Commuting by Bike in the Winter

11 February 2012

Having installed a headlight light fit for a motorcycle, I had to try it.  Sunset this week was before 5:30.  There was a good chance I'd need the light on the way home.

The last time I took my bike into work was probably September or October, right around the time we set our clocks ahead.  Although I had a bright light that did a good job of guiding me along the road, I wondered if I was choosing between seeing and being seen.  Now that I have two lights, the little one is aimed straight ahead and the big one faces the road.

Monday's weather was clear, calm, and unseasonably warm (reaching nearly 50 degrees mid-day).  I made pretty good time getting into work.  I guess riding on a stretched chain and chewed-up cassette slowed me down a bit last year; the extra weight of the light and the battery must have been balanced by a drive train that was running smoothly.  Coming home, though, I made a few amateurish mistakes.

First, although I made sure the new light's battery was fully charged, I didn't do a deep discharge first.  I'd left work at 5:20, as the sun was just setting.  Two thirds of the way home, the light just quit.  I pulled over and checked the connections; they were solid. 

Fortunately, instead of taking Chris' advice ("You don't need the little light any more!  Use it for a flashlight."), I took Mike B's advice, which he gave me last year when I was first outfitting Gonzo for the commute:  "Always carry a spare light."  I'd had the little light pointing straight ahead and set to blinking.  I set it to its brightest and aimed it downwards.

Second, I rode in with the wrong sunglasses.  Sure, on a clear, bright day, dark lenses make sense.  They don't work so well, however, at twilight. Now that the 3000-lumen light had conked, I had to make do with the one that I'd been using last fall.  It didn't seem to be doing the job.  Then I took off my sunglasses.  Aha!  This little light is pretty good after all.  I had no trouble seeing the road for the rest of the ride home.

Lessons learned, I recharged the battery, tested the light's staying power (after 1.5 hours on full brightness I turned it off, convinced it was fine, and charged it up again), and fished out my spare pair of sunglasses, the ones with the yellow lenses that make the world a brighter place on a cloudy day.

The ride in on Friday was just as fast as Monday.  I left work around 5:20 again, but by this time it was cloudy.  I switched on the light before I started moving.  While the little light had been good, the big one was amazing.  The spread was so far ahead and so wide that I didn't for a second worry about hitting a thing on the road.  The light was so bright that, as cars approached me from behind, their headlights were dimmer than my light was.  I only noticed how dark the sky had become when I dismounted in my driveway.

There's only one problem with this light:  when it's on, it interferes with my wireless cyclecomputer.  This is hardly a big deal.  I don't have to know my average on the ride home.  But it sure is amusing to look down, as I coast towards a stop at a red light, and see that I've slowed from a rolling average of 118 mph to a mere 99 mph, my 6.8-mile commute transforming to 21 miles.  Fortunately, I work with a bunch of groovy nerds who can build circuits blindfolded.  I'll sic one of them on the problem the next time I ride in.