Ever ready bike light

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
TheRedPen
Posts: 3
Joined: 16 Aug 2020, 10:42am

Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by TheRedPen »

The Ever Ready Night Rider lights were relatively modern (1980s?) plastic lights which take modern batteries. I think the original poster was looking at the old metal Ever Ready batteries (catalogue number 2306) as something which wouldn't look out of place on his vintage Major Nichols bike. If you're trying to make the point that modern bicycle lights are better than lights sold in the '60s and '70s, then no-one's arguing with you. If you want to put modern lights on your vintage bike, then go ahead, no-one's stopping you. But if the original poster wants to find a pristine condition metal Ever Ready lamp, buy an adapter for modern batteries off eBay and replace the existing incandescent bulb with a pre-focused LED bulb, I can't see the problem.
thirdcrank
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Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by thirdcrank »

Oh dear. I've an acetylene lamp in the garage, on the same shelf as the Tilley lamp and the paraffin blow lamp.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ca ... &FORM=VIRE
mercalia
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Joined: 22 Sep 2013, 10:03pm
Location: london South

Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by mercalia »

TheRedPen wrote:The Ever Ready Night Rider lights were relatively modern (1980s?) plastic lights which take modern batteries. I think the original poster was looking at the old metal Ever Ready batteries (catalogue number 2306) as something which wouldn't look out of place on his vintage Major Nichols bike. If you're trying to make the point that modern bicycle lights are better than lights sold in the '60s and '70s, then no-one's arguing with you. If you want to put modern lights on your vintage bike, then go ahead, no-one's stopping you. But if the original poster wants to find a pristine condition metal Ever Ready lamp, buy an adapter for modern batteries off eBay and replace the existing incandescent bulb with a pre-focused LED bulb, I can't see the problem.


putting modern batteries/bulb in an old lamp is cheating. hardly original then? defeats the object. The whole point is to be original. ( a stupid idea any way)
TheRedPen
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Joined: 16 Aug 2020, 10:42am

Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by TheRedPen »

Did you even read the original post?
Carlton green
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Joined: 22 Jun 2019, 12:27pm

Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by Carlton green »

A link in another thread brought me back to this thread and I’ve just quickly read through it again.

One point I noticed was reports of contact corrosion, Vaseline and Xenon(?) filament bulbs (rather than Tungsten). When Xenon arrived I thought it quite a noticeable improvement. Battery contacts where always an issue for me and IIRC there where many contacts within the ER lights’ circuits. Bumpy roads sometimes seemed to make the lights flicker too, perhaps the batteries were trying to bounce up and down.

Chatting with a local bike shop owner he told me that DC lights, so battery lights, always corroded inside due to voltaic action whereas the AC supplied Dynamo lights didn’t suffer that issue, and they had more Watts available too. What he said seemed plausible so I decided to use Dynamo lights and for me they worked out better than the Ever Readies (more light, no expensive batteries to replace and no worrying about the amount of life left in a set of batteries).

I wonder what the OP eventually decided to do. I wonder how long a set of batteries would last now in those old lights fitted with an LED bulb.
Don’t fret, it’s OK to: ride a simple old bike; ride slowly, walk, rest and admire the view; ride off-road; ride in your raincoat; ride by yourself; ride in the dark; and ride one hundred yards or one hundred miles. Your bike and your choices to suit you.
nez
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Joined: 19 Jun 2008, 12:11am

Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by nez »

Did the British Standard include conking out 20 mins into a ride? I think it must have.
rjb
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Joined: 11 Jan 2007, 10:25am
Location: Somerset (originally 60/70's Plymouth)

Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by rjb »

nez wrote: 17 Nov 2021, 8:53pm Did the British Standard include conking out 20 mins into a ride? I think it must have.
And the switched lid on the tin ones would fly off followed shortly by the battery being ejected. :lol:
images.jpeg
images.jpeg (5.47 KiB) Viewed 550 times
If I remember correctly you could turn the top lid around to make the switch more aerodynamic like this one. :lol:
I had a blue one back in the day.
At the last count:- Peugeot 531 pro, Dawes Discovery Tandem, Dawes Kingpin X3, Raleigh 20 stowaway, 1965 Moulton deluxe, Falcon K2 MTB dropped bar tourer, Rudge Bi frame folder, Longstaff trike conversion on a Giant XTC 840 :D
pwa
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Joined: 2 Oct 2011, 8:55pm

Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by pwa »

rjb wrote: 17 Nov 2021, 9:18pm
nez wrote: 17 Nov 2021, 8:53pm Did the British Standard include conking out 20 mins into a ride? I think it must have.
And the switched lid on the tin ones would fly off followed shortly by the battery being ejected. :lol:

images.jpeg

If I remember correctly you could turn the top lid around to make the switch more aerodynamic like this one. :lol:
I had a blue one back in the day.
Yes, I had one of those fly off on this descent one night

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.6283161 ... 2?hl=en-GB
and I had to go fumbling around in the dark to find the body, the lid and the battery.

