I've seen the light.....

A few years ago I was keen to purchase a bike light. I already owned a Cateye HL1500 halogen light that seemed to attract good reviews in the late 90's. I used this for my night riding at the time which was wholly in the city, as a city boy I did not encounter true countryside darkness. You tend to be unaware of this and still think of night and day, dark and light, yet in the city night was rideable with no lights, they were effectively to be seen by pedestrians and drivers. Anyway time moved on and so did I, 30mls further north into true darkness where stars replace sodium light. One evening I did a favour for a friend and said "oh I'll cycle up I have a light", famous last words it was awful. The Cateye beam was a rectangular slot virtually useless, fortunately the distance was only 4mls round trip but lesson learned.

  After this experience I started looking into serious bike lights, the lumicycles, light and motions etc. Most were still halogens but of high power but I resented the price of these and my mind started thinking if it were possible to use a maglite torch. A work colleague poured scorn on my miserly-ness but I started searching the internet and found that others had similar thoughts. I ended off investigating the Fenix range of LED torches, they even had bike mounts so the market was there. I invested my money ( £38 ) into a Fenix L2D shown below.

The output was 180 lumens for around 2hrs in its turbo mode but would give about 5hrs at 100 lumens. This was more than comparable to lights 2-3 times the cost... this was a very good buy. I ventured out into pitch black moonless night and tried each mode finding that low to medium was good for partially lit areas and high for totally unlit.. turbo even more so but to be honest I rarely needed it and battery life suffers. The beam was a spot with a diffuse lower intensity halo narrow but not dangerously so with kerbs and verge visible. The quality of this was excellent and I'm still using it even after a 30mph fall from my pocket, beautifully machined and thoughtfully designed running on AA cells. I can wholeheartedly recommend the Fenix products and their new BT20 bike light looks like another well thought out design ( oh and I'm not paid by them even though it may read that way ). Just before christmas I was very tempted into purchasing the BT20 but I delayed due to other bills to pay and having no income at present. Then 3 months on a curve ball arrived due to the need to replace a wheel rim. My intention was to purchase rim,spokes and build it myself with the purchase of a truing stand. It was during this search that I arrived at the website of Rose bikes Germany. I'd always thought of them as a bike manufacturer rather than component seller but to my shock they sell virtually everything bike related. A look at wheel rims led to wheelsets and then to a single front wheel build...... with a Shimano DH-3N80 dynamo. The rim was a very good Mavic A319 rim in silver all for £63! but I needed a black rim. An email to Rose got a response offering the same build in with black rim. So I now researched reviews on dynamo lights, not common, but Peter White in the US seems to have done a lot of work here. The latest Busch and Muller Luxos looked very good but expensive for the fully featured version, my thoughts turned to the B+M Cyo Premium. This seemed to have a nice beam shape from the B+M flux diagram  with around 40-50mtrs of reach and 10m width. I had no idea relative to my Fenix L2D how this would compare but took the gamble and ordered the wheel build, cyo premium light and canti brake bracket. This would all mount onto my Kona Jake in need of new front rim. 

 Well one week later the box arrived and onto the bike went all the new toys, not without some minor issues described later. The images below show the setup on my slightly muddy bike, well proves it gets used, and the wiring will be tidied later as well. 

 The niggles I had were with mudguard spacing as the rim though identical in diameter is 5mm wider than previous rim so the tyre position changed slightly enough to touch sides of guard at fork crown. This was rectified and then the canti bracket would not accommodate the torx headed lamp bolt, the bolt is designed around the lamps original thick steel bracket. The canti bracket came with a nut and bolt, not captive or nyloc nut so I didn't wish to use that as I think it would vibrate loose on our shoddy road surfaces. My solution came using two of the spacer washers from a pair of discarded canti brake blocks. This has worked perfectly, see top image, and lets me use the original torx bolt which is pretty solid. I tried to align everything as well as possible prior to test riding.

