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Old 09-23-08 | 01:02 PM
  #5  
dekindy
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Joined: Jul 2006
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I purchased mine here. I talked to them on the telephone this afternoon. They answered right away and were extremely nice and helpful.

http://www.night-gear.com/p/Illumina...y-Nite-Ize.htm

I purchased two Spokelits and had to put both on my rear wheel. Spokelit fits fine on my 28-spoke, 3 cross laced rear wheel. I could not get it to fit my 24 spoke, 2 cross front wheel. In my opinion they will only fit on a wheel that has 28 spokes or more with 3 or 4 cross lacing. I do not have a 24-spoke, 3 cross laced wheel that I can test so I cannot voice an opinion on this. If I had to guess I don't think it will work with 24 spokes. If I had known it would not fit on the front wheel I may have only purchased one. But I am big on redundancy so it is good to have a backup in case one gets knocked off or the battery dies. Besides, it is inexpensive insurance.

Since radial lacing is popular on a lot of front wheels and to some degree on the nondrive side of the rear wheel and a lot of modern wheels have 16/20 and 20/24 front/rear spoke combinations, the Spokelits may have limited application because they require 3-point contact points to hold them in place. The three contact points are: 1) the groove in the Spokelit that fits over a spoke; and 2) & 3) each end of the Spokelit braced against an adjacent spoke.

Here are my initial impressions after installing the light and looking at it in my darkened garage this afternoon while holding the bike up and turning the pedals with my hands.

You have to hold the button down a full 10 seconds to cancel demo mode.

I probably will not use the flashing mode because I ride in a group and anticipate that flash mode would be annoying to my fellow riders. I will ask their impressions about both modes. The illustration makes the flash and solid look dramatically different and that would be impossible for me to evaluate while holding the bike up and looking at close range in my darkened garage. I wish I would have thought to do it earlier when my wife's car was gone and I could have put it in a stand and looked at it from a distance.

At normal speeds I could not tell a lot of difference between having 1 versus 2 Spokelits. However 2 are slightly brighter at crusing speed and much more visible than 1 at speeds of 10-12 miles per hour or less. I may run one at a time and keep the other for backup or just run both. I have no idea how significantly solid versus flashing will shorten battery life or the cost of the batteries.

Again, this was all in my garage this afternoon at very close range. I will post my impressions of how it actually works on the road and my fellow riders' impression after this evening's ride.
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