A Cycling & bikes forum. CycleBanter.com

Go Back   Home » CycleBanter.com forum » rec.bicycles » General
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Mass Night Ride in Mountain View for Fireworks Show--Lighting Report



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old July 5th 08, 08:07 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
SMS
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 9,477
Default Mass Night Ride in Mountain View for Fireworks Show--Lighting Report

Apparently about a thousand other cyclists had the same idea of riding
the Stevens Creek Trail (Mountain View, CA) and the Shoreline Park Trail
into Shoreline Park to see the fireworks being set off next to Shoreline
Amphitheater. It was very impressive to see a line of hundreds of
bicycle lights stretching for a mile or so down the trail (though
nothing like the huge line of cars stuck exiting the parking lot). I've
never seen that many bikes on the trail. Lots of kids riding at night
too, some looked no more than six years old.

While a few cyclists had no lights at all, I was pretty impressed with
the quality of the front and rear lights I saw, most all of them were
bright enough to illuminate the unlit and very dark trail. Very few toy
lamps or dynamo lamps--it was either no lights at all or very bright
lights. There was a large number of the easy-to-spot Cateye
LD-1000/LD-1100 tail lamps, so apparently there are a lot of cyclists
(at least in this area) that understand the difference between a
drugstore LED flasher and a good LED flasher, and are willing to spend
$25-40 on a flasher.

I foolishly decided to try out a Union/Marwi dynamo powered light that I
had just installed earlier in the day. This light was totally worthless
on an unlit trail at 10 mph, but I had along a high power Fenix Cree LED
flashlight (2AA) with a bicycle mount that I made. My kids and wife had
the awesome Task Force 3W Cree LED flashlight (2C) from Lowe's ($30).
This light rivals the DiNotte lights in term of brightness, and the beam
is very good for riding, with sufficient peripheral illumination. This
was very important on this ride since the multi-use path had a lot of
pedestrians as well (can't they ban them?) that were all over the place.

In terms of Cree LED lights, the simple Lowe's Taskforce flashlight was
much brighter than the similarly Cree LED equipped Fenix L2DCE, partly
because of the much larger reflector. I finally put my daughter in front
of me so she could light the trail better. I think that if I want to use
a dynamo light on unlit streets then I need to invest in a new wheel
with a dynohub, and a SolidLight 1203D, but I cringe at the thought of
spending $500 on lights.

This was the first time my kids, 10 & 14, had been on a longish night
ride (about 20 miles r/t from our house), and the 14 y.o. daughter-unit
(who is actually much more athletic than the boy) was apprehensive about
the whole idea (we've had a rash of fatal bike accidents in this area in
recent months, though I don't think any were at night).

Excellent fireworks show at Shoreline Park, much better than in
Cupertino or at Marriott's Great America.

On the way home we tried the new extension of the Stevens Creek Trail
that goes under El Camino Real which then dumps you out on eastbound
ECR, just at the entrance to southbound 85. Then of course a midnight
stop at the famous Donut Wheel was required. Terrible donuts, but they
never close.
Ads
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Shadow Mountain, SD - muni ride report & pix eyal Unicycling 12 November 10th 07 10:30 AM
RR: A warm night & DIY lighting questions MattB Mountain Biking 3 August 17th 06 03:50 PM
Cheat Mountain Challenge Ride Report (2005/09/25) Chris BeHanna General 0 September 30th 05 05:19 AM
Cheat Mountain Challenge Ride Report (2005/09/25) Chris BeHanna Rides 0 September 30th 05 05:19 AM
Night ride report Bill B Recumbent Biking 0 November 7th 04 01:56 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 09:15 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 CycleBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.