Originally Posted by
Mr IGH
I found cheap lights were fine in the city. There's plenty of street lamps to help out. Now I live in the sticks, the bike path I ride into town has no lights, it's up to my headlight. I immediately noticed the "laser beam" effect. My existing headlight beam was too narrow, rounding corners in the dark was exciting...That's when I bought my Phillips Saferide and discovered the joys of a shaped beam, the light is used efficiently and there's plenty of light across my front. I'm not interested in the cheapest solution that satisfies the cops, I want the lowest cost solution that works, $30 flashlights don't cut it, my $150 Saferide kit was a bargain.
Cheap or expensive have nothing to do with a light. I consider a the Planet Bike Blaze or the Princeton Tec Push (I own the latter) to be ineffective, relatively expensive lights when compared to the Magicshine clones out there for half of the Blaze and more then 1/3 the cost of Push.
I also have a CygoLite Expilion 850 which I consider to be a far more effective but way too expensive light compared to the Magicshine clones. It's output is far better than the Blaze or Push but it's 2 times the cost of the Princeton Tec light and and around 7 times the cost of the clones. I, too, am interested in the lowest cost solution that is effecitve. My current system of 3 clones that cost me about $30 each are better lights than the CygoLite and I can afford 3 of them.
Originally Posted by
Mr IGH
Who pays $135 for spokes and labor for a wheel rebuild? $32~$36 for spokes and $50 labor is what it costs in Chicago and Denver. For $135 you could find a complete dynohub wheel. Compare that to a $100 battery pack, one lasts for 50k miles, the other lasts for a few years....
$100 battery pack? Try $10 to $20.