Well, I had a diatribe about infrastructure locked and loaded and ready to fire, when I was told there was a package waiting for me when I got to church this morning. It was addressed to my real name, not my blog nom’ de plume. I waited until after services to retrieve the package and see what it was. The return address said it was from Steve at Biketek (not sure I spelled that store name right, the box is back at church) and there was no invoice in the package. What there was in the package was a Cateye EL-530 headlight and some padding. That’s it, a $60 headlight and no explanation of why it was sent, how it was paid for, who paid for it or anything else about it.
Naturally I installed the Cateye on Blue as soon as I got home. I had to remove a reflector from the handlebars to make room for both the 9 LED mini-light and the Cateye. I’ll let you know how they compare after I do a night ride, but I can say right now that the Cateye is daylight visible with new batteries, I can see the beam on the wall even during the day. That’s not possible with the 9 LED light, but for the difference in price (the 9 LED light was a giveaway from Harbor Freight), this was not unexpected. One thing I do expect is that the Cateye will be more durable as it was designed as a bicycle light, the 9 LED was a cheap flashlight that I adapted to handlebar mounting. I think that in the long run I’m going to aim the 9 LED closer to the bike so I can see pavement defects and debris.
I’ll make another post after I have had a chance to evaluate the setup.
PSA, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 