With the nights fast drawing in and the fact that turfing doesn’t stop when the light fails, I find myself in need of some better lighting for use on either of my bicycles. At the moment I use a pair of Hope Vision R2 lights and also have a single Magicshine MJ-872 but the problem is, they are over 10-years old and the batteries are not holding much of a charge. The cheapest option would be to replace the batteries (if they are actually still available) but technology moves on and I think the wisest option is to source a pair of new lights with more up-to-date technology and features.
As usual, I started by defining my requirements:
- the batteries must be rechargeable.
- the light unit should be robust and waterproof.
- include flash mode for use as daytime running lights.
- the light unit should be compact for handlebar mounting.
- include an indicator on light unit or battery for charge levels.
- the light unit should not interfere with my handlebar bag.
- have a wide range of output levels and run-times.
- spare light mounts available for use on other bikes.
And again, the Internet came up with the perfect bike light, the Hope R2 Vision Epic, the more up-to-date version of my existing lights. They are not cheap and the best option I could find was £160.00 each from Winstanley Bikes, actually about the only shop with two of them in stock at that price. Some were for sale at far higher prices so it pays the shop around. I’ve dealt with Winstanley Bikes before and their after sales is good.
The Hope R2 Vision Epic meets all my requirements listed above. The Epic refers to the higher capacity battery, 6400mAh rechargeable Li-Lon battery rather than the lower capacity 3200mAh rechargeable Li-Lon battery, effectively doubling the output duration. I won’t bore you to death with all the technical details, you can get all that on the Hope website. So, that’s them ordered and hopefully, they should be here in a few days, and I’ll be out there turfing at night to test them out.
In fact, a mere two hours later, an email tells me they’ve been dispatched. How good is that? And yes, £320.oo is a lot of money to spend on two LED bicycle lights and I won’t repeat what ChoccyMuffin said when I showed her the web page. The money to purchase them is coming out of my savings, because at some point in the future, hopefully the far and distant future, I won’t be here and I’m sure as hell not leaving it for the government to take away to pay for my care home bills. Far better things to send money on, like turfing for instance. Will be posted an update soon.
After lunch the rain had stopped, so rather then be a couch potato, I hauled by weary arse from the comfy sofa in the sun-room, or rather drizzly-grey-overcast-sky-room, and set off on the Surly Ogre for Dalkeith, to take a few takes for Team Scotland, having lost a few zones to turfer Hodge last night. Not that I’m in any way getting protective of “my” local zones. Honest. It’s all for Team Scotland.
Now, there’s one massive bugbear that drives me up the wall, or rather onto the pavement, and it concerns drivers who must be three sultanas short of a fruit scone in the brain department. I’m cycling along, there’s a long row of parked cars to my right and I have right of way. Or to be more accurate, as the Highway Code does not actually ever say that, oncoming traffic should give way. Oh aye.
And do they? Do they heck! Oh, it’s just a bicycle there’s plenty of room. No there bloody well isn’t, especially when you’re driving a monster four-wheel-drive zombie apocalypse Range Rover, there isn’t. Twice in Dalkeith I had to cycle in the gutter to live to tell this sorry tale and once actually onto the pavement to avoid becoming the red meat in a tasty white van and tarmac sandwich. What really worries me is do they actually see me at all? One wonders.
Anyway, rant over. That’s another 29 takes for the pot and I hope to get out again later on this evening for more. Bye for now.
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