Need a new light system for 1980s bike

[SuperGalactian]

My 1985 Claud Butler Panache audax bike came (when new) with a Sanyo dynamo that mounted behind the bottom bracket, and lightweight front and rear lights. The front light attached to a boss on the offside front fork, and actually produced a very good beam for night rides on rural roads. The rear light was fine, but nothing exceptional. The dynamo was useless: poor output when climbing hills or stopped, slipped in the wet, quickly got full of dirt and died. I soon replaced it with a 12V battery in a small saddle bag, which was very effective but actually a clumsy solution.

Having put up with that for 40 years, I feel it's time to embrace LED technology. I need a system powerful enough for night rides on rural roads (ie very dark, with potholes and wildlife). The rear light is easily sorted with a USB-chargeable flashing LED light, which should last all night. The front light is more difficult, and I'd appreciate recommendations. Ideally, it would be LED, I'd mount it on the front fork boss again (because I use a handlebar bag), and I'd power it from a re-chargeable battery pack in the bottle cage, something like this one. The wiring would then be short and neat. Does anyone know of a decent-quality retro-looking front light that would pair with such a battery pack? (The actual lights made by Fourth4th are too modern to suit the bike, and very pricey.)

 

[Punkawallah]

Have you considered fitting an LED bulb into your current light?

 

[Chris S]

I just put LED bulbs in my 1975 Hercules. They make a huge difference even at low speeds.

 

[Andy in Germany]

We get a lot of bikes with this sort of system. When we refurbish them for sale we tend to swap the bottle for a hub dynamo which gives more power. There are some LED lights for use with dynamos which have a good output and a retro style.

 

[Sharky]

How about a retro headlight, which is led AND rechargeable?

Seems cheap, so no idea how good it is.
Just search for retro led rechargeable bike light.

Several options come up.

 

[SuperGalactian]

Have you considered fitting an LED bulb into your current light?

Yes, but I understood that they may well melt the housing! If that isn’t the case, it could well be a good solution, but I must also solve the power supply issue.

 

[SuperGalactian]

How about a retro headlight, which is led AND rechargeable?

View attachment 806698

Seems cheap, so no idea how good it is.
Just search for retro led rechargeable bike light.

Several options come up.

Thanks for the suggestion. There seem to be many variants of this lamp from different suppliers. Some say that it is really only suited to urban situations with street lighting. There’s also a question about run-time per charge. But hey, at that price it’s surely worth a try!

 

[SuperGalactian]

We get a lot of bikes with this sort of system. When we refurbish them for sale we tend to swap the bottle for a hub dynamo which gives more power. There are some LED lights for use with dynamos which have a good output and a retro style.

I have looked covetously at those too. They are quite expensivr, and obviously involve rebuilding the wheel. I’m really hoping for an add-on solution rather than a re-build one. But I am very undecided still.

 

[Punkawallah]

Yes, but I understood that they may well melt the housing! If that isn’t the case, it could well be a good solution, but I must also solve the power supply issue.

AFAIK LED bulbs produce less heat than incandescent? And as they need less power to run, could solve your power issues. Worth looking into, at least - please let the rest of us know what you turn up :-)

 

[freiston]

If you end up buying a new front lamp, for the usage you describe, I would recommend a StVZO compliant one rated at 80 lux or above. I use hub dynamo powered lights on five bikes and I love them - I ride on dark narrow country lanes too. I don't know the ins and outs, but I suspect that if you decide to go the battery pack route, then there might be an e-bike StVZO 80 lux (or more) lamp available that will run off a battery pack - hopefully someone else will come along and be able to give more information on this.

 

[deejayen]

I like halogen lights to ride with, but there's not a lot of choice nowadays, and they're obviously less battery efficient than LEDs, which is a problem on longer rides.

Lumicycle might be a good option if you want to use a bottle battery. Their headlamps aren't particulary retro looking, but they might not look too out of place. I think they could be rigged up to mount on a fork boss. It might be difficult to switch between power levels on the move, but you'd probably just leave it on one of its settings.

It looks like their cheapest road-specific light is the Freeway at £99 (probably plus battery and charger).

Edit: I've just seen that they don't appear to be selling bottle batteries now. However, bottle batteries and chargers for various lights (including Lumicycle) are available from MTB Batteries (mtbbatteries.co.uk).

 

[Ming the Merciless]

A photo or two of the existing setup would paint a thousand words.

 

[SuperGalactian]

However, bottle batteries and chargers for various lights (including Lumicycle) are available from MTB Batteries (mtbbatteries.co.uk).

That's particularly helpful, thanks so much!

A photo or two of the existing setup would paint a thousand words.

Hard to illustrate the lighting system, but here's the bike. Lead-acid battery is in the saddle bag, but that's not a good place for it. Rear flasher (the upper unit) was for daytime use only.

 

[SuperGalactian]

Just reporting back. I decided to keep the original Union front fork light for its period vibe, but to DIY convert it to a daytime flashing/safety LED light, and rely on adding a modern handlebar light when needed to actually see by. Accordingly, I bought an E10 screw-fit LED bulb to replace the old halogen, and set about learning how to make it flash. In a textbook I found a suitable circuit based on a 555 timer chip. I recalculated the resistor values to give a flash duration and rate that seemed reasonable to me (as a sometime car driver), tried out the circuit on a breadboard, then soldered it onto strip board. Runs off 4 Li-Fe cells, which makes a very compact bundle to hang under the junction of the crossbar and head tube. Run time to be determined, but I expect it to be many hours. I may do similar with the original rear light (the lower one in the photo above) and wire that in too. And I plan to switch to rechargeable LiPo cells when I run out of old-stock LiFe ones.

Here's the complete package, and a detail of the circuit board. Video here: https://share.icloud.com/photos/05d4jeSXlCLCzficU-8EILJqg