  Now it was time for the exciting bit... or not! Firstly I set off in dusky light and though the light was on you could not see any beam, also no sensation of any drag. As the ambient light turned to true dusk the beam was becoming visible and the darker it got the better the beam became, revealing that it was pretty good. As I got used to this in full darkness I started to think this isn't bad but it's not outstanding, my L2D would probably better it. I thought how can I set the beam as I run to see if it needs a tweak, I stopped and adjust the light down a fraction, retightened and set off again. Wow that really did it, now I was in new territory with a beam in both throw and width beyond the L2D. I must have appeared like a motorbike as a driver waited at an empty junction for me to cycle 200mtrs up to them, not pulling out on me, excellent. I also was able to sit at all speeds, up to 23mph on my test, with no fear of out running the light totally comfortable. The beam wasn't greatly washed out by oncoming cars either and would easily light road direction signs. I did some rough timings to measure the easily visible beam length which gave 6 seconds of beam at 19mph so around 50mtrs of clear bright throw and about 15 seconds of lit road signs at 16mph so around 106mtrs. I'll continue to do further test rides and minor beam tweaks if needed but at the moment it seems very good. There are artefacts in the beam as the reflector is angular but they're not distracting to my eyes and the beam colour I feel is a warmer tint than the L2D. The rim, DH-3N80 build weighed 1.43kg with the full wheel tyre,tube,QR weighing 1.99kg most of weight difference between old wheel being at the hub a 400gm difference. It's early days but I'm very impressed so far and its nice to simply forget about run times and "did I charge my batteries".

 So thanks to Rose bikes for very competitive pricing and prompt email responses. The beam pattern of the Cyo Premium is shown below, image taken from B+M's lights flyer.

I think this beam pattern does match my perception of the light on the road with the full width of minor UK rural roads lit ( around 16ft ), plus verge. As mentioned above the throw seems to be about 50mtrs of clear light. The artefacts are more visible dependent on road surface and many times the beam appears more homogenous. To my eyes dusk is when it is more noticeable than full darkness. You can view B+M's tunnel image for the Cyo Premium on their website and see the light  and dark areas of the reflector design. The tunnel image, I feel, doesn't really do the height of the beam justice as on the road it lights visibly a lot more. I've now had my second test ride and I'm still seriously impressed. This was undertaken on a cloudy night, no moon, basically pitch black on the rural roads I rode. I had a disturbing experience of a badger running out in front of me and only just clearing my front wheel as I braked hard. I think the extra beam width over the L2D helped me see it earlier than I would have. Don't want any encounters like that as I'm not out to hurt any animals but to see them is nice. So I think for anyone who rides unlit rural roads at night ( not MTB'ing through woods ) I can wholeheartedly recommend the B+M Cyo Premium ( 80 lux, no built in reflector ), together with the DH-3N80 dynamo. I've experienced no dynamo vibration nor had any sense of drag.  

Any issues and I'll update this post but hopefully there won't be.

UPDATE:24/11/2014

  Just an update now that a new season of darkness has begun. I've found myself regularly caught out by the sudden drop in light on recent rides ( in the UK we put the clocks back 1 hour which has quite an effect ). All I can say is this light is excellent and has already justified its purchase. The freedom of zero battery concerns and the flexibility to light up anytime and also for any length of time is part of my reasoning. The other being the level of light and quality of the beam, yes there are "artefacts" more noticeable at dusk rather than dark but they are pretty minor and the beam simply works for its purpose, unlit country roads and off road tracks( i.e. Sustrans network ). As I passed a dog walker recently he commented "thats a nice light" rather than a complaint about blinding him! Had several non-angry comments of "I thought it was a motorbike coming but couldn't hear the engine" and this has been observed with cars that have waited at junctions rather than pulling out. I've never observed my own light so I'll have to get someone to ride the bike for me and let me see it, I'm now very curious. So in summary for any tourer or winter/commuter bike I'd highly recommend investigating this type of light source, I feel dynamo lights are definitely on parity with battery lights of moderate, useable power. I think the controlled beam pattern is a plus point allowing the lower lumen count to be used to give a good lux count where you need it. Now we just have to educate motorists to keep on top of getting their headlight alignment sorted as well as not driving on full beam, though with this light they dip pretty quickly.

Well autumn seems to be well and truly here...

