Test ride with new tail light

I decided I wanted to try my new Busch & Müller Toplight Line Brake Plus tail light and the custom mount I designed in the dark so I drove down the SART at 7pm. (No I didn't design it in the dark!) I started at La Cadena and rode up to the closure at Mt Vernon. It's not passable.

Not passable

There were a lot of families walking along the trail, as well as a number of dirt bikes and 4x4 driving on the trail too. 

Lot's of families like this - difficult to socially distance

I decided to relocate to Ryan Bonaminio park which is closed but has plenty of parking outside. It's right on the bike path so I continued riding from there. For the rest of the ride I only saw three walkers and no vehicles.

There's some flooding on the trail and also some very rough sections of dried mud that probably aren't going to get cleaned up any time soon. I'm glad my lights are good enough to let me see what's ahead.

I found out on the ride that my new tail light doesn't flash as you slow down - it gets brighter like a real brake light. This makes sense as I believe flashing tail lights are illegal in Germany where these are made. I like it a lot. I did a night ride with Amber and she likes it too so she'll be getting one for her birthday.

Custom light mount

I was browsing through the Peter White website as I sometimes do and came across the "Busch & Müller Toplight Line Brake Plus" dynamo powered tail light that brightens when it detects you slowing down.

Busch & Müller Toplight Line Brake Plus

The only problem is that it is only designed to attach to a rack. The light is about 90mm wide and the mount bolts are 50mm apart. I want to mount it on my seat stay. Fortunately, I have a friend with a 3D printer and I have a copy of Design Spark and I'm not afraid to use it.

After a couple of hours and some rejected prototypes I came up with this design.

It is designed to be held together with a 50mm hose clamp. When attached to a seat stay with a 25 degree pitch the light will be horizontal. Note the channel to accommodate a disk brake cable running down the seat stay like Amber's bike does. On my bike, I'm using it to route the light cable. When installed, the light clears the spokes by 1/4" which, hopefully, is enough. 

Here are some images of it on my bike.

Now to do a night ride with Amber.

The Wet Crema

Amber and I were planning on riding Back Bay this Sunday but the rain came in early and we didn't want to risk riding down steep hills on slick roads so we opted for The Crema again (note we didn't opt not to ride).

Ten miles of rain

Not only was is raining, but it was windy too with the wind coming out of the North as usual. Even though we kept our speed down our feet and backsides were soaked in a couple of minutes. Fortunately the rain eased up after ten miles and we had overcast skies and wet pavement to the beach.

Once we got to the beach the clouds started to break up and we started to see blue skies. Even though the weather was worse than last week we saw more riders and walkers which suggests people are getting tired of staying at home all the time.

Nice weather in Seal Beach

We ate outside at The Crema enjoying the lovely weather. On the way back the clouds came back in but we got back without getting rained on any more.