Poor man's Down Low Glow?

[SadieKate]

Is it just the picture, Eden? It doesn't look like your version puts out anywhere near the same amount of light that the DLG does. The photos of the DLG show colored circles of light even when the bike is in fairly well lit areas - like under street lamps, at store fronts, etc. That's a heck of a lot of light. It's powerful enought to throw light on the ground and on the rider.

And, I assume the DLG's battery is rechargeable? Can AAA's be recharged? It seems that AAs chargers are the most common. You'd have to take the batteries out of the unit, recharge and replace. My little pea brain would constantly leave home without them.

BTW, for those using knogs. My experience is that they are invisible in ground fog.

[Trek420]

Well, we didn't say "better than DLG" the thread is "Poor man's DLG".

One could do all of them; DLG, cool bottle thingies, knogs, illuminite socks, firefly shoelaces ....

Nobody ever got stuck on a night ride and said "woah, dude, that's too visible, better leave some of that at home"

And there's a Blackburn Quadrant Mars 3.0 Light Combo on Steep and Cheap right now

[KnottedYet]

And there's a Blackburn Quadrant Mars 3.0 Light Combo on Steep and Cheap right now

I have that. I'm happy with it.

[GLC1968]

Wow, this is a really great idea! And the first thing I thought of was my husband's old Trek 520 - it's got holes for a third third bottle cage on the bottom of the downtube, so it would cast even more light onto the ground. This would be a great idea for anyone with a touring frame that has that third bottle cage! Very cool!

[KnottedYet]

oooh, yeah, that would work really well!

[KathiCville]

Here's another possibility that might be worth checking out? Cordless rechargeable "work lights." I poked around a little on line and came up with a few models on amazon.com and automotive and tool sites. Here's one that received an overall good review from The Gadgeteer and three reviewers on another website.

http://the-gadgeteer.com/review/terr...led_work_light

And here's a link to a company that carries this one and a few other similar rechargeable TerraLUX lights.

http://www.genesis7supply.com/index....ATS&Category=5

Pricing is half or less than the down low glow.....I've only seen white ones---'cause they're work lights---but you could probably come up with a cheap, translucent cover if you wanted color.......

In terms of mounting, looks like all you might have to do is use velcro straps? Or some other easy bracketing system for your down tube, similar to what DLG suggests?

I also wonder if there any really bright mini-lanterns (battery-operated LED) for camping that might drop easily into a bottle cage??

Just a thought......

[KnottedYet]

Oh, baby, those Terralux lights are GREAT!!!!!

Like having 60 Guppies or Knogs all lined up!

I'd rather get one of those at this point than a DLG, and use some contact film to make it orange or red or something.

(that would leave me enough money that I could buy a couple Terraluxes. Maybe put one across my pannier rack... Hellooooo visibility!)

[Eden]

Regina - yup, that's the bottle. It does have a standard wide mouth sized cap, so the Firefly fits on just fine. You can have drinkable liquid in it, but yes, it is a screw cap so drinking on the go would be somewhat out of the question. My coummute is short so I'm not really worried about having water for it.

SadieKate - no, I don't think that it is as bright as a DLG (but we are talking 70$ less dough too....), but it does cast a pretty nice looking glow on the ground and is nice and bright from the sides. I'll have to see if I can get some better photos. It takes 3 AAA batteries and I have NIHM rechargables - they are just like rechargable AA's (they use the same charger as the AA's even). If the battery life is anything like any of the other LED devices that I have I expect they will last a long time between charges and I have enough that I can have a set charged and waiting when the first set runs out.