As a general rule I’m not in favour of CO2 to inflate bicycle tires. A pump is cheaper in the long run and does run out if you have 2 or 3 flats in a row. Plus I don’t feel great about sending CO2 cartridges to the recycling depot.
Having said that I do own a Planet Bike Red Zeppelin CO2 inflator. It lives in my Bike Friday Tikit’s seatbag because there is no handy way to attach a pump to this folding bike, but I still want some inflation capacity onboard. In 3.5yrs of service I have finally got a chance to use this inflator when I had a flat the other day.
The Red Zeppelin worked as advertised. One 16g cartridge inflated my Tikit’s 16″ x 40mm tire twice. The conrol knob allowed me to use as much CO2 as I needed and then shut it off so I could use the rest later. I filled both Schrader and Presta valve tubes.
My advice is to use a pump whenever possible, but if you are going to get a CO2 inflator – you might as well get one that works!
I like fenders. I was a big fan of plastic fenders for a number of years. They work for sure, but I’ve come to realize they have some problems:
they mount the fender brackets inside the fender which means water hitting the bracket can’t run down the inside of the fender to the road uninterrupted and some of it sprays out the side onto you and your bike. Metal fenders wrap the strut over the back of the fender avoiding this problem.
the fender struts themselves don’t mount very securely to the fender compared to the how a metal fender wraps the strut around the back of the fender keeping the strut in one piece which triangulates it for stiffness. This is exacerbated by the fact plastic fenders themselves aren’t very stiff.
most plastic fenders are too short to provide full coverage [front fender mudflap should almost touch the ground] although this can be solved with a DIY mud flap.
you can’t reshape a plastic fender to perfectly fit the outline of your tire without loading it with tension like a spring. This leads to fender failures and allows the fender to go out of adjustment easily as it tries to go back to its original shape.
plastic fenders don’t come forward enough past the fork crown to stop spray from the tire from coming back and hitting you from the front.
because the mounting systems on plastic fenders are not as stiff as on a metal fender there is a greater chance something will get stuck in the fender causing an incident. Some plastic fenders get around this with breakaway struts [ie. SKS].
Sharon's Surly Cross Check with hammered Velo Orange metal fenders...
I assumed metal fenders would be super expensive and really hard to install on a bike. It turns out they are quite reasonably priced – $55 for PB Cascadias & $60 for VO metal fenders. My install time for Sharon’s VO metal fenders shown above was no longer than a set of plastic fenders. Although some Berthoud & Honjo fenders do require extra time to install. Once installed they are very stiff, quiet and provide excellent protection from road spray while enhancing the look of your bike.
Planet Bike vs. Berthoud...
The Planet Bike Cascadia ATB fender and Berthoud stainless steel 60mm fender shown above are both designed to work with a 26 x 2.0 tire. The Planet Bike fender has two sets of struts on each side vs. the single strut on the Berthoud. Just looking at it the PB looks like a more secure mounting system.
But when you try to flex the fender struts it becomes pretty clear that the PB system is weak [I can easily touch the end of the struts together] and the Berthoud system is very stiff. This is simply because the wrap around single stay on the Berthoud is a superior design. Attaching a single strut rear fender to your bike is easier and the metal fender allows you to gently reshape the diameter of the fender to perfectly match your tire. This not only looks better it means the fender is not under tension and will stay in place and will not fail as quickly as a plastic fender. Since a plastic fender has a memory it always wants to be a specific shape. If that isn’t fitting your tire well you can bend the plastic fender into shape, but it will be under tension and want to go out of alignment to release that tension.
Inside fender detail...
You can see from the above photo that the rolled edges and external strut mount of the metal fender will keep water inside the fender running down to the road which is where you want it to go. The PB fender has two of these interior struts on each fender and when the water inside the fender hits them some of it follows the strut mount to the side and flies out onto you and your bike. Again the metal fender strut mount is simply a superior design.
Strut mounts...
