What "thing" from when you started, would be out of place now.

[VinSumRox]

I had a set of these Wonderlights. Just as bad as the Ever Ready ones

 

[Dogtrousers]

I had a set of these Wonderlights. Just as bad as the Ever Ready ones

View attachment 808472

I remember when I got those. They were so cool! So 80s! They were the big hair, shoulder pads, and filofaxes of the bike lighting world.

Unfortunately they were still not very good at emitting light, and their batteries were just as prone to giving off evil goo as older lights.

 

[HLaB]

I had a set of these Wonderlights. Just as bad as the Ever Ready ones

View attachment 808472

Those look expensive slim line ones, so not quite as bad 😉

 

[freiston]

I remember when I got those. They were so cool! So 80s! They were the big hair and shoulder pads, the filofaxes of the bike lighting world.

Unfortunately they were still not very good at emitting light, and their batteries were just as prone to giving off evil goo as older lights.

I got the front light but stuck with the Ever Ready rear light. The big advantage of the front light was that I could place it on my handlebars (the Never Ready being on a boss half-way up the right hand fork blade) and angle/aim it whilst on the move. This meant that, whilst cycling the long straight country lanes of the Fens, I could point it up and hope to catch the eye of the car half a mile away but still blinding me with its main beam lights, so that the driver would go to dip, or - more often the case, point it to the verge just in front of me so that I could steer by the verge rather than look ahead blinded by the car's headlights and hoping that I was staying on my side of the road.

For a few years, I had a rear dynamo torpedo/egg shaped light fixed between my Karrimor rear rack (they had a washer welded on to fix the light to) and the mudguard, powered (after suitable bulb substitution) via wires (in parallel) and crocodile clips to the front Ever Ready light. It worked well and meant that I could use panniers and the top of the rack but battery life was woefully short: I recall once setting off at night to get across the country from east coast to Wolverhampton but stopping just short of Grantham, on account of having no lights, and sleeping off the roadside.

 

[freiston]

I got the front light but stuck with the Ever Ready rear light. The big advantage of the front light was that I could place it on my handlebars (the Never Ready being on a boss half-way up the right hand fork blade) and angle/aim it whilst on the move. This meant that, whilst cycling the long straight country lanes of the Fens, I could point it up and hope to catch the eye of the car half a mile away but still blinding me with its main beam lights, so that the driver would go to dip, or - more often the case, point it to the verge just in front of me so that I could steer by the verge rather than look ahead blinded by the car's headlights and hoping that I was staying on my side of the road.

For a few years, I had a rear dynamo torpedo/egg shaped light fixed between my Karrimor rear rack (they had a washer welded on to fix the light to) and the mudguard, powered (after suitable bulb substitution) via wires (in parallel) and crocodile clips to the front Ever Ready light. It worked well and meant that I could use panniers and the top of the rack but battery life was woefully short: I recall once setting off at night to get across the country from east coast to Wolverhampton but stopping just short of Grantham, on account of having no lights, and sleeping off the roadside.

Here are a couple of photos of the set-up, unloaded and loaded

 

[fwgx]

It never got better than these really

 

[Hover Fly]

because side pull calipers hit the rim with a different force on each caliper arm. Later proved to be bollocks.

By Isaac Newton.

 

[Andy in Germany]

When I got my first "proper" bike I bought these, which were quite expensive at the time, but very handy on the back lanes of Somerset. Apart from being powerful enough to light up a passing helicopter, the battery was rechargeable so I could keep the "low beam" on all the time, and in the dark the double beam looked like a tractor to approaching motorists which meant they gave me lots more space.
I wouldn't swap them for my LED hub dynamo headlights though.

 

[Gunk]

 

[Windle]

Shorts with real chamois.

Apart from putting them on for the first time after they'd been washed, like sitting on bloody cardboard.

 

[Windle]

I had a set of these Wonderlights. Just as bad as the Ever Ready ones

View attachment 808472

I remember having a set of those, they promised so much more to the rider used to the chunky Ever Ready lights ~ but didn't deliver. They worked well for about half an hour then went dim very quickly, though oddly if you tried them the next day they were as bright as ever..... for the same half hour. I did read something back in the day, maybe in the 'comic' (or 'Winning' magazine ~ anybody remember that?) which explained that it was caused by the battery cell layout for some reason, the single piece flat cells (4.5v ?) were prone to this apparently.

 

[dicko]

Rat Traps with a leather adjustable toe band available from Curry’s (electrical and cycle shops 50/60s) cost about 17/6d a pair.
Bright yellow cycle capes with a matching so-wester again about £1, Curry’s cycle shops.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

All this talk of old bike lights has had me racking my brain, trying to remember the brand/model of those little black dual front lights (1W?) connected to a 1Kg+ black bottle battery in bottle cage, must be from ~2010. Think they came from Ribble.

 

[VinSumRox]

Apart from putting them on for the first time after they'd been washed, like sitting on bloody cardboard.

Yep and I needed braces with mine as the elastic was no good.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Shorts with real chamois.

Apart from putting them on for the first time after they'd been washed, like sitting on bloody cardboard.

Yep and I needed braces with mine as the elastic was no good.

I think I understand the decline in popularity...