Originally Posted by
PlanoFuji
Well in my personal case, with the batteries left on a bike in an unheated garage between charges, I could get three days of riding in the Summer (all in the dark) versus somewhere between 1 and 2 in the winter. And that between was the largest annoyance, since I either had to charge every day or carry a spare battery. In my case I was using li-ion packs for a commercial light Cygolite Minty 350?
Therein lies the problem. It's not the batteries' fault but user error. People don't know how to treat batteries and, thus, damage them through neglect. Then they blame the equipment. I'll agree that there is a little more effort to dealing with batteries but it's not that onerous...unless you treat them badly. In your case, leaving them in an unheated garage is the problem, not the cold.
I charge
and store my batteries in my basement. They are kept at a pretty constant temperature of around 68F (20C). When I put them on the bike in the cold, cold morning...far colder than your winter temperatures with an average temperature in January of 16F vs Plano's wonderfully balmy 34F...the battery starts at it's optimal temperature and drops in the course of a ride. At work my bike is stored inside and even if it weren't, I store the batteries inside. I get the pretty close to the same number of hours per ride winter and summer.
Originally Posted by
PlanoFuji
I'll take your word for the relative toxicities. While batteries should be disposed of properly, they rarely are. Instead they are dumped into the regular waste stream.
I would disagree. People do a pretty good job of recycling batteries. Maybe not alkalizes but rechargables are generally treated differently.
Originally Posted by
PlanoFuji
With battery lighting, the light are only ready if one remembers to charge them (and there is enough time for them to charge). With dyno lights, no such human intervention is necessary. Whether the cost for that convenience is an issue is purely a personal preference. In my personal case, since installing dyno lights I am able to take long rides (4+ hours) on my bike in the wee hours with no concern about my lights. When using battery lights I never even considered such excursions.
That bicycle lighting is dominated (in the U.S.) by battery lights is more likely a result of less demand for lights (few people ride at night) and lack of options (never seen a dyno in a local LBS) than any superiority of the technology. In places that require decent lighting with minimum standards like Germany, virtually all bikes make use of dyno lighting... Indeed they wisely require all bikes to have lights...
You may want to revisit the demand for lights in the US. There are lots and lots of people riding at night where I live and the Bike Forums has a whole forum devoted to lights. That says there is lots of demand for lights to me. ASHTO regulations require lights for night bicycle riding and ASHTO is used for all state traffic laws. If you check Texas laws on bicycles, you'll find similar wording that you'll find in all other states with requirements for front light
at night that can be seen from 500 feet, side reflectors (at all times) that can be seen from 500 feet and a rear reflector (at all times) that can be seen from 500 feet.
Battery lights are dominate in the US because of mountain bike demand. There's a lot of spill over of that demand into commuting but mountain bike usage drives the market here.