I choose to take this as a teaching moment, telling people about how there's a capacitor that stores the energy generated through the wheel and it will turn itself off in a couple of minutes. Or the executive summary "generator- no batteries!"
I saw this bike parked downtown (I actually see it a lot- it's hard to miss and is generally parked in the same place). But it was parked in a new place, that I walk by instead of biking by, so I stopped to investigate.
This person must have had some incidents with people trying to "turn off" his (why do I assume it's a "he"?) generator powered lights, because he took action!
Both front and back lights are labeled with a sign saying 'Light has auto off" 
Funny- this bike started life as a Phillips light roadster. It's hardly recognizable as anything except a hard- core commuter now. Someone over time has made this into a uniquely personalized vehicle. It doesn't meet my definition of lovely, but I can definitely recognize that it's perfectly adapted to its owner's needs.
I think it likely that the bike owner is a man, give the Marine Corps sticker on the child seat. Of course, one can't know for certain, but it's a reasonable guess.
ReplyDeleteThe first couple of times I saw a stand light I was really confused. I'd see the dynamo, and I'd see the stopped bike with THE LIGHT STILL BURNING!
ReplyDeletei think standlights are one of the smartest recent development in the bike world. i'd love to have a dynamo with standlight setup...
ReplyDeleteYou could touch a coin across the special capacitor-shorting contacts on the side of the tail light to kill it. The B&M manual tells you that doing so is the recommended way of shutting off a standlight taillight.
ReplyDeleteThe headlight usually has a regular off position. I can understand leaving it in "Senso," but if you park in town, why attract busy-body attention to your bike, and--besides--who knows when those few minutes of pre-charged headlight may be useful?
Also, these 4D B&M tail lights (of which we now own several and have replaced one) have dim stand lights--barely visible, in fact. Like a Cateye on dead AAs.
ReplyDeleteI basically no longer "believe" in dynamo-powered tail lights for some real-world applications without a proper Cateye AA backup somewhere on the saddle bag (turned on manually when appropriate).
The B&M Lumotec IQ Cyo headlight, on the other hand, is probably the best bike headlight anywhere for the money and quite capable as a "single" headlight doing both road illumination and car warning.
@ MDI
ReplyDeleteI have not used the 4D, My main tail-light is the fender mounted "Seculight plus" and the stand light is very very bright- I would say almost as bright as when moving.