It's 2120 and I've just come back from 2,5 hr ride that could have been shorter. Yup, I had bulb failure and upons searching my pannier with the repair stuff, there was no bulb to be found (well perhaps I didn't look close enough..

In one year I've had approx. 4 bulbs fail, while there may have been a failure of just 4 bulbs in the previous 4 years! I've had different light set ups in the past.. starting with a Renak hub dynamo and now a Schmidt hub dynamo..

The light goes on with a switch in a Lumotec light..
When I left this afternoon, I noticed that the light was on, so I switched it off.. when I went home again and wanted to switch on the light again, it was dead.. luckily I had a LED-based headlamp (Petzl Tikka) but as this one was running on a rechargeable battery light faded soon...

It was most fortunate that I was riding on a narrow **** road with little traffic so that I could easily follow the white lines... how much worse life would have been on those bloody bike paths.. when i crossed the Rhine at Rhenen it was very hard to see anything at all because of the abundance of lights from cars across the divider..

All in all, it was a very pleasant ride though, but not fast.. it was my first ride over 40K of the season, so I'm not alarmed at all at the incredible slow pace.. it was meant to be enjoyable.

But I was certainly PO'd because of the bulb failure and will need to rummage through my collection to find a new Philips 3W halogen bulb...

Ivana

P.S. BTW, I had visited the organizer of the 100 cols ride and can now show off my accomplishment of having climbed over 100 cols with a neat jersey!

Ivana

I tried changing the bulb in my Soubitez, but the screw holding the casing was a tiny cross-head one, and my swiss-army knife was too big to undo it. Doh, you have to change these things by the side of the road using a poxy little battery lamp, usually in the rain and wind, so lets put a microscopic screw in there for fun...

Keep a spare bulb in a film canister, or wrapped in foam inside your handlebars or seatpost.

Hi Ivana!

Funny you should mention this...I had mine blow out (Lumotec oval plus) with a Schmidt SON after only 1 1/2 weeks of riding (at roughly 28 kmh avs) commuting to work and back.

I had a nice discussion with one of the guys over at Schmidt, and he suggested using extra diodes in the lamp, OR to go and use a higher voltage lamp.

I've been thinking about putting in an extra lumotec into the circut anyway.

Did you get the Lumotec from Schmidt? They apparently beef up the light. Also, do you power a rear light off your SON?

ride safe,
Tom

Good thing to be alerted by email ;-)

The SON only powers the front light, and if I can help it, it uses a 3W bulb, not a 2,4W (the rear light typically has 0,6W, hence the difference). Found just 1 halogen bulb but it didn't show whether it was 2,4 or 3 W.. a reason to visit the LBS I guess.

My next bike will have a Schmidt as well, but now 2 lights.. the Dutch importer will do the wiring for me, as I'm too lazy to figure it out myself.

Ivana

Hi again Ivana,

whence the name? Also...where are you from?

>Good thing to be alerted by email ;-)

agreed <g>

>The SON only powers the front light, and if I can
>help it, it uses a 3W bulb, not a 2,4W (the >rear >light typically has 0,6W, hence the difference).

Wow. I've got a D-TOPLIGHT PLUS rear light, but this doesn't pull much juice, although it's pretty bright.

>Found just 1 halogen bulb but it didn't show >whether it was 2,4 or 3 W.. a reason to visit the >LBS I guess.

That's like having a need to visit the library. <g> I've gotta get my fingers on a 3 W bulb meself.

>My next bike will have a Schmidt as well, but now >2 lights.. the Dutch importer will do the wiring >for me, as I'm too
>lazy to figure it out myself.

Yeah, I've been dreaming of a bike with fenders, some suspension, yet fast fast fast. Lotsa light w/o the necessity of having to worry about cables would be grand as well.

cheers,
Tom

Fietser is Dutch. My Dutch name is different (Yvonne), which is OK in French (obviously) and Dutch/German, but sounds horrible in English, so that's why it was changed to Ivana. It's also an easier name in Esperanto, which is my 3rd or 4th language after English & German. This is also shown underneath my name to the left.

the reason for not having a rear light powered by the dynamo is that the wiring is much, much cleaner.. there are frequent problems with rear lights powered from a dynamo on ANY bicycle.
As soon as the 0,6W bulb blows, the front one will go as well from overpowering.
However, the German (and perhaps also the Swiss) laws are anally retentive about allowing a 3W bulb, so these bulbs may be made in Germany, but only exported! It's a Philips 3W bulb by the way.

Any bike with so much stuff: fenders, suspension, racks, lights adds weight to a bike.. it's either comfort or speed, not both!

Ivana

Hi Fietski,

(I did figure out the reference to fietsdom, but I was uncertain as to how you wrote Inglisch so well. Especially the odd bon mots such as P.O.ed <g>

Amazingly enough, when mine blew out in front, my rear light was AOK.

Re: fenders et al slowing me down...only the red lights slow me down. Rain too. As long as I can do the occasional yearly 36 kmh round trip to work (i.e. 34.4 km sub hour) I'm happy.

Basically, the only thing I want for pleasure is fenders. The suspension is for life-extension purposes, as is lighting. If I really want SPEED, then I just have to tune up the motor...

rajdi sekura, fietser_meisje!
Tom