You might be thinking the plastic fenders on your bike do a reasonable job protecting you from road spray. Of course any fender is better than no fender. A longer fender is better than a shorter fender. A longer fender with a mudflap that goes to the ground is better than one without. A metal fender is better than a plastic fender. A metal fender with a mudflap that goes to the ground is better than one without. At each stage we can see a tangible improvement in protection and functionality. I have plastic fenders on a bunch of my bikes and I won’t be replacing them all with metal fenders. I don’t ride all my bikes in the rain a ton and so optimized protection from road spray isn’t vital on all of them. However, I do have some bikes that I want to be as perfect as possible in terms of rain riding and these bikes [like my LHT and Sharon's CC commuter] will get metals fenders.
I appreciate the good looks of a metal fender and my geeky side appreciates the subtle design elements that make them so functional. Should your metal fenders ever become unusable they can be recycled back into new metal products easily.
I haven’t seen the new PB Turbo in the flesh. I don’t get advanced copies to test sadly…=-(
I’m interested to see if the slower flash mode is less blinding than the current model’s seizure inducing strobe. The Radbot 1000′s slower flash is actually fairly reasonable for a flashing ultra bright bike LED.
I’ve got more than enough taillights in the fleet at the moment so I won’t be getting a Turbo anytime soon. I don’t really see a need for a brighter taillight than the Superflash, but if the Turbo’s slower flash mode is easier on the eyes I may end up recommending it over the current Superflash for that reason alone.
Planet Bike Blinky 7...
Ironically as the ultra bright LED bike light wars continues to escalate I’ll be using a single old skool 7 LED Planet Bike light on the back of my rando rig this year. Kind of funny that my most demanding night riding will be using the oldest least bright bike light technology I own. I’m glad PB still makes them and I may stock up on a couple more just in case they stop selling them.
I’m interested in testing the runtimes of this light to see how it stacks up against the brighter lights that Jun & Kent P. have tested. My hope is I get much longer runtimes due to the lower power draw and that allows me to get through my longer events without messing with battery swaps.
Symetric beam bike lights from Magicshine and Dinotte...
Reading replies to my bike light blog posts and similar stuff I posted on bike forums I wanted to ensure my intentions were not misconstrued:
I love everything about Dinottes except the light beam. If/when they fix that I will be a happy customer again. If you give me a choice I’d rather support a North American company rather than one on another continent. Unfortunately the light beam is most of what I am buying with a bike light so that’s an issue I can’t over look.
Planet Bike is a great company. Their main headlights and taillights don’t perform well, but that’s something they could fix and I’ll happily buy their lights again.
I’m not telling you that your light setup is wrong. Unless you live and ride where I do it’s impossible for me to know what biking in your neck of the woods is like so I can’t pass judgement on your lights.
I’m not suggesting you only use reflectors when you ride.
I’m not suggesting you take lights off your bike or use different lights.
What I am saying is:
symmetric beam bike lights and uber power taillights can be blinding to the point of being dangerous and they are certainly incredibly irritating to other people who encounter them – especially on dark roads and MUPs.
rapid blinking powerful bike lights are far worse than steady or slow blinking bike lights.
blinking bike lights that go on/off are far worse than a similar light that blinks low/high.
more and more powerful symmetric beam lights on your bike don’t make you safer and can actually cause problems for you and others.
Germany made symmetric beam bike lights and blinking bike lights illegal for road use for a reason.
reflective material can be very useful to make yourself visible and has benefits over using more lights to increase visibility.
look at your existing lights from both another cyclist’s and a driver’s point of view…get a friend to help you and bike/drive back and forth past your bike…follow your bike on a bike for 5mins on a MUP or dark street.
use your common sense and compassion for others to evaluate your lights and your visibility.
where you aim your lights matters a lot so if you have symmetric beam lights and can’t don’t want to replace them try different aiming points. See what that does for you.