Well autumn is upon us in the UK, a time of mixed emotions and also mixed weather from wet and windy one day to a mild/warm sunny day the next. The positives are the colours of foliage as it gets ready to drop and also the evening temperatures which, similar to spring, let one sit outside and observe the night sky in relative comfort. When I reached 40, a few years ago, I treated myself to something I'd always wanted but never had the right environment to use, a telescope. I moved to an area where light pollution is relatively low and would be 100% ideal were it not for two caravan parks who like to be lit up like prison camps and also be visible from space. Somehow I don't think extra-terrestial intelligent life would want to land there. Its a sad waste of energy but I can still view about 75% of the sky in enough darkness to easily view the milky way. I may only bring the telescope out 5 or 6 times a year but when I do it always fills me with the wonder of my childhood where I read about the stars and planets in encyclopaedias etc. At certain points in the year particular objects i.e Saturn, Jupiter are easily observable. When I first saw Saturn through my telescope ( an 8-inch Skywatcher Newtonian Reflector ) I was blown away, it was a small image but it was real, not a stunning hubble or cassini view but a real observed view with low cost equipment. Surprisingly although the planets are excellent to view the moon, often taken for granted, is a fantastic object to observe. Its a beautiful object and even using a low magnification provides much to see and learn about with online moon maps etc easily available. One software package that I think represents all thats good in open source is Stellarium. For anyone starting out with an interest in astronomy I wholeheartedly recommend it. Another aspect of using the telescope that interested me was the ability to undertake astrophotography in my own amateur fashion. I'll probably cover this in a separate post but I've added the image below as an example of what I've managed with pretty humble equipment and minimal time. A hobby that could easily become expensive but my cycling interests keep it in check!

 

Our beautiful moon and easy to observe throughout many clear nights. This was taken using a Samsung GX-10 DSLR body attached to the Skywatcher telescope with an adaptor and barlow lens. The resulting image consists of 3 seperate images ( due to field of view limitations ) stitched together with matched exposures. Its nice to see the shadows cast by some of the isolated mountains considering its 250000mls away you get very sharp definition near the terminator/shadow line. 

A Really Good Listen and More.......

I'm currently listening to an excellent series of 15 minute programs on radio 4 extra. The series of 10 programs is called "On your bike" and is to all intents and purposes a history of the bicycle from the 1880's, covering the transition from ordinaries ( "penny farthings" ) to the safety bike and the eventual adoption of the bicycle in modern society.   The series so far has been a nice,relaxing and informative piece of radio. Anyone with a general interest in the bicycles evolution may well wish to visit the Radio 4 Extra web page and listen online to the series so far ( the BBC only put them online for a week or two as far as I'm aware, though this policy may have changed ). Listening to this series also made me think of other cycling oriented documentaries and films I've had the pleasure to watch as well as some non cycling curveballs with a common link in the form of music. I've listed some of these below with a little background to what they're about. Not all are still available to view but a little internet searching sometimes turn's up a copy ( quite often on youtube etc ). Otherwise the usual sites such as Amazon quite often have DVD's/CD's to purchase, musicwise I've found Grooveshark to be an excellent site for listening to soundtracks and albums, and so far without excessive adverts! I gave up on Last.fm and Spotify for this very reason.

Here's my brief list of programs etc, hopefully someone reading this may find something of interest that they've not seen/heard before.

A Day Out

This Alan Bennett play is set in Yorkshire and centres around an early twentieth century group of cyclists. The cyclists all riding machines of the era meet up one by one to go on a group ride from Halifax to Fountains Abbey( I think it may have been an early CTC ride ). The play is nice in the way it portrays how the bicycle brought together people from all classes and walks in life. I've only seen the play shown on television once which is a great shame as it is true quality. It is available on a DVD, Alan Bennett at the BBC which I found recently. The final scenes of the play are very poignant ( I shall not say why, best to watch it ) only going to underline the statement about people from all walks of life above. I'll leave the reader to find out more, very much worth doing.  

Death on the Mountain-The Story of Tom Simpson

 This one hour documentary is the background to the tragic incident on Mont Ventoux that befell one of Britains greatest cyclists. Its a very well made documentary combining film footage of Tom Simpsons early victories and how he rose to prominence from a working class upbringing. It doesn't vilify him for having had amphetamines on the day he died climbing one of the tours toughest ascents. Its a level above this and it sort of infers that it was a problem within professional cycling that tended not to be talked about. Anyway enough of the negative. As I've said its beautifully made and the sadness of it all is emphasised in much of the soundtrack, this being taken from Philip Glass - Solo Piano. Very haunting and worth watching if you're able to find it, I think it may be viewable on youtube in 10min sections.

