Today I went to swap out the tire and tube onto the new wheel. The bike was SO dirty, it needed a bath first. Those Park Tools bike brushes a friend gave me as a holiday gift came in very handy. Makes cleaning wheels go much faster.
Tried to connect the light to the wheel, just to see it light up. Mmmm. Someone said "no, you don't need to solder the wires to the connectors; just crimp them". If someone ever tells you that, ignore them, and solder anyway.
Off to the hardware store, where the helpful elf found me clamps, bolts, more little connectors for the hub and more heat-shrink tubing.
Then over to my parents' house. Yes, we have a soldering iron and all that, but Fitz wasn't home, and I didn't know where it was. My dad and I retired to the workshop, and got the soldering done. He even had a heat gun for the tubing. Then I finally connected the light and we gave the front wheel a spin. Success!
Home to construct the mounting bracket. Turned out I needed Fitz to make some openings in the metal struts a bit bigger, so I sanded the paneling on the garage wall and moved laundry around while waiting for him to get home.
I had him do that the instant he walked in the door. He pointed out that he did not share my urgency with this project, but did it anyway. :-)
After much tweaking around with the struts, I had a workable light mount, and rode up and down the driveway. Oh my. The light flashes when I walk, but the minute I come up to speed - BAM! It is like a car headlight.
Took it out in the dark and fog around the block. Very bright, but there is wheel shadow. Once I get the front rack, I can mount it further forward.
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