Bicycle thread

[fullmonte]

Originally Posted by ducnut

I've ridden the trails, at Ocoee. That's going to be brutal!

Not to mention the fact that most of those miles between the real trails are just gravel fireroads with lots of elevation changes. The majority of the course comprises one of my favorite dualsport rides. Sometimes I will see riders on mtb's as I roost by and think they are for riding those roads. Good luck on the training Ridge. I can't think of anything in the Triangle area (hill wise) that will properly prepare you for the Cohutta 100.

[ducnut]

Originally Posted by fullmonte

Not to mention the fact that most of those miles between the real trails are just gravel fireroads with lots of elevation changes. The majority of the course comprises one of my favorite dualsport rides. Sometimes I will see riders on mtb's as I roost by and think they are for riding those roads. Good luck on the training Ridge. I can't think of anything in the Triangle area (hill wise) that will properly prepare you for the Cohutta 100.

The warnings just keep getting better!

[pierce]

ok, charge/discharge test #3 on my $33 chinee XM-L T6 headlight...

take battery off charger, plug in lamp.

power on at 10:12pm ...
still green at 11:00 (+48 mins)
was blue at 11:05 (+53 mins)
still blue at 11:52 (+1:40)
BLINKED twice and turned RED at 11:54 (+1:42)
still red and full brightness at 12:43 (+2:31)
(switching off to get some sleep)


so this thing is good for at LEAST 2.5 hours on high. my seat of the pants guestimate says low is half as bright (and still damn bright) so maybe 5+ hours on low?

in the AM I'll switch it back on and see how much longer it runs til its noticeably fading or flashes again

edit: k, its morning, I turned it back on at 8:40am, without recharging. I left the lamp plugged into the battery, so the red 'low battery' indicator LED was on all night....

at 9:13am, it blinked twice, and now the red LED under the button is flashing. thats 3:04 total on time from when it was originally powered up.

[Ridge]

Originally Posted by fullmonte

Not to mention the fact that most of those miles between the real trails are just gravel fireroads with lots of elevation changes. The majority of the course comprises one of my favorite dualsport rides. Sometimes I will see riders on mtb's as I roost by and think they are for riding those roads. Good luck on the training Ridge. I can't think of anything in the Triangle area (hill wise) that will properly prepare you for the Cohutta 100.

Originally Posted by ducnut

The warnings just keep getting better!

I'm feeling the love...

[mud]

Originally Posted by pierce

ok, charge/discharge test #3 on my $33 chinee XM-L T6 headlight...

take battery off charger, plug in lamp.

power on at 10:12pm ...
still green at 11:00 (+48 mins)
was blue at 11:05 (+53 mins)
still blue at 11:52 (+1:40)
BLINKED twice and turned RED at 11:54 (+1:42)
still red and full brightness at 12:43 (+2:31)
(switching off to get some sleep)


so this thing is good for at LEAST 2.5 hours on high. my seat of the pants guestimate says low is half as bright (and still damn bright) so maybe 5+ hours on low?

in the AM I'll switch it back on and see how much longer it runs til its noticeably fading or flashes again

edit: k, its morning, I turned it back on at 8:40am, without recharging. I left the lamp plugged into the battery, so the red 'low battery' indicator LED was on all night....

at 9:13am, it blinked twice, and now the red LED under the button is flashing. thats 3:04 total on time from when it was originally powered up.

A bunch of local guys have these and are really happy with them, and they are comparing them to halogens, HID's, and other LED's.

They are so happy we have stopped development of our own lighting products..... NO way we could compete. If the batteries crap out early, I will probably offer a battery replacement service. Other than that, China wins again.

[pierce]

Originally Posted by mud

A bunch of local guys have these and are really happy with them, and they are comparing them to halogens, HID's, and other LED's.

They are so happy we have stopped development of our own lighting products..... NO way we could compete. If the batteries crap out early, I will probably offer a battery replacement service. Other than that, China wins again.

this one, the battery is 4 18650's shrunkwrap. I figure if they crap out, I hit up Battery Junction, and get 4 more chinee 18650s, and rebuild the pack. catch-22, those batteries cost nearly as much as the light

p.s. 9:42, and its STILL running, so thats 3.5 hours so far. I think I'll shut this down and give the batteries a break

so, when it goes to blue, you've got at least 2.5 hours left
when it flashes and goes to red, you've got at least 1:45 left
when it flashes again and the red starts blinking, you've got at least a half hour left on high. !!!

[Gummee!]

Not quite 3hrs on primarily gravel roads just now. Ooof but my legs are tired. No hockey for me tonite!

