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Married to Night Train
- Location
- Salford, UK
Aldi regularly do a pack of three 9 LED torches. Three torches, batteries included (3xAAA each), for £4.99, so it works out at about £1.66 each. Small, light, metal cased, pretty robust. They can be fixed to handlebars with zipties or large O-rings or similar. They aren't all that focussed, so perhaps aren't suitable for seeing on an unlit road, but are very bright for being seen by, about town.
Of course, they only come in white, but Night Train, who is doing a little fettling job on a bike of mine, has come up with a neat fix to turn them into rear lights, which he showed me today.
As well as the torch, you'll need some of this:
This happens to be off an old Landrover apparently. You need enough for a disc 2.5cm in diameter, so a nice flat bit picked up off the road where there's been a bit of a rear end crunch might do.
You hacksaw it down to a square a little bit bigger than you want to end up with, and then you need one of these:
By which I mean a belt sander, not Night Train. If you haven't got a sander, files and sandpaper will do, only slower.
Sand a piece down to a disc of the right size (mind your fingers!) to fit just inside the bevel around the lens of the torch. Apply some araldite to the rim:
and press in the red lens.
Presto! At less than £2 each, they are pretty much cheap enough to leave zip tied to the bike. Night Train has one rear and two front ziptied to Granville, his Hungarian folder (thus increasing the value of the bike by 33% I believe!
)
Of course, they only come in white, but Night Train, who is doing a little fettling job on a bike of mine, has come up with a neat fix to turn them into rear lights, which he showed me today.
As well as the torch, you'll need some of this:
This happens to be off an old Landrover apparently. You need enough for a disc 2.5cm in diameter, so a nice flat bit picked up off the road where there's been a bit of a rear end crunch might do.
You hacksaw it down to a square a little bit bigger than you want to end up with, and then you need one of these:
By which I mean a belt sander, not Night Train. If you haven't got a sander, files and sandpaper will do, only slower.
Sand a piece down to a disc of the right size (mind your fingers!) to fit just inside the bevel around the lens of the torch. Apply some araldite to the rim:
and press in the red lens.
Presto! At less than £2 each, they are pretty much cheap enough to leave zip tied to the bike. Night Train has one rear and two front ziptied to Granville, his Hungarian folder (thus increasing the value of the bike by 33% I believe!
)
