Originally Posted by
crazybikerchick
Here's actually an interesting question for those of you that don't run redundant lighting systems. What do you do if you lose, break, or have a light stolen, or unexpectedly run out of batteries? I've popped into a corner store to buy batteries before but lights are harder to pick up in a pinch. Do you just ride home dark?
I ask because my superflash was stolen last night after midnight, and so I rode home tail-lightless. I didn't feel too nervous (although slightly) as I had a reflective vest, rear reflector and reflective pannier, unlike the totally black totally reflectiveless lightless riders that seem to keep living around downtown Toronto. And a mirror, to see any headlights approaching too closely
Hoping someone really needed that light rather than more likely a drunk bike-less idiot that thought it was fun to blink it at others.
I used to run a single NiMH rechargable light up front, until the day I was out riding and it got dark... and my battery was down to 15 minutes of runtime when I was 15 miles from home. I had to take the unlit paths and sidestreets back to my place by moonlight.
For anyone getting lights stolen (I just saw a post on CL about someone up here who had a light and a saddlebag stolen): Take stuff inside with you. How tough is it to take clip your taillight inside your pocket? Obviously it's not difficult to remove, since someone else walked off with it.
One of my PBSF lights is clipped to a blinkie loop, but secured with a cable tie. Someone has to rip the bag, steal the whole bag, or snip the tie to steal it. My E3 is hardmounted to the bike. It takes 2 wrenches to remove the lamphead from the mount, and then there are 4 cable ties securing the wiring down the fork to the hub. That sucker's not coming off without a fight.