Breaking Away

 

This is a light hearted feature film about a group of teenagers from a mid-west town in America. The group come from a University town where the divisions between working class locals and incoming students all too often end off in conflict. No different to the UK, damned students! ( I was one :-) ) Anyway the main character above is an avid cyclist ( in fact he wishes to be an italian - don't we all ). The film is stress free entertainment, sometimes perhaps stretching reality but overall sticks to the central characters passion for the bicycle and romantic interests. One of the main scenes that's really uplifting is when he gets to draft a big rig to the accompaniment of Mendelssohns symphony No 4 ( correct me if I'm wrong ). I've always wanted to do this (without the music obviously ) but reacting to sudden brake lights is nerve wracking! Check out further detail on IMDB. 

The Ride of My Life

This one hour documentary was shown on BBC4 and follows the author Robert Penns journey to build a bike to see him out the rest of his cycling days. A bike that he'll ride every day, so it becomes quite a special pursuit. The program follows his visits to various component manufacturers to acquire the parts from frame to groupset, wheels and tyres etc. Throughout theres also snippets of cycling history as well as its engineering and many interviews with interesting people on route to Mr Penns aim. The book the documentry is based on is a good read too. I'm sure many who watch may criticise the end result or the presenters sometimes excessive enthusiasm but step back and go with the flow its an enjoyable documentary. We'd all have a different bike at the end of a similar project I'm sure. Worth watching whichever way you'd choose to do a similar project.

Bicycle Music 

This was a radio broadcast by Graeme Fife. Its 30mins long and was originally on Radio 4 extra. The program covered the bicycle and associated music as well as interviews with eminent cycling advocates and athletes. Its an eclectic mix from "Daisy Bell" to Kraftwerk. Its listed on Radio 4 Extra's web page but hasn't been broadcast for a couple of years. It may be available from another source if not its a waiting game. The broadcaster Graeme Fife has many other cycling related productions and publications to his name that may also be worth looking into.

Kraftwerk Tour de France Soundtracks

 I've loved Kraftwerk since the early 80's in my youth. My sister purchased the Man Machine as it had the track "The Model" which had become a UK No 1. As it was I became the fan and from there on I was hooked always eager to see what would be released next. In 1983 Kraftwerk released the original "Tour de France" track. I would listen to the Radio One chart show hoping to tape it ( those were the days ) but sadly it never rose high enough in the charts for it to be played often enough. Chart positions 22 and 24 for 1983 and 1984 respectively. I had to wait until recent years to hear the current Tour de France album, its very good and it made me revisit the two albums shown above, Radioactivity (  my original cassette album no longer plays ) and Computer World ( a sixth form favourite alongside music by Joy Division ). These are brilliant and its good to see Kraftwerk so popular today, sadly though not the original members( only Ralph Hutter ). The music fortunately stands the test of time even if group members come and go. I like to remember the 1982 line-up for nostalgic reasons. If you never heard them search them out and see what you think.

Road Dreams 

 

This series was first shown on Channel 4 in the UK in around 1994. It comprises 6 episodes of 30 minutes each. The series was created by Elliot Bristow who had travelled to America in 1968 for a holiday. During this time he was unfortunately mugged in New York and in doing so had to stay on for the subsequent legal proceedings. This stay lasted until 1981!, what an adventure. and this series covers the road trip, places and people he meets along the way. Again it is a documentary enhanced by the soundtrack including Leo Kottke and Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Some film clips from it were used in a recent BBC music documentary ( "How the Brits rocked America" I think ) but to watch the original series is highly recommended. I was very fortunate to purchase a video from Elliot Bristow in 1999 and he put a soundtrack tape in with it - a real bonus. Definitely worth searching for but it may be possible to acquire via purchase from Tortworth TV productions( I think this link will give you a thorough background to the current state of the project and purchase options Road Dreams ). Makes you want to cycle across America and why not! 

Koyaanisqatsi 

 

This film was created by Godfrey Reggio and has a soundtrack by Philip Glass. Theres no narrative and it is a time lapse film of America and its landscape, cityscapes and so much more. It has a prophetic message and an environmentalist one at that. This film triggered my love of Philip Glass music when I saw it at about 12pm on BBC2 in 1983 ( it wasn't targeted at mainstream viewing by the Beeb ). My friend could never even pronounce it so it became the butt of many jokes when I'd mention it. Its actually part of a trilogy of films, the others being Powaqqatsi and Nagoyqatsi( these came later ). For me personally this is the one that stands out with stunning cinematography and soundtrack. This is easy to find at Amazon etc as DVD film or simply Philip Glass soundtrack. It's message is still completely relevant today if not more so.