Bottom line I’ll consider my posts successful if a few people out there tried my suggestion of standing in front and behind of their bikes to check out what the lights are like for others. I had no idea how bad it really was until I was forced to do this experiment by living in a town with loads of cyclists and an unlit MUP that I ride on 95% of my bike missions.
Ultimately the great thing about this topic is that every single one of us can test out our one situation fairly easily by putting ourselves at the opposite end of our bike lights from where we usually are in the saddle. You don’t have to take my word for anything – just try it out and see what you think.
The focused B&M lights I ordered came in from Peter White Cycles yesterday. I don’t have my dynohub wheels setup for the B&M IQ Cyo lights, but I figured I’d test out Sharon’s Christmas present – a B&M Ixon IQ. Happily the packaging is re-sealable so I can put it back inside so she can open it up again herself. The first thing you notice is the Ixon IQ is larger than a typical bike light I’m used to. This is because the focused optic is a larger module and it holds 4 rechargeable NiMH batteries inside it. The case is made from high quality plastic and is quite light weight. It comes with a universal bar mount that’s designed to work with oversized and standard diameter bars. I tried it on two standard diameter bars and it works well. The mount can be left on your bike and the light housing slides off with a QR button for safe keeping at a stop. The Ixon IQ has one button which offers two modes:
high powered mode = 40 Lux [which I tested] for lighting up the road.
lower power city mode = 10 Lux for visibility not so much for lighting the road.
the button flashes green for high power and alternates red and green for city mode.
the faster the flashing the lower the power remaining in your batteries.
Sharon's bike setup for the light test...
Naturally being Christmas Eve I decided to run another light test. I put the Ixon IQ on Sharon’s bike with a Planet Bike Blaze 1W [she normally uses two of these for her commute] as well as my two Dinotte 200L’s….one of which has a DIY vertical cut off hacked on to it. Just looking at the lights the B&M is a lot bigger. The Dinottes are smallest with the nicest casing, but there is a battery pack req’d for each as well as a power cord between the light engine and battery pack…which taken in total isn’t as lovely or neat a setup. The buttons on all these lights are easy to use and the Dinotte and Ixon IQ both provide some useful feedback on the battery level via the lit up button.
Video note: the video seems quite dark when uploaded to Youtube. The Planet Bike Blaze has a spot beam visible to the eye and the Ixon and Dinottes are actually quite bright.
Prior to running this test I aimed all the lights as I would to use them while riding. Then I setup a camera on a tripod in my yard at about cyclist/pedestrian/motorist’s head height. I’m 5’11″ so I went slightly lower than my own head to capture the viewpoint of the majority of folks out there. I then used the following test format:
with the bike next to the camera I turned on all the lights [in this order: Planet Bike, Ixon, hacked Dinotte and unhacked Dinotte] to see what the beam looked like from the rider’s perspective.
then I moved to the far side of the yard and operated the lights in the same order with the bike pointed at the camera to see what the lights looked like from a road/MUP user’s perspective.
then I turned the bike around to test what the different modes offered by the PDW Radbot 1000 looked like to a person behind Sharon’s bike.
Planet Bike Blaze 1W
weakest of all lights tested
tightest beam pattern
not a good light to light up a dark road due to low light output and narrow beam
easily visible in solid and flashing mode
very bright if you are looking right into centre of beam
very dazzling in flash mode if you are looking directly into beam
Conclusion: effective visibility only light, but should be aimed down to avoid blinding others and preferably used in solid on mode to avoid irritating others. If all you need is a be seen light and take care with how you aim it than for $20 it’s a decent value.
B&M Ixon IQ
light output similar to Dinotte, but better utilized down on road
vertical cut off much more effective than my Dinotte hack
very easy to see bike when approaching from front, but spill light that enters eyes not enough to blind or irritate
no flash mode [illegal in Germany]
City mode is useful in town where lots of ambient light to see by so bike light mainly for safety to be visible to others
light pattern ideal for city speeds [15-27kph] I would like to test at higher
speeds
high quality feel to case, button, mount and optics
Conclusion: A well made high quality light, but performs poorly when compared to Ixon IQ. Given they cost the same amount I can’t recommend this light.
