Vintage Headlights
 

My Raleigh Sports came with a Sturmey Archer front Dynohub and the original front and rear head lights. I purchased a vintage looking Bobbin Classic Deluxe for my wife and it also has a Dynohub with a headlight. We actually like to ride at night, but as headlights, these suck! I'm used to using Cygolites on my bikes for my night riding and would like to upgrade. I'd like to keep the vintage look and came up with two options. Both are LED lights - one is battery powered and the other via the dynohub.

Can anyone comment on how much brighter these two lights would be versus the original stock filament bulb? Is it worth it or do I install a Cygolite for night riding and keep the originals for looks only?

Option 1 - Battery powered LED Light

Option 2 - Dyno Powered LED Busch & Muller HL Classic

Thanks

Canflyboy

There is absolutely no comparison; the LEDs do such a much better job. Now, that said, simply upgrading to a halogen or Krypton bulb helps a great deal. On my 6v systems, I like to run a 4.8V Krypton bulb. "Overclocking" the bulb takes a good bit of life out of them, but I also get a lot more light. Some-- our own Forumite Minisystem-- have had good luck retrofitting LEDs into vintage shells. I tried it and my results were lousy: the reflectors weren't designed with a tiny bright point source shining only forward in mind.

Some of the folks at the Candlepower forums are getting better results, but I don't know any specifics.

I came to have a look, the post title was attracting me.

I use other race vintage bikes with removable lights to cycle at night
But for the older ones, I'll keep to the original lights

Here is the front lamps of my 1936-37 Bekaert
http://nsm08.casimages.com/img/2012/...3110627682.jpg

I still want to reproduce the orignal right lens.
I'm planning to reproduce the left one in a silicon mold and duplicate it with transparant resin.

That is one accessory that seems to evade me . Lights. Is that one generator or battery?

Soubitez made some very purdy headlights BITD. I wonder how hard a retrofit is to LED with the one I have gathering dust in the parts bin.

I've given it a shot several times and had marginal success at best. As already noted, the reflectors seem to be the fly in the ointment (at least for me) in retrofitting. I am not especially well-versed in things electrical either, and I've attempted to emulate what seems to be greater success stories from the internet. I'm still coming up short and would love to see some success stories from our BF friends posted here.

I've noticed (but not purchased) a retro-looking, metal light in a B&M package hanging on the wall at my LBS (Harris). Given how effective other B&M headlights are, I'd expect this one to be good too. But they aren't cheap.

To retrofit an old headlight housing to run an LED, you have to fit the LED together with its own lens (which is a small acrylic parabolic reflecto). The LED comes on a hexagonal aluminum plate about 2 cm across, and the lens is in a cylinder about 2 cm long that fits onto that. You may be able to fit that LED and reflector combination into the parabolic reflector of an old lamp, or maybe not. It depends how the light bulb was attached to the parabola. You can get narrow, medium or wide lenses for most LED's now, and a narrow one provides very well focused light that is ideal for bicycle headlights.

Aside from fitting the LED and its lens, there is the matter of a heat sink. An LED produces heat and light at the same time, in the same place. It isn't a great deal of heat, but it is pretty intense at that point. The aluminum hexagon will disperse it to some degree, but you also want to attach that aluminum hexagon to another, bigger, piece of metal to disperse the heat farther. One way to do this is to replace the original parabolic reflector of your lamp with a disc of sheet copper, and attach the LED, with its reflector, to that. The copper disc mounts to the lamp with the same steel springs that held the original parabola, so the heat produced is transferred first to the copper and then to the lamp housing, which has enough mass that you won't even notice it getting warm.

As for the electronics, the fundamental challenge is that a dynamo produces AC power and an LED requires DC power. You can put a bridge rectifier in the circuit (this requires four soldered connections) or assemble your own from diodes (this also requires four soldered connections, so it isn't actually any more work than using a pre-assembled unit). Or you can go caveman and wire your headlight and tail light opposite; so one wire from the dynamo goes to the positive connection of the headlight and the negative of the taillight, while the other goes to the negative of the headlight and the positive of the taillight. As you ride, they will flash alternately.

Thanks, Rudi, really illuminating.

If you had one of those giant housings you could stash batteries in there. I really dig those type.

