OK, ONE more purchase...

[johnridley]

I ordered up a new taillight. It's from the Chinese company that makes my headlight, which is the best headlight I've had and at a great price. The taillight promises the same; more light and better dispersion than the $120 taillight I'm running with now, plus it runs off the same battery as my headlight (with a Y adaptor) and it's totally waterproof (the other one has a water-vulnerable battery pack) for $29. I should be able to sell the old light for at least twice that and wind up with a better lighting system, where I only have one battery pack to worry about. Currently I have to bring the taillight pack in, take the 4 AA cells out of it, recharge them and replace them every 2 days. This will be an improvement in several ways, won't add any net items to my pile of stuff and should actually net me money.

Comments

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Well, this does fit the criteria of both replacing something else that I can then get rid of, and of simplifying. With this I have one battery pack (which I already charge for my headlight) that I just plug in while I'm at work to charge, instead of that battery plus the taillight pack which is four AAs held into a pack with a hunk of inner tube that I have to pry off and charge the cells individually, then put back in the pack and wiggle that inner tube back over it to keep the cells from falling out on the road.

It's kind of funny that the kludgy pain in the butt light is the "professional" name brand solution that I paid 4x as much for.