The Thin Blue Line 

This is a curveball but connects to the above film by having a Philip Glass soundtrack. This haunting music enhances the Errol Morris documentary about the conviction of Randall Dale Adams for murder of a police officer. The other person involved David Harris seemingly escaped conviction but the film follows both individuals, the lawyers and police officers in seeking the truth of what happened on the night of the shooting. It is very well made and draws you in to the final outcome. An excellent documentary film but also a tragic real life story, very much worth watching, more on IMDB. Alternatively you can listen to the soundtrack online which includes statements from the main suspects and officials. 

Well that about concludes my small'ish list of cycling and music related programs I feel worth viewing or listening to. We all have different tastes but I hope that these suggestions may open new avenues to listening and viewing pleasure for anyone reading this. They certainly did for me. 

Creaks, Squeaks and Outright Embarassment....

 Well having praised my Super Acciaio in previous posts I'm harbouring a dark secret.... Hmmm it all started after around 500mls. I've fitted a Campag Athena groupset to which I've had to use the Campag BB30 adaptors. Throughout the various internet forums you'll find many discussions about this topic namely creaking bottom brackets! Now from day one I've lived in fear, bordering on paranoia, of the inevitable squeaking, creaking Campag crankset. And so it came to pass that from a beautiful virtual silence suddenly a ticking appeared which slowly became a voluminous creaking every pedal turn. This would sometimes quieten but still obviously there, other times it would announce itself to everyone in earshot. Theres nothing worse than riding a beautiful bike whilst passing bystanders and emitting a sound akin to honeymooners bedsprings. Well it does make you ride faster to save your embarrassment, always look for a positive in bleak times. 

 Well I started investigating beginning with the main suspect the BB. I'd installed the whole crankset according to Campags recommendations ( also viewed their video several times ). Correct torque was applied to the crankbolt with the BB30 cups greased and press fitted. One thing I had noticed over the first 100mls was the drive side cup migrating out around 1mm. I believe this is why many suggest using loctite to lock the cup, I'd avoided this as it could cause problems if I wished to remove the cup at a later date. In hindsight it may have been a non-issue as the driveside bearing is on the crank rather than embedded in the cup so the cup could be fixed more permanently. I'd run with this small 1mm gap for many miles prior to the creak so it didn't make sense. Next suspect hauled in for question was the chainring bolts, the recommendation here ( from the internet ) is to undo all the bolts thoroughly grease and re-torque as appropriate. I checked the torque of all the bolts and all was well, the mystery deepened. Every time I'd hold the bike and stand hard on the pedal pushing downward I'd hear an audible creak. The pedals threads were already greased but I removed, checked and regreased to no avail. Anyway whilst out riding last week I unshipped my chain when multishifting on both levers, not my normal method but circumstances forced me, including a bus. I went home and checked my front shifting on the bike stand, in doing so I started adjusting the front mech cable tension. After 15mins of tweaking my shift was back to square one, no perceptable change still spot on. The rear hasn't been adjusted since fitting, still indexing fine on 11-speed. I took the bike out for a ride and silence. This had me worried, was it going to rear it's head at any moment?  Well I've now done just over 100mls and still silent. Unless the problem re-occurs I believe the root cause of the issue was the tension in the front derailleur cable and its interaction with cable housing, down tube adjuster and the down tube amplifying the sound on every pedal stroke with the consequent flexing of the frame. This may well be correct as the issue was worse under high torques i.e. pushing up a hill or hard acceleration. In my adjustment I must have reduced this tension enough to stop the interaction whilst maintaining the fast front shifting. Campag is very nice in that respect.

 Creaks and squeaks are difficult to narrow down and normally unique to a particular bike setup but for now case closed, hopefully not to be re-opened.... anyway fingers crossed but the current silence is definitely golden! Any change and I'll update the outcome. 

