Judging from the price, master bell smiths, with a tradition going back thousands of years make them after meditating for hours in a forest. They are then painted only by the most beautiful women, with the nimblest fingers, and adorable silken cloths in painstaking, tedious, work.
oh bugger, forget what i said. i just stumbled over a flat pedal that costs 250 euros!
I like a high light, a handlebar light, and a low light on the fork. I also use wheel spoke reflectors as already mentioned. On the rear I use a small blinky on the helmet, a larger flasher in the jersey pocket, two seat post lights, a blinky on a chainstay, and strangely a large red torch strapped to the right chainstat that illuminates the rear cassette and a pool of road below.
@gs There are all sorts of restrictions in different areas
In NZ can have 55W lamps on either side as dipped beams, and 110 W (I think?) High beams
I have an intense focussed beam from my head light. It goes exactly where I put it, and at night time its great for lighting up things. I have more "be seen" lights. Sometimes I also fit a bottle light, which is a 12V SLA battery in a drink-bottle. That runs two 12V LEDs and provides huge short range illumination.
Reflectors are passive and dangerous because they can suddenly make a cyclist "apppear" to cars when the car is finally pointed at them. Drivers are used to reflectors on non-moving objects like signs and mailboxes. Having them on rarer moving objects conflicts with the algorithms driver minds develop. Having lights on a moving object fits them into the algorithms already established by the drivers mind.
Would you rather be perceived as a mailbox that suddenly appeared, or another vehicle with your own lights which was detected and anticipated some distance off.
At this point you can have a headlamp that will produce more light than your average vehicle headlight and run for hours on 4 AA batteries. Cyclists no longer have an excuse for not being lit.
Wearable lighting surpassed car lighting some years ago. Cars don't have a power supply problem, so most of their lighting is far outdated compared to newer LED headlamps and cycling lights. There is no reason for car lighting to evolve. People put LED lights on their vehicles for looks and longevity now, but not because they are brighter or more efficient than older style lights.
The light setup I have gets run on low when I am around cars and other cyclists and provides roughly the front light (or slightly greater) than an automobile. It provides far more rear and side visibility (LED rear blinkies) than an automobile has.
On high it provides far more light than a stock automobile is capable of, roughly equivalent to after market cannon LED lights that I had mounted on my van. All of that will run for hours (or days in the rear blinky department) on batteries I can hold in one hand.
Discussions like this upset me because the laws (at least here in the US) allow cyclists to be stupid. Cyclists (by law) have been allowed the same rights as vehicles to the road. However, they haven't been forced the same responsibilities as vehicles have (lights for visibility and safety equipment). It's typical of ignorant and entitled American thinking. "I want mah rights!" (but no clue as to the responsibilities that should come with that).
If I was interested in building a commuter bike with road aspirations, what frames should I look at aside from the Surly Crosscheck? My current bike is aluminium and I like not having to worry about the paint getting chipped. Internal cable routing (brake, gear and light) would also be great.
