Wind up bike lights

steady__eddie

Did do a search for this but nothing came up.
Had to get some lights for my bicycle now that the dark mornings are here and came across these at Netto http://viewer.zmags.com/showmag.php?magid=123575#/page10/.
£5-99 was the same price as Wilko were pushing out their battery powered jobs. They appear to be fairly robust, I have found in the past that the wind up mechanisms on some radios have been somewhat ropey.
As an added bonus, there was an additional lead which plugs into my 3310 and it is possible to put some charge into it. No mention is made of this on the packaging but I plugged it in and turned the handle a few times and the charging icon appeared on the screen and showed that charging was taking place.

Altarf

There is only one criteria that bike lights should be bought on - how visible are they. Only if you have two sets of lights that are equally visible, that a secondary criteria of "how green are they" should come into it.

It is no good being dead but green.

hardpressed

Anyone remember the old bicycle lights that worked from a dynamo, you had to push it onto the back wheel and the faster you went the brighter the light got? It was OK while you were going along the flat but faded to almost nothing when you went up hill.

steady__eddie

Yes, regretfully I am old enough to remember those, some of my peers would not use them though as they reckoned that they wore the side of your tyre away. The alternative was the dynamo that was built into the hub of the wheel and this was regarded as a real prize find if one should stumble across one in the local scrap yard. It also had the same inherant design fault though that you mention.
Used my Netto special this morning and although no oncoming drivers flashed me for using my main beam, the illumination was excellent both front and rear.

hardpressed

I'd forgotten about the 'built in ' dynamo, my first brand new grown up bike, which I bought when I was about 14 from money saved from potato picking and birthday money, had this luxury. Those were the days! I'm glad to hear you didn't dazzle the oncoming traffic with your Netto special.

ailuro2

If you want free and green energy for bike lights, then why not buy a solar powered battery charger and use rechargeable batteries? Widely available, and you can choose whick bike lights you want to have.

steady__eddie

Thanks for that, I only use rechargeable batts anyway. I must admit that I hadn't thought of a solar charger, I'll have a search around.

A_fiend_for_life

Dynamos were better though sometimes too bright. Would be extra useful if you could set them to recharge batteries when you don't need the light.

Yes just about remember the dynahub.