Ever ready bike light

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
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nez
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Ever ready bike light

Post by nez »

I have an old Major Nichols bike and it occurred to me an Ever Ready bike light would fit brilliantly on it. Of course I'm old enough to have ridden with Ever Not Ready lights and they were pretty poor to compare with today's lights. So then I formed the mad plan to fit a modern light inside the old Ever Ready case. Anyone done it? Is there a particular modern light which will do the job?
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Mick F
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by Mick F »

I had Ever Ready lights and they were fine.
Yes, I mean it. Fine.

What you have to do, is keep all the contacts clean and coated in a film of Vaseline.
Use good quality batteries and fit Xenon bulbs and keep everything clean .......... and coated in Vaseline ............ I said it again coz it's very important! :D

I commuted for years with them and latterly used NiCads.
Mick F. Cornwall
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Mick F
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by Mick F »

PS:
I learned the trick about Vaseline when I was in the RN in the electrical department.

The battery maintainer who looked after all the emergency lighting used it and some of the lights were on the upper decks in the weather. If Vaseline works on a ship at sea, it'll work on a bike light.

........... and it does.
Mick F. Cornwall
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by [XAP]Bob »

I imagine that the more recent LED replacement bulbs would also give you a pretty good 'bang for your buck' without having to change too much - though you could then run with smaller/lighter batteries in a modern case which would also alleviate the 'bounce' issues faced by the ever ready originals.

Drop an LED (with vaseline) into the bulb holder, and make sure the beam pattern is still suitable.
If desired, wire up a double/triple A battery caddy and pack it in there with a little sponge (and probably some vaseline, or other waterproofing).
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Brucey
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by Brucey »

I used Ever unReady lights BITD and no amount of contact cleaning, Vaseline etc would allow the contacts between the battery and the lamp itself to be reliably maintained; after a fairly short period of time there would be more black stuff in the contact and the light wouldn't work until it was cleaned/treated again. It struck me (years later) that if you rode on softer tyres than I did, the quality of the vibrations would be different (less) and that this might help; not everyone had as bad problems as I did.

I started using a dynohub in about 1978 for utility cycling and it was so much less aggro that one soon appeared on my training bike too, despite the weight (about +800g vs a normal front hub). The training bike one lasted until about 2010.

It would be easy enough to fit LED blinky parts to Ever Ready lights. The rest of the space inside could contain anything; tools, sandwiches, you name it. However I won't be doing that; the mere sight of the things brings back too many memories of them taking the paint of new bikes when they are knocked, and of being stranded by the roadside with no light (again). They can all rot in hell as far as I'm concerned.

cheers
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
nez
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by nez »

Thanks both. I'm going to bid on one on eBay. If only I'd known about the Vaseline thing in 1970. And of course Bob's right about just getting a bulb. I have a hand torch with just such a bulb. Duh.
nez
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by nez »

Yes Brucey, my memory of those early 70's is of often trying to make the blinking thing work at the roadside at 530 in the morning somewhere north of Epping. I was on my way to work. But how smug I'll feel on the old MN with a bulletproof light!
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Patrickpioneer
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by Patrickpioneer »

This may be a silly question but are you going to ride the bike at night? if not why fit lights?
Patrick
nez
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by nez »

Because the winter is long and dark and the night reaches down into the day.
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TrevA
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by TrevA »

I had a pair of (N)Ever Ready Nightriders. I used these to commute on country lanes between Nottingham and Leicester. I had a set of rechargeable batteries but the lights were so dim I could just about make out to edge of the road and see about 5 feet in front of my front wheel. Completely useless really, but there were few alternatives unless you forked out hundreds of pounds for a NightSun or similar.
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Mick F
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by Mick F »

I was on rock hard 20mm tyres when mine worked fine. Unlit main roads all the way to work and back.
Never an issue.
Just keep them clean and lubed, and good batteries, and they're fine. 100%.

I swapped to a Subitez bottom bracket dynamo set next. Not because of anything wrong with the Ever Ready lights, but I got tired of charging and recharging the NiCads.

The Subitez was a great leap forwards. Sold it on these very pages to someone who knew how good they were.
The Sanyo version wasn't good at all by all accounts and would slip and skip.
Mick F. Cornwall
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by fullupandslowingdown »

I've not fitted a new light within the old body, seems maybe a little too much hassle for modern day. But back ten years ago before decent lights were cheaply available, I did modify them to use higher wattage bulbs.

DSC_1929.JPG


I have had a stock of decent AA NiMh rechargeable batteries and used a standard 4AA battery box with PP3 clip. Soldered it all up to the body as in the photo so the bulb and lens top could slide on as normal. Used a 4.8V krypton bulb. The result was about twice as bright as the standard lamp, and is adequate for normal use. I put a bit of plain plastic inside the bottom of the base to cover up the old battery contacts, just to make sure they couldn't short out the battery box which has bare wiring on the ends, which I also covered with insulation tape. I also covered all the other bits of copper inside the base with tape. Just to be sure :wink: in theory I could un convert it all reasonably easy.

I also made a heath robinson light shield. It really does make a difference if you stop stray light shining up towards your own eyes, when cycling on unlit roads. The shield isn't focused i.e returning the stray light to the road ahead, but just stopping it from shining upwards. The ever ready lights had a small nick in the lens shroud designed to show a small light upwards so you knew it was working OK.

But when Lidl started selling bike lights, I got a pair and they are simply better. Not used the ever ready since. I thought I'd thrown them all away as I had converted 2 others too. One was just with a 2AA battery box, and the other was two 4AA battery boxes wired in parallel to see if I could get longer run time. But the old bugbear of using batteries in parallel is that one set tends to charge/discharge the other set unless they are perfectly matched in voltage and internal resistance. So that got binned.
mercalia
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by mercalia »

they were RUBBISH

The slightest jolt and the battery lost contact with the bulb. And the feeble light...........how on earth did we survive them. Dont tell me any one ever toured with them? They were only fit for being seen in the town

who was the company that made them? they dont exist to day?
tatanab
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by tatanab »

mercalia wrote:The slightest jolt and the battery lost contact with the bulb
which is why we used to push a piece of carboard between the batteries, to stop them moving.
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Mick F
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by Mick F »

mercalia wrote:they were RUBBISH
Your's were rubbish.
Mine weren't.
I knew how to look after battery lighting and they were fine and reliable 100%.

tatanab wrote:
mercalia wrote:The slightest jolt and the battery lost contact with the bulb
which is why we used to push a piece of carboard between the batteries, to stop them moving.
Which was why we made sure the connectors were aligned and sprung correctly.
You didn't need cardboard.
Mick F. Cornwall
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