left mine plugged in overnight and it was still on; it can even be unplugged from the wall and the green light will be on if the battery is fully charged and plugged into the charger. I'd shoot them an email, they're pretty good about taking care of this kind of stuff.

colleen c

I have two battery pack and two charger. On both set, when the battery are close to beimg fully charge, my red light goes out. It remains that way for a little while then a very faint green light start to be barely visible. If I leave it charge for another 15-30 minute, the green light becomes more bright but not as bright as it was before I connected the plug to the battery. Also if I take that same fresh fully recharged battery and plugged it back in the charger, I don't get a light or sometime a very dim green light visible only if I turn off the light in the room and looking straight on at the led on the charger.

ClarkinHawaii

Geoman says:

"Hi Clark
We have found a number of chargers that have the faint green led, there were no other issues with them just the faintness of the indicator. We are happy to replace it under warranty for you just let us know if that is what you decide."

ClarkinHawaii

Thanks for the responses, folks . . .

How long do the rubber o-rings last? Are they available at Home Depot, etc? Maybe they'll surprise me and last forever, but initially they are not confidence-inspiring. I visualize the rubber band failing while I am going 18mph downhill in traffic in the dark. Would certainly be interesting.

dynodonn 

I use a zip tie in conjunction with the o-ring, not so much because of o-ring failure, but more on slowing down/deterring theft.

ClarkinHawaii

Interesting--I just looked at mine with zip ties in mind, but I don't see where/how I should attach them--the O-ring tracks are filled by the O-ring--do you put it around the whole light head?

Cyclist0383

By all accounts they last a very long time. If one should break any decent plumbing supply store should have spares.

GTR2EBIKE

That's a pretty good idea, I'm going to do that on mine.
Thanks!

ClarkinHawaii

Plumbing supply--thanks

jkg188

I took 1" PVC and cut a length the width of my rear rack. Then I cut two grooves half way through the PVC near the ends to align with the rack material on the ends of the pipe, so the PVC can fit into the rack. I attach it with zip ties for convenience. The last one I did like that (for my Superflash blinkie) lasted two years before I removed it when I got the Ditotte. I'll try to get a picture later.

colleen c

There's several ways. You can try not using an O-ring and just use a zip tie instead. Wrap it with the same configuration as the O-ring but only after you have pre adjusted the angle of the lamp.

The other method is to replace that O-ring with another one of the same diameter but thinner thickness from a hardware store. Use the new O-ring just like the old one but now being not so thick, you can tie a cable tie around the same way the O-ring is loop.

Im either case, if you find your MS light head constantly tilting down from vibration, you can either tighten up the zip ties or put some rubber around your handle bar such as old tire tube, electrical friction tape or electrical self fusing tape.

ClarkinHawaii

My response to Geoman re ineffective charger indicator light:



Hi Geo--

My personal experience has been that malfunctions usually do not occur in isolation--usually if there's a symptom (like the "so dim you can't see it" indicator light), it's indicative of additional problems down the line.

I cringe at the hassle of returning this one, not to mention being without the capability of charging my light, but I will regret it later if I don't. (Like most other people I have a big box of stuff I knew i should return, but dragged my feet)

I'm toying with the idea of adding a taillight to my MS stable--still undecided*. It would be economically more feasible to include replacement charger with that order (if it materializes), so I'm going to hold off returning this charger for the moment. How long do I have to switch out the charger?

*To make this decision, we need to know run time per charge of headlight (on high) and taillight (on highest setting) coupled through "Y" cable to battery. This will help determine whether to get just taillight and Y cable, or taillight with battery and charger or something else altogether.

Thanks, regards, xxxxxxxxxxxx

dougmc

Perhaps you're referring to a better tape than I've used, but I've found electrical tape to not work well for this.

The problem is that the sticky part will stick to the bars fine, but if there's a force trying to slide it, it will very slowly slide. I've used plain rubber (from tubes -- rub off the shiny coating and it works better) and it works far better.

colleen c

Regular electrical vinly tape are crap to use for anything that need to be held from sliding. Friction tape is like a cloth tape that has tacky sort of like adhesive on both side. It is not sticky but tacky. If wrap around each other, they will not unravel and the exposed side still have that tacky adhesive stuff on them that created things from sliding around.

Self fusing tape works best but much more expensive. Once the are wrap around each other, they are fused and does not unwrap at all without having to cut them off. The material is like a silicon rubber and not very slippery similar to tire tube but unlike tire tube where you have to join the end with patch glue, the self fussing tape does it by itself. Here are some info;

https://www.shop3m.com/80610731707.ht...-Friction-Tape

https://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3...glV0PJPCJHV2bl

BTW, you can buy the friction tape at Orchard supply for couple of bucks for a roll.

hopperja

The name for what Colleen is talking about is vulcanized electrical tape. It should be available at most any hardware store for about $4 per roll. It's used for waterproofing applications under regular electrical tape, so if you can't find any, talk to an electrician. They'll know where to find it.

ClarkinHawaii

I've been talking with Geoman and he is going to do a test for us tonight.

The test is to connect a 900 headlight and the new taillight through a Y cable to one fully charged battery and run both lights at max output until the indicator light on back of headlight changes color.

I told him I need 2 hours, he's guessing 2.5 hours, but after tonight we'll know for sure. Obviously this is an imperfect test, but should give a general idea what can be expected.

GTR2EBIKE

any results clark?
If the MS900 takes 3 hours to die on max output then I would think 2.75-2.80 hours to kill both but we shall see.

ClarkinHawaii

I'll post as soon as I get it.

I was mistaken in my previous post where I said Geo guessed 2.5 hours-----actually he guessed 2.67 hours.

sierrabob

Although I don't own the MS tail light yet, an easy mounting solution just occurred to me as I polished off a bottle of my favorite Reisling Auslese--the sheared wine cork! I use that to obtain the correct angle on my MS flashlight helmet mount:



This mount uses an oversize o-ring in the form of a livestrong style bracelet, but the concept is identical. Couldn't you just install the MS tail light to a seat post with the supplied o-ring then wedge a sheared wine cork between the two to make the light sit perpendicular to ground? Some tape or glue would make the addition more secure.