Lights - a thread for old people

[Joey Shabadoo]

Can we have more meaningful thread titles please? For old codgers like me, "lights" are a tasty meal

 

[NorthernDave]

The ever ready one's were awful though. These were miles better. Often they actually worked.

Yep, had a set of them back in the 80's. Cutting edge technology - a rear light that could be seen from more than 10 feet away and you could quickly pop the lights out of the brackets to stop ruffians stealing them if you nipped into a shop!

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Anyone remember these? As awful as awful ever got -

View attachment 146265

Yes I remember them, bolted to a bracket bolted to the front fork. I was looking for something in my bits box the other day and came across several of the brackets that fit the forks plus some Wonder Light spares.

 

[Lonestar]

Did you make a full recovery?

Yeah I got over it.The lamp didn't.

Anyone remember that story of a driver in the times of the "three day week" (in the 70's), driving their car without lights - To save electricity!

They still do round here.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Then there is the British Standard Argument and the other stuff.. Oh nooooo.

Says the bike light collector !!!!

I've got the best yet, my Ding FL1 !!!

Kick starter project that finally turned up when I no longer commute. It will be good off road with it's additional down lighter !

You can pipe down, you are the main cause of my lumen addiction.

 

[tyred]

[QUOTE 4494158, member: 43827"]This rear light came on my recent acquisition, a 1976 bike.

View attachment 146319 [/QUOTE]

I have one of those too. Like their dynohub powered counterpart, they take a weird bulb that is very difficult to find nowadays in 6v form (easy in 12V, VW use it in their number plate lamps).

 

[slowmotion]

Anyone remember these? As awful as awful ever got -

View attachment 146265

The batteries would always leave some foul white acid gunge inside the housing.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

View attachment 146251

Why do cavemen need carbide?

 

[PaulSecteur]

When I was a lad we were so poor we couldn't afford darkness. Just sayin'

Darkness - very "laa-dee-daah". Snob.

When I were a lad I had to cease to exist between the hours of 4pm and 8am but still get a full night shifts work done.

 

[MontyVeda]

Can't find a pic... but who remembers the Duracell bike lights from the 90s? They were the size of half a house brick and had a key and locked on to the frame. A couple of D cell batteries provided awesome 'see with' illumination, for about 15mins, followed by a dull yellow glow for up to a couple of hours. I still can't believe the cr@p we used to put up with until relatively recently.

 

[mjr]

Can't find a pic... but who remembers the Duracell bike lights from the 90s? They were the size of half a house brick and had a key and locked on to the frame.

The "before" pictures on https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/falcon-majorca-restoration.182937/ show some, I think. They nearly doubled the weight of the bike (not quite, but it did make it noticeably unbalanced) and the key had been lost so I removed them with a saw (carefully!)

 

[Profpointy]

Getting hard to find calcium carbide these days..

I have it on (supposedly) good authority that it was something of a by product of some now-obsolete industrial process or other, and since the demand for use for limelight in theatres, (on-site production of acetylene) for welding, and bike lamps is so limited no-one's now making it specially in any quantity so it's indeed hard to get hold of.

I still have a stock for my caving lamp assuming it's not turned to dust - but am all electric now. We used to use carbide abroad as the old electric lamps wouldn't last long enough for a expedition lenght caving trip, but LED battery lamps are so good these days that carbide's an anachronism even for caving.

 

[MontyVeda]

The "before" pictures on https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/falcon-majorca-restoration.182937/ show some, I think. They nearly doubled the weight of the bike (not quite, but it did make it noticeably unbalanced) and the key had been lost so I removed them with a saw (carefully!)

Yep, they're the ones.