Team Revived and Blindingly Bright

After way too long I got the lights finished and I’ve been back on the road again the past week. I have to say it feels really good to be riding the velo again.

I delayed myself an extra couple days just building up the guts to cut a hole in the shell for the new headlight. Even after planning and measuring to excess you can see that I still managed to get the hole slightly off center. It’s not too bad, but it rubs my perfectionist side the wrong way. At least the fiberglass didn’t shatter or something worse while I was drilling. I masked the area with tape before cutting and the edges came out nice and smooth.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, the Magicshine is insanely bright. I wanted to orient it slightly downward so that it wouldn’t blind or infuriate other drivers. As it turned out, the Magicshine seems like it was almost made to go in the Team. Not only is the mounting hole a perfect match for the bolt on the original BLT light, but when mounted upside down on said bolt it points downward at a perfect angle. The only problem was that since the BLT is so long the Magicshine didn’t extend far enough to be flush with the shell. To remedy this I used a bit of PVC coupling as an extension tube, fitting it over the housing of the light and extending to the shell. This keeps too much water from blowing into the area where the lights and the wiring are housed. At some point I’ll probably cover this with a lense to reduce the extra wind resistance it creates and give it a more finished look.

I also replaced the tail light, which was having intermittent problems. I had never really liked that the tail section was bolted in place because it made the rear area around the wheel less useful and difficult to access. This was painfully clear when I was trying to get at the rear light to replace it. I had to shimmy my upper body into the hole behind where the seat and BionX battery are (after removing both of course) and undo the bolts mostly by feel before my arms went numb from lack of circulation. It was fun.

However, since I had the tail cover off I decided to implement my vision of an open-able back hatch (not to mention that I never wanted to have to crawl inside there again). I played with a bunch of different ideas for the mechanism ranging from hinges to elaborate sliding pop-up contraptions, but I was getting tired of watching my velomobile fester in the garage, so I opted for the most basic, jury-rigged method I could think of. Shock cord. I simply laced a length of shock cord through the existing bolt holes along one side and tied it off tight – this actually ends up working like a hinge surprisingly well. I did the same thing on the other side, but left slack that can be pulled out when I raise the lid – when I want it shut I just tie it off tight as well. Using it over the past week it has proved more effective than I originally had hoped. When tied down it’s remarkably secure and it opens up enough for me to stuff my bag back there. Not bad!

I still have some further lighting ideas cooking in the back of my head including the rear flasher and some kind of rip off of the Down Low Glow, but I’m feeling a lot better now that all of my lights are consistently working.

Update: Mountain Bike Review has now posted a review of the Magicshine light. See it here: Magicshine Pro Review