Carrying spare light batteries on the bike

[mjr]

On my touring bike i have single wire to a rear bottle dynamo and had wiring and connection problems which needed 3 hands to resolve.

Yes, double wire FTW! Why should your poor old headset bearings carry any electricity?

 

[DaveReading]

That's even easier, then. If the lights fail so catastrophically that you don't deem pedalling safe, then push it home.

I could indeed.

Or I could take some spare batteries with me, if only I could think where best to stow them ...

Thanks to all for the constructive suggestions.

 

[jefmcg]

<sigh> Put them in your bar ends.</sigh>

Also, don't use the batteries that come with lights (or whatever). The shrink wrapped pair that usually come with new AA or AAA devices are perfect for storing away for emergencies, much better than a blister pack of duracells or a couple of expensive rechargeables.

(do your lights really fail that quickly? My led tail lights last a good hour after they start dimming - longer, probably, but I recharge them when I get home; and the front lights politely flash red then drop to a low output, so also have hours of warning)

 

[froze]

LED lights are indeed the most wonderful "new" technology that has come to the cycling world. Unfortunately the battery technology isn't there, the new NiMh's or LI's will only last about 3 years (if used a lot) before they will no longer charge, the old NiCd's could be charged for years but those didn't have enough power in smaller sizes make a light burn longer...BUT that was in the old days of halogen bulbs that took a lot of current and needed a large battery so NiMh's decreased that battery size. I think the cycling light industry needs to look at NiCd's again now with LED's because that would bring up the battery reliability factor by at least 3 times over a NiMh or LI.

For some things like a drill that requires a lot of power a NiCd doesn't produce enough power to adequately power a drill so NiMh is really the only way to go, but with LED light that requires just a trickle of current compared to drill NiCd would be a lot better.

Ok now onto the point of the question, I never carry spare bats for my lights because I keep them charged. The funny thing is I do carry spare bats for my bike computer but that's because they don't recharge and you never know when they'll die.

 

[ufkacbln]

Put them inside the seat post wrapped in cloth. Run two lights each end, then you've got redundancy of both batteries and the light itself.

I use the two lights system

Both have enough for two days, but as a precaution I always have one fully charged

Day one, Light A on full, light B on Flash (charge light B)
Day 2, Light B on full, light A on Flash (charge light B)

Then continue this alternation.with the exception that I charge both on a Sunday


It means that even with a failure (or I forget to charge) I still have a light that will work