Lights....
 

I'd really like to find some lights that would look at home on a C&V bike that don't look like modern plastic pieces of junk. I'd prefer battery powered and something powerful enough to actually see rather than just be seen......Anyone have any suggestions?
I really wish someone made and sold some head/tail lights like the old hammered Luxors from France with updated techno bits inside. How cool would that be? Something like this?

http://www.blackbirdsf.org/bikes/ima...lamp_luxor.jpg

I'd pay some serious coinage for something like that!

A guy at work built his own super bright LED light from some plans he found online. It works great. He wasn't building C&V stuff but since it's a DYI project I don't see why you couldn't put some fresh guts in an old case. I don't remember the site he got the parts and instructions from but I can ask him tomorrow if you are interested.

I've often thought about doing a retrofit myself.....Most of the ones I've seen used the original reflector inside the light and just put the guts from another light in the housing. I'd be interested in anyones experience with retrofits if it were easy.....All that talk about volts, watts, diodes and capacitors makes my head spin!

Yeah I was thinking how cool it would be to build a light like that when my friend was talking about it and when I went to the site to check it out my head was spinning too.

Best bet is going to be building your own insides for vintage cases. I have several vintage lights, including a couple of NOS and they are no match for today's stuff. Biggest problem I have with my vintage lights is the reflectors are usually pretty rough, which doesn't do much for beam pattern. I have used the B&M Retro on one bike as a compromise, it looks vintage but gives me better light than any of my vintage lights. Spanninga makes one called the RetroLed, it is nice looking but is marginal when used as a stand alone light.

Aaron:)

I have to say, much as I would like some headlamps more in keeping with the age of my bikes, I refuse to give up my dual headlights!

It's just too grey most of the time here in Puget Sound to not have efficient lighting--and with my work hours, too dark as well.

East Hill

I put one of these optronics lights on my 1984 Schwinn Voyageur. With a 20W halogen MR16 over-volted to 14.4, it throws a lot of light and looks right at home on an older bike.

See this thread for instructions. I'm using this battery which is waterproof and mounts in a water bottle cage.

I had seen the B&M @ VeloOrange....Looks pretty good but I assume it really isn't up to the task of 15+mph on unlit roads? Another option I have been considering is the flashlight mounts with a nice light. Some of those new LED ones are supposed to be pretty powerful and come in bare alloy.

It certainly is! I learned along time ago you gotta have some pretty serious lights in these here parts!

That light doesn't look half bad and looks to be pretty serious! I'll pour over the thread you posted. Thanks!

The B&M Retro is the same innards as the B&M Lumotec, which is a pretty decent light. Everybody's opinion will differ, I think it would be marginal at 15mph+, however my night vision is not what it used to be, and I seldom ride that fast.:p

Aaron:)

For those wanting a generator powered light here are a number of circuits for LED headlights. I am not sure of the claimed Lumens outputs as few people have access to an accurate Lumens test setup.

http://pilom.com/BicycleElectronics/DynamoCircuits.htm

It ought to be possible to retrofit the electronics and LED into older light shells or the cheap reproductions of older designs I have seen offered for sale.

Check out these instructions. They are very easy to follow.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Anot...en-Bike-Light/

Stop by the electoronics and lighting forum here and search for vintage lights. I know that more than one member has modified an old light with new electronics. Those guys really know their lights and will help you get an old school light putting out some serious lumens.

I've done the retrofit for all my bikes. The 'electronics' are pretty forgiving. Just a simple bridge rectifier, and you're there:

http://www.sciencemonster.net/machin...ts/lights.html

Although on my latest bike, I use 4 AA rechargables so I can keep my old ten speed hubs.

Here is mine. As mentioned above, there are several ways to retro fit an led into something like this.

http://velospace.org/files/steppinth...eadlight_1.jpg

http://velospace.org/files/steppinth...adlight_3A.jpg

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Probably not what you're looking for but here's my other one:

build still in the works
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...k/DSC_5267.jpg

by the way, there are LED conversion kits out there for flashlight applications. for that big headlight I plan on either using one of these kits or butcher one of those +100 LED flashlights. Power source will be from 4-D cell batts in an old vintage battery holder from a miners helmet light.

http://www.niteize.com/info/images/c_d_pkg_pop.jpg

ive still got some old cibie's left and a cool solid brass with worn chrome lights... two months ago i would have been happy to trade that exact luxor for something interesting but ive already sold it. I am personally always looking for cool stuff and would be happy trading... PM if interested.

Ha Ha Ha!!! An old carbide lamp? It's a bit more vintage than what I was thinking but they sure are cool! I wonder what kind of light a working one puts out?

And thanks everyone for the links and advise....Stepinthefunk....Your bikes rock!
SingeDebile I might just have to PM ya and see what cha got!

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Probably not what you're looking for but here's my other one:

build still in the works
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...k/DSC_5267.jpg[/QUOTE]

Wow thats cool, it reminds me of a cafe racer.

Mark, that's helpful, but I can't quite tell where the bridge rectifier ends up on your setup.

Neal

I connect it down on the wheel, right directly to the dynohub. The two ac leads opposite each other are connected to the dynohub nuts - doesn't matter which one to which one - and then the other two wires coming out of the bridge rectifier are the '+' which is marked and the '-' which is not. I then connect my wiring to the bridge rectifier down there instead of to dynohub. You don't even notioce the bridge rectifier down there, and since I connect the light leads with small grey wire nuts, it's really easy to remove the wheel. THe bridge recitifier stays on the dynohub.

Remember - only the DC '+' lead is labeled on a bridge rectifier. Opposite that is the '-', and the other two are the ac inputs.

I have never had a light fail, but you do have to use all the same kind of LEDs to get them all to be the same brightness. If you mis and match, one light sucks all the power and the other one won't light. I'm not sure why, but I think magic comes in there somewhere.

Have you seen those really old lights that you put a candle in? One of these days I'm gonna put a mag light in one of those.