Video note: this video is also darker one Youtube than actual light beam was to eye.
This video shows what it’s like to ride with the Ixon IQ on a dark MUP as well as some sections with additional ambient light. My speeds where between 15-20kph mainly because riding faster with one hand in the dark isn’t a great idea! Note that the people I pass are visible, but not blinded. With my Dinottes they would look away as I passed or cover their eyes and their tone when greeted would be somewhat irritated [I've been yelled at because my Dinottes were so harsh on other cyclist's and ped's eyes].
Video note: the brightness of the Ixon IQ’s beam pattern in this video is more representative of what it looks like to the naked eye.
I shot one last video to highlight how effective the Ixon IQ’s beam pattern was at putting light exactly where you need it, but not blinding people. Also note that there is more than enough spill light to see the bike. Riding through town I found the Ixon IQ did an okay job of illuminating street signs, but for a brevet I might want a second light [perhaps helmet mounted] that I could use specifically for this purpose.
Accurate representation of how bright Ixon IQ is – Photo:
Peter White Cycles…
The photo above shows how bright the Ixon IQ is to the naked eye. My video camera loses a lot of the brightness and when uploaded to Youtube it gets dimmer again.
Overall Impression of the Ixon IQ
Awesome. This light exceeded all my expectations. The thought and careful design that’s gone into the beam pattern is impressive. You get exactly the light you need where you need it and nowhere else. One reason I didn’t buy this type of European light earlier was that I assumed it had to cost a fortune, but at $110USD it’s the same price as a Dinotte 200L and out performs the Dinotte handily. Until I get a dynohub sorted for my rando bike I’ll have to “steal” this light from Sharon for my longer brevets…=-) Two of these lights would be a great rando setup that could be swapped to a commuter bike during the week. If you need a high quality battery bike light for street/MUP use I can’t recommend anything better. A few final points:
Ixon IQ = 5hrs run time (3hrs more than a Dinotte 200L) at 40 Lux [high power]
Ixon IQ = 20hrs run time at 10 Lux [city mode]
Ixon IQ comes with bar mount…fork crown mount is available
service from Peter White Cycles was fast and pleasant as you would expect
BTW – my original test videos are brighter and easier to see than once uploaded to Youtube. If you’d like a copy of the original videos click here. Videos are being uploaded as I post this so if you can’t download them quite yet give it an hour and try again.
Now Sharon can have a 2nd light mounted somewhere useful and she can remove the light when locking the bike up in a sketchy spot.
Nothing to steal now...
I’m really glad John told me that MEC sells these brackets, because I had seen them on the PB website, but it maks no sense to order a $3 braket and pay $10 shipping. Since MEC had them I paid $0 shipping…nice! BTW – these mounts will work for a Radbot as well.
Two rear blinkies...sweet!
Unfortunately none of my racks have this type of light mount so I can use it on my rigs…=-(
I’ll be getting a few brackets and installing them on all my bikes with racks. I think I’ll just add a second light to Sharon’s bike so she’ll have two blinkies in back rather than moving the one on her seatpost to the rear rack. The more the merrier!
The rear went on easily without any modifications and fits the BD frame perfectly. The fender struts are touching the BD frame so I’ll put some electrical tape there to keep them from rubbing through the paint.
Front wheel
I mounted the front fender to the mid-fork braze ons – avoiding the disc brake caliper entirely. However, PB provides hardware to get you around the caliper if you want to use the lower mounts.
DIY adapter used to lower front fender
One issue I ran into is the massive amount of clearance in the BD fork means that if you mount the fender to the fork crown as you usually would you end up with a huge gap between the fender and the tire. It looked goofy so I made a small bracket from a scrap of metal to lower the fender closer to the tire.
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