Update:

 All was quiet for around 150-200mls then it returned, arrrggghh. Anyway during the course of riding after around 20mls the creak suddenly went and silence returned. I will most definitely investigate chainrings/carbon spider interface but the bb seems silent. Its difficult to narrow down whilst riding, I suppose you could mount on a turbo and get someone to locate the sound, anyway the investigation is reopened hopefully for a brief time! 

Update Number 2:       

 Well the latest, I've been riding in complete silence other than the normal nice sounds of a bike ride for around 200mls now. I removed all crank bolts except the main crank arm fixing and greased all with teflon grease thoroughly. Put them all back and initially thought it hadn't worked but then silence! The grease must have slowly permeated the whole of the metal-carbon interfaces and it was back to day one of quietude. I've ridden hilly routes and climbing in silly high gears pushing high torque and.... quiet. When the bike was in creaking mode you could hold the bike stationary, put weight on the drive side pedal and you'd hear a sharp tick this lead me to thinking it could be chainring connected, also when riding riding inner ring was quieter than high gears in outer. We'll see how this goes, hopefully it'll stay quiet and with the passage of time my neurosis will go into remission :-).

A photographic gem...

One of my other passions in life is photography. Most images I take tend to be diary pictures of whatever takes my interest on a walk or sometimes whilst cycling. If cycling I'll use a compact camera, otherwise I use a digital SLR. I've never fulfilled one aspect of photography that I feel would be a pleasure, that is candid portraits of interesting people, people with a story to tell and faces that reflect this. With this in mind one of the links I've put in the "Interesting Sites" column is for a local film/photographic collective based in Newcastle Upon Tyne. The collective is known as the Amber Collective and for anyone interested in photography and film, documenting communities, social change, industrial landscapes etc, the site is very much worth visiting. The Amber Collective have online documentaries to view as well as a full photographic collection of nearly 40 photographers, this includes a collection of photographs by the New York photographer Weegee. Its an excellent online resource and well worth browsing.

Its all in the eyes you know...

Over the years I've cycled its lead to a progression in the sorts of clothing etc I've worn. In the beginning I purchased a raleigh pioneer hybrid which now serves as my turbotrainer bike. I rode this initially wearing jeans and t-shirt as many probably do to this day. After a few weeks this was enhanced with padded undershorts, then a helmet!, then ronhill tracksters. Yes the order of priorities was most definitely wrong but the comfort of riding was improving. Nowadays I'm in standard cycling outfit, lycra shorts, Altura top, Giro helmet. It makes a big difference to cycling comfort and I like many learned this through riding experience. On top of the clothing described I've omitted one item that I actually do feel naked if I leave the house without, a little like driving the car without the seatbelt on. I feel vunerable without them partly because of several bad experiences prior to having them..... cycling glasses. In my formative months on the bike I had flies, bees, stones from passing cars, this all made me realise they're essential as you just never know whats coming next. These essential items are also traded at high prices on style, brand name etc but there are alternatives that I've been using for many years at extremely low cost yet surprisingly never appear in magazine reviews of low cost kit. The following links will give you an idea of whats available:-

Farnell Safety Glasses 

RS Safety Glasses

Now there are extremely unwieldy, unfashionable ones but in among these are styles similar to this which aren't bad at under £3!

 All tend to be scratch resistant, UV A+B protection and the critical one, impact resistant. A nice low cost option that can be happily broken without a remortgage. Definitely worth a cursary look even if you do still want those diamond studded Oakleys.

A note on FillThatHole......

 Just thought I'd point everyone to a useful site if not already known. It links in from my previous post in that it apertains to the state of our roads here in the UK. In Northumberland I find it hard to find a stretch of smooth tarmac nowadays whereas it should be the other way around, hard to find a stretch of rough tarmac. I'm sure across the country it'll be the same with the common excuses of reduced budgets, bad winters etc. That wears thin with me as there is a duty to maintain what you are responsible for. Fortunately for a number of years the CTC ( Cycle Touring and Campaigning ) have a website dedicated to reporting potholes, poor road surfaces and bodged repairs - FillThatHole, put that in your history if you dare! Its an excellent resource as it allows full reporting without you requiring to know the agency responsible. I've added the link in my Interesting Places list, I highly recommend using it so we can all get the authorities to keep on top of what in some cases are accidents waiting to happen.

A typical example of what I find sadly all too often nowadays.