So we were riding along about an hour in to the ride when my buddy sez 'you should have told me about these rides. I would have ridden my Epic...' so I kicked him in his shin. I'd been trying to get him to go on the gravel rides with myself and another buddy for MONTHS. He didn't want to ride his Tarmac 'cause he didn't want to potentially do anything to it and didn't want to ride his Epic 'cause he was afraid he wouldn't be able to keep up.

He's digging the gravel road riding. He didn't know how much he was missing till he got a cross bike and came out, but yet he refuses to think about cross racing. We've been trying to tell him how much fun it is... Ya think that if THIS is as much fun as we've been saying that maybe, just maybe racing cross is fun too?!

M

[Gummee!]

Still no light, but its getting closer!

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2012-10-31, 10:08:00, SHENZHEN


M

[CatfishRacing]

I ordered from Action LED yesterday and FedEx says it should be here tomorrow.
Spent a little more but I'm OK with that.

[pierce]

so, if you have the cheap ebay magicshine /clone/ lamp (NOT the 'real' magicshine), and you get the actionLED spreader lens, as action tells you, the lens on the clone lamp is thicker than the spreader lens. I hit up the hardware store and poked around at o-rings. I found a 1-9/16ths" OD 3/32" thick O-ring is the right outside diameter exactly, but its about 1/32nd too thick. I think the perfect o-ring to replace the one on the clone lamp would be 1-9/16ths OD and 1/16th thick, or 39mm OD and 1.5mm thick. o-rings are often sold by their ID, so that would be 1-7/16" or 36mm.

your mileage may vary. the spreader lens looks awesome in my livingroom, the beam is nice and wide now.

[YakSpout]

Originally Posted by pierce

so, if you have the cheap ebay magicshine /clone/ lamp (NOT the 'real' magicshine), and you get the actionLED spreader lens, as action tells you, the lens on the clone lamp is thicker than the spreader lens. I hit up the hardware store and poked around at o-rings. I found a 1-9/16ths" OD 3/32" thick O-ring is the right outside diameter exactly, but its about 1/32nd too thick. I think the perfect o-ring to replace the one on the clone lamp would be 1-9/16ths OD and 1/16th thick, or 39mm OD and 1.5mm thick. o-rings are often sold by their ID, so that would be 1-7/16" or 36mm.

your mileage may vary. the spreader lens looks awesome in my livingroom, the beam is nice and wide now.

I picked up that spreader, so I'll keep an eye out for the right o-ring. My light is still somewhere in China.

Thanks for doing the legwork.

[mud]

I got a fat bike!
I got a fat bike!
My wife rocks!!!!!
My wife picked up a 12' (last years) mukluk for me for my 40th.... WOOHOO!

Picks to follow after I pick it up tomorrow.

[GP640]

You suck.

My wife bought me a GPS and a nice bottle of Scotch for my 40th

[pierce]

Originally Posted by pierce

the spreader lens looks awesome in my livingroom, the beam is nice and wide now.

so I took it outside on the low setting instead of high. it just rained, and its nice and dark in my back yard, stars were coming out behind the storm clouds.

on low with the spreader lens, this thing is awesome. it lit the whole couple acre field standing in a corner of it, and the trees beyond. the spread beam is at least 30 degrees wide, maybe more like 45, and the bright area is quite narrow top to bottom. the spill circle around the bright area is actually as bright as most of my other lights spots. I think even on low, you would either want to aim this thing way down, or have a not-so-bright 2nd lamp or blinkies for riding in urban traffic. but, out on a dark road or trail, its freekin awesome.

frankly, I wish it had an even dimmer mode, and maybe a fast strobe, the blink mode it has is full brightness ON OFF ON OFF about twice/second.

its been on low for 1/2 hour now and its just warm. on high, it was almost too hot to touch. I bet I get 5-6 hours at least on low. serious commuters, travelers light.

2:15 on low and its still green. and still just warm, not hot.

ah, at 2:39, its finally turned blue some time in the last few minutes (it was still green 5 minutes ago)
and coming up on 4 hours, its STILL blue.

at 4:48 it blinked and went red. its midnigth (I started this at 7pm), not sure I wanna wait around fo rhte 2nd round of blink when the red starts to blink, thats probably ANOTHER 4 hours. hahahahahahaha.

[neanderthal]

Getting better at spinning and figuring out what gears to change up/ down to to maintain my cadence. Did my 30 mile ride in 2:09 yesterday for a 2nd best ever time and average speed. Took 2:34 the last time I rode when I just didn't have the legs, lungs or willpower.

Starting to suck at mashing though.....