Originally Posted by rekmeyata
Flexibility? Care to elaborate on that a bit more? I would think flexibility would decrease because you have to route wires, and figure out where to put a battery pack; with a self contained system you have none of that extraneous stuff to worry about, plus there's less to go wrong with pulled wires, bad connections etc. It is true, I don't like doing electrical stuff so making it simple with a self contained system is more to my liking, but regardless, simplicity equals more flexibility, not the other way around...at least that's my opinion.
I suppose I am thinking of flexibility in terms of what is available and cheap. I find myself wanting to have all controls where I can access them while riding. Never seen self-contained lights, or at least taillights, allow that. I already have and like my brake lights, which require wiring to put in place, and I am planning turn signals. In use, I find a central battery a lot less hassle to keep charged than monitoring the status of 2, 3, or more different batteries for different lights. The rear light system I have now is much better than my old one of two Cateye TL-LD1000s, not only in terms of lighting, but in convenience in having only one plug (to become a switch at the front of my bike) rather than four switches that each must be pressed multiple times.
As for future expansion, I have a housing on the way to make a headlight to augment my Phillips LBL that I have added the guts of a USB car adapter to attach it to my system. Runtime (on the LBL) is vastly improved from inadequate to more than I have need of, and easily upgraded in the future if it becomes needed.
MechBgon: thanks for the link. Not sure I'll bother, but worth keeping in mind.
Tor