COuldn't you do a plate that goes right on the glass of a vintage headlight and mount 2-3 LED's with their reflectors, then run the heat sink behind it? If you vented the bottom, nobody would see it, and it would blow over the sink

A conversion.

http://bicyclesafari.blogspot.com/20...ike-light.html

How about using one of these, they have a pair (clear +red)with a screw base that will work with a Miller lamp and SA dymo hub.

If you just install the bulbs, you'll get a much brighter light but with a strobe effect. Maybe that's good for day light riding? I was looking at the birdge recifiers at the Radio Shack, they seem small enough to fit in the housing of the lamp easy.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=289259

Then I thought....Since the lamp has a 3 position switch, why not run one straight for daylight ( strobe) One through the Bridge rectifier for night riding and one as an off setting?

If your original lights have screw bases, why not check out Tektite bulbs?
They make a led side emitting bulb which you could use with your original reflectors.
Unlike the front prefocused bulbs, this one emits light like your standard incadescent bulb. All around.
I think they come in preset voltages. You would have to check that out
The part # is LS407--$29.95--6V

Link 2: http://harriscyclery.net/product/bus...ators-3524.htm

Yep, that's the light I referred to in an earlier note. If it is anything like the other B&M lights then it is very, very good.

All the lights I use are vintage generator powered, there to complete a certain vintage look that no new light can reproduce. You need a bike light because you actually need it to light your way so your idea to convert an old light with LEDS is a fine idea. I'd keep it generator powered, that way you'll save on batteries and you'll get a nice bright light while keeping that sweet vintage look. :)

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...elights001.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...elights003.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...elights005.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...elights006.jpg


This one is in line to be converted to a bike light. Its going to be mounted on my Schwinn Phantoms stem. (pictured below)
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...elights009.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...elights010.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...elights013.jpg

I've always wondered about these LED bulb replacements:

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~stein...erchandise.htm

They work... I have ridden with Jon, (the guy selling the bulbs). He had them in one of the old large style headlamps from the 50's. It did strobe, but put out some reasonable light. Nothing like the B&M Classic does. I have a B&M Classic (actually 3 of them) they put a solid pattern of light down and have the stand light too. My only issue is they are smaller than the 70's vintage chrome Raleigh headlights, roughly a third smaller and don't look quite right. I do use one on my Raleigh Twenty and it looks okay to me on that bike. I am going to try the LED replacements from Reflectalite, my stock wedge base tail light bulb has already been replaced by a standard LED 194/168 automotive bulb, IIRC I paid about $5usd for it at a truck stop somewhere. Compass Cycles has a screw base tail light LED with stand light built in for $20usd. I have a couple of these and have been pleased with the results.


Aaron :)

Electricity. It's a fad. :)

I have been toying with the same idea only for a 6v motorcycle headlight, I have a 1981 Honda XL250 that runs 6v and the headlight sucks. I picked up a single wire 6v rectifier from a old Yamaha 400 that I was thinking about using, I then thought about using this on a bicycle to power some LED's after reading about some of the conversions that were done, I just don't know if the AC output from a bicycle generator will be enough to work with it.

Glenn

If there is a battery powered version of this, I'd jump on it. I've got a bullet light on my main bike that looks pretty snazzy but emits an utterly pitiful beam -- not so great for someone who does a lot of night riding. Aaaaaand my housemate swiped the (much less attractive) light I had that I could actually *see* by. *headdesk*

Here's a thought:

Since I have an old dual-bulb Miller with an actual silvered reflector, and since the reflector is in contact with the shell, would that work as a heat sink? Or would I want to try to solder something to the backside, in order to gain more mass?

Here's a pic taken in 1981 of my old Raleigh Sports with a big headlight from Bicycle Lighting Systems. It used a 6v sealed beam lamp that had a trapezoidal pattern. I think they were designed for scooters. Absolutely the best beam pattern I've ever seen for a bike headlight. The NiCd battery is in the water bottle holder on the seat tube. I still have two of the lamps. The housing was a typical 4" diameter piece typically seen on tractors and probably still available in the hardware store. Whoppin' huge amount of light for the time!

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=289810

I've been using that B&M and I don't find it looks that out of place on my bike. It's a pretty decent light.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8057/8...bd69f20bd3.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8479/8...be29a63cff.jpg