BLT – Broken Lighting Technology

The yellow velo has gone dark for a while now, both figuratively and literally. Shortly after it started getting dark near the end of the workday, I headed home one evening to find that the headlight was barely glowing. I nearly got hit twice on my way home by cars coming in from side streets (neither one actually stopped at their stop sign, so it wasn’t totally my fault). Thinking that maybe the battery was simply run down I gave it a full charge overnight and headed back to work the next day. That evening I rode home in the dark again.

The headlight, a BLT (Better Lighting Technology) Firewire 4.0, is a 4 watt LED headlight that had been bright during previous night rides over the summer. Now it was extremely dim, but not out altogether, which seemed odd. So I did some troubleshooting to narrow down the problem among the battery, wiring and light itself. Everything right up to the LED leads was fine, so apparently I just got a headlight with a bad LED. It happens sometimes.

Unfortunately, this meant that I had to wait to get a replacement in from Canada. While I was waiting and the days kept getting darker (and rainier) I got to thinking about how I could further avoid getting run down once I got back on the road. As a sometimes driver, I can attest to how extremely difficult it is to see pedestrians and cyclists and even other cars when it is dark and raining. I get downright angry when people are riding or walking in dark clothes and inadequate or no lighting, so I felt like the only responsible thing to do was to stay off the road until I knew that I was more visible.

First I added even more reflective tape to the sides of the velomobile where visibility from my head and tail lights would be minimal during future potential broadsides. Then I started drooling over the Down Low Glow from Rock the Bike. This seems like such a smart idea and really helps with the side visibility problem. After some research it turned out that they haven’t quite worked out waterproofing on them yet, so that makes them a no-go for Olympia. They are a little on the pricey side too (perhaps because they use neon lights?). In any case, it got my DIY gears cranking and I have some plans to work on an LED version that I can make fully waterproof. That’s a slightly longer-term project though.

Then I decided that if I’m going to be riding 20-25 mph in the dark and rain I really want to see and be seen. The BLT headlight is pretty bright on its own, but not super-strong. It also is just a steady light, which can sometimes be bad for visibility to car drivers. So I went all out and got a somewhat insanely bright Magicshine headlight that has steady high, medium, and low settings, flash, and even an SOS setting (in case I roll over into a ditch again?)

I keep learning that doing any kind of maintenance or upgrades on a velomobile is exponentially more involved than a regular bike. Being a bike light, of course the button for the Magicshine is on the body of the headlight where it would do no good for a velonaut. Again those DIY gears started cranking in my head. I needed to get the headlight in the front of the velomobile and the switch up by my hands, so out come the Dremel and the soldering iron and I proceeded to hack my brand new headlight to pieces. With some smug excitement I discovered that the mounting bolt hole on the Magicshine is a perfect fit for the one on the Team’s BLT headlight, so I can install the new light inverted onto the existing one. The switch will be housed in a small pvc cap fitting and attached in a yet to be determined spot in the cockpit. I had hoped to avoid using the evil pvc, but after scouring the hardware store, Radioshack, and a local electronics store it was the only practical choice.

I now have the light fully rewired (and still actually working!) and ready to install.

The next and most frightening step is cutting a new and rather large hole in the velomobile’s shell. I keep putting it off because even the thought of it makes me cringe. I can only hope that I don’t screw it up, otherwise I’ll have to teach myself fiberglass repair.

After this project is complete I’m going to look at doing something similar in back, which arguably should have been my first priority, safety-wise. The Team’s tail light has a single steady LED and then the brake light. I’m feeling strongly compelled to add a nice bright flasher to keep myself out of trouble.