Old School Night Riders

The year was...oh, I don't want to say, but okay, it was 1994.  My roomates Mel, Scott and I were on the OSU Crew team and had no time to ride bikes during the day, so we decided to ride at night.  Being poor college students, we had no money.  But we did have some nerd skills at our disposal.

I started with this CatEye bike light:

And an old 7.2 volt battery pack from my R/C car from high school:

And a 7.2v krypton bulb from Radio Shack:

I wired the thing together, and it worked!  The light was pretty good, so I was able to ride my mt. bike at night.  My roomates soon built one of their own, and we rode McDonald Douglas forest in the dark.

However, this was soon not enough.  I had to have MORE light. 

I took a second battery pack and wired it in series with the other one to make 14.4 volts.  I paired that with a big 12v bulb that sucked a lot of juice...the math said it'd last about 20 minutes.

My friends and I went out for a ride that night to try out the new light.  I kept my light off, following my companions so as to conserve the batteries for when I needed it.  When we finally reached the top of the trail, it was a straight three mile decent down beautiful Corvallis single track. 

I turned on my light.  It was bright.  My riding buddies let out a grunt of approval and headed down the hill.  I felt as if I was practically riding in daylight as I flew down the trail.  But then, trouble.

The new bulb ran so hot, it melted the plastic casing of my cheesy light.  Suddenly, things started to smoke, and the light completely cut out.  You may be wondering what it's like to be riding single track at 20mph in absolute darkness.  I assure you it is exciting.

I screamed.  Loudly.  So loud, my buddy Mel up ahead stopped.  I rode down to the little dot of light ahead of me, and stayed glued to his wheel for the rest of the ride.  That night, his 7.2v light was good enough for two.

We did several more experiments, but the 7.2v design eventually worked out to be the best way to go.  Since I had two batteries, I wired them together with a toggle switch, so I could change batteries at the flick of a switch.  I still have them today.  Here's "the system" in all it's glory:

With the introduction of high wattage LEDs, I could make something pretty cool today.  Maybe next summer...