Originally Posted by
Michel Gagnon
Lights
All the headlights Peter White sells are designed for the road. In your case, I would recommend the E-6 which is both very visible in the city and also very effective on pitch-black roads. The only limitation is if your MUP looks more like a winding foot trail: in that case, the E-6 will throw light straight ahead... which is not what you want in tight bends.
I use an MUP after dark and found most lights much too narrow as well. I was also going broke buying AA batteries! I purchased a cheap Schwinn dynamo lighting kit but burned out the taillight after only 2 hours so I had to revert to my LED Mag-Lite flashlight. I like it as it allows me to adjust the pattern between wide and narrow as necessary. I consequently converted the Mag-Lite flashlight into a dynamo-powered headlight. Here is the link on how I did it.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=339965
The above link shows the test and reliability setup. I've ordered better components such as 1n5818 diodes instead of the bridge diode matrix from Radio Shack. The circuit shown should work fine for dynamo hubs as well, as they will be much better than my cheap ($7.20) bottle dynamo kit!
The new circuit will be imbedded in epoxy instead of the exposed "birds nest" setup strapped to the rack. I have over 100 miles on the test setup without problems with the flashlight and test board.