Articles
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Your Tax Dollars
December 2, 2008
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Current Bike-Lighting Configuration
November 6, 2008
Read moreHere’s what I currently have as a winter time visibility kit:
An assortment of lights 
My favorite is the NiteRider taillight! 
NiteRider 15W halogen on handlebars, with sibling NiteRider taillight, both running off my home-made 12V NiMH battery pack on the back of the seat tube. I just got this working again after a 2-year hiatus, so there are some other headlights still on the bike until I’m confident in the new battery.
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BUUD Alert #3!
November 4, 2008
This is Bicycle-Unfriendly Urban Design (BUUD) Danger Alert #3!
Location: Hollenbeck Ave at El Camino
Issue: The traffic signal yellow-light duration is way too short for a bicycle to make it across El Camino before the light changes to red. Even at >15 mph, a bike entering the intersection on a green light can’t make the other side before the light is red.
Proposed solution: Increase the yellow light duration.
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Building a replacement battery pack for a NiteRider 12V light
November 3, 2008
Read moreSince it was quickly getting very dark in the evenings, and I knew the “fall back” time change was soon to be upon us to make it even darker, my thoughts turned to bike lights.
More specifically, my thoughts turned to the general inadequacy of my current white-light setup… I’ve been using a little Cateye on the handlebars in blinking-mode (to get the attention of cars) and a bigger Cateye HL500 mounted down on the fork blade for trail/road illumination. But it just can’t cut through oncoming cars’ headlights, and on a trail with twists and turns, it has too narrow a beam.
Last year, I put the small Cateye on my helmet, to get around the HL500’s focused beam; that wasn’t bad, but the combo just wasn’t bright enough. I started using these lights after my NiteRider halogen’s battery pack finally died. I got several years’ use out of it, but a replacement battery pack is over $150, and I was having a hard time justifying the expense.
So, having decided the current combination was just not cutting it, I weighed my choices: get a completely new system (maybe a hub generator? can’t switch it between bikes very easily, and quite expensive. New-tech rechargeable LED stuff? Nice, but pricey) or revive the old one (but a new battery pack is almost as much as a low-end LED light!) But perhaps there was a less-costly option…
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BUUD Alert #2!
November 3, 2008
This is Bicycle-Unfriendly Urban Design (BUUD) Danger Alert #2!
Location: E Evelyn Ave and Hwy 85 onramp
Issue: Bicycles headed east on Evelyn for the Steven’s Creek trail must a) enter left turn lane, b) change course in the middle of the left turn, making a right turn and entering onto the south sidewalk, c) ride the wrong way down the sidewalk to the trail entrance.
Proposed solution: create a bicycle/pedestrian crosswalk directly under the bike bridge.