I struggled to find a half way reliable light on those days. The dynamos that I tried also had their issues. I think the best one (in the dry) mounted below the BB and put a roller on the tyre tread. Today's lighting options are leagues ahead. Whether you want dynamo or battery, the choice today is good.
drossall
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Location: North Hertfordshire

Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by drossall »

Everyone I knew threaded old toe straps through the front-light mount and bracket to keep theirs on. And, as I think I mentioned before, packed around the batteries with cardboard to stop them bouncing and damaging the contacts.
Jdsk
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by Jdsk »

pwa wrote: 18 Nov 2021, 5:22amThe dynamos that I tried also had their issues. I think the best one (in the dry) mounted below the BB and put a roller on the tyre tread. Today's lighting options are leagues ahead. Whether you want dynamo or battery, the choice today is good.
I had one of those in c 1980. It was better than the cheap bottle dynamos.

Jonathan
Tim Holman
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Joined: 1 Aug 2020, 9:51am

Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by Tim Holman »

Yes, the BB dynamo replaced Everready for me in about 1979 for my twelve mile commute to and from work which was often at one in the morning. The dynamo was courtesy of George Pennel in Peebles. Anyone remember him?
Tim
thirdcrank
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Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by thirdcrank »

Carlton green wrote: 17 Nov 2021, 6:45pm ... I wonder how long a set of batteries would last now in those old lights fitted with an LED bulb.
The irony is that the latest British Standard - as executed by Ever Ready Nite Riders IIRC - coincided with a lot of rapid tech advances and was out-of-date almost immediately. The first I heard of LEDs was from CJ in the CTC mag in the mid 1990s when he correctly predicted they were the future of bike lights. By then, I was using Cateye Daylights (or whatever they were called) with lead/acid gell cell batteries with an Ever Ready at the back. I bought a red LED screw-in bulb at what seemed like a silly price. It needn't have been red, of course because it was going in a rear lamp with a red "lens" but red was all I could get. The charge from two nicads lasted indefinitely, as might be expected, but the bulb produced a very concentrated beam so instead of the diffused beam across the entire lamp it was just a small but powerful red circle of light.

In the matter of bike lamps, you've never had it so good
Carlton green
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Joined: 22 Jun 2019, 12:27pm

Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by Carlton green »

Jdsk wrote: 18 Nov 2021, 8:29am
pwa wrote: 18 Nov 2021, 5:22amThe dynamos that I tried also had their issues. I think the best one (in the dry) mounted below the BB and put a roller on the tyre tread. Today's lighting options are leagues ahead. Whether you want dynamo or battery, the choice today is good.
I had one of those in c 1980. It was better than the cheap bottle dynamos.

Jonathan
For a while I used a bottom bracket Dynamo and IIRC the power output was better than a bottle Dynamo. However I suspected it of slipping in wet weather - I believe that that was a common experience - and I seemed to get more punctures (my suspicion was that thorns, metal and glass picked up by the tyre were then pressed into it by the roller). IIRC the drum seemed to accumulate some muck of its face too. Whatever, I went back to Union brand bottles and the problems went away, all be it at the cost of a little more Dynamo drag and a little less light - the later sorted when better bulbs appeared.
[Edit. The BB Dynamo was a Sanyo. It was a nice little unit - I still have it somewhere - but overall it just didn’t work well enough for me to want to continue with it, it’s all a long way in the past now.]

I’m quite puzzled why bike battery light suppliers have concentrated on using small batteries in their products (well that’s how it seems to me). Using D cells with an LED in a traditional size light would see nearly all of the battery life concerns disappear and the illumination usefully improved. Of course D cells are not feather weight whereas AA’s are much more so and ‘sporty’ riders might have an issue with ‘unnecessary’ additional mass. I just like to see where I’m going and I don’t get overly hung-up about weight.
Last edited by Carlton green on 18 Nov 2021, 2:30pm, edited 2 times in total.
Don’t fret, it’s OK to: ride a simple old bike; ride slowly, walk, rest and admire the view; ride off-road; ride in your raincoat; ride by yourself; ride in the dark; and ride one hundred yards or one hundred miles. Your bike and your choices to suit you.
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Mick F
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Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by Mick F »

I had an excellent Soubitez BB dynamo for years.
Never ever slipped despite using 20mm 120psi tyres and never slipped in the wet either.

From what I've read on here in the past, the (common) Sanyo BB dynamo would slip, but the (less common) Soubitez didn't.

Sold my Soubitez on here.
109_Dynamo_1.jpg
Mick F. Cornwall
drossall
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Joined: 5 Jan 2007, 10:01pm
Location: North Hertfordshire

Re: Ever ready bike light

Post by drossall »

I'm pretty sure I had a Sanyo. Either way, it didn't slip, although lots of people reported problems. First decent commuting light set-up I had. It may be in the bottom of a box somewhere.
thirdcrank wrote: 18 Nov 2021, 9:15amIn the matter of bike lamps, you've never had it so good
Does mean though that they keep bringing out better ones. So, in the matter of bike lamps, I've never had so many :D :lol:
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