From: pinch@cs.washington.edu (Ricardo Pincheira)
Newsgroups: rec.skate
Subject: Re: winter skating?
Date: 12 Nov 92 05:53:35 GMT
Article-I.D.: beaver.1992Nov12.055335.2288
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle

One thing I believe nobody mentioned for winter skating was 2 things:

softer wheels:
  cold temperatures harden your wheels and asphalt.  You'll get less
  traction.  you may want to use a softer wheel, especially if you may get
  rained upon.

lighting equipment (more important than above):
  for me the real problem in winter is darkness (even in Seattle the rain
  isn't that bad).  But, no problem.  Consider getting some good
  helmet-mounted lights.  Skating at night is great, there's usually little
  wind compared to daytime hours and less traffic etc, much more peaceful.

  I believe there was a discussion of lights a few months ago.  Anyways,
  I had some Nightsun "commuter special" lights for my bicycle.
  This is a very lightweight, dual beam (7.5 + 20 watts), *very* bright
  light.  The battery pack is encased inside a bicycle water bottle.
  It's supposed to run for about 2 1/2 hours on low beam and about 45
  minutes on high beam, but I've never really verified this.
  The longest I've used it has been a little less than  2 hours on low beam.

  Nightsun also makes a helmet mounting gizmo for these, ideal for
  skating.  It's sort of an aluminum band that goes over the top of the
  helmet and attaches with (gasp!) velcro and a compressible foam pad.
  It works fine. 
  Anyways, even the low beam is bright enough if you're skating on familiar
  terrain and know what to expect.  The hi beam is adequate for unfamiliar
  terrain if you take it slow.  Mega expensive, though, the lights +
  battery + charger were something like 150, the helmet kit about 23 or so
  more (aluminum gizmo, foam, velcro straps and self-adhesive velcro
  patches, extension cord).

  Incidentally, the water-bottle battery fits just fine inside the
  CamelBack backpack (camelback is a small backpack with a plastic bladder
  that you fill with water and a tube that you can drink from).
  Obviously the water capacity for the camelback is greatly reduced
  if you stick the battery in there.  Not a problem in winter.

  Nightsun also makes another light they call the "trailblazer".  It's a
  single beam 10 w system that mounts on the helmet.  I've never used it,
  though.  I think it runs for about 125-130 (which is like $50 less than
  the gadget described above) and the battery pack isn't inside a water
  bottle but sort of a squarish thing which is supposed to fit in your
  jersey pocket.
  I suspect it's probably not as nice as the above, because the light for
  this one mounts to the *front* of the helmet, not the *top*, so I imagine
  it might have a tendency to pull the helmet down over your eyes or
  tire your neck out more.  But I don't know.  

  Nightsun's number is 818-791-0457 if you want more info plus they'll be
  happy to sell directly to you.  (The local dealer
  here was pretty clueless, they didn't even know the helmet mounting kit
  existed. . .).

  For the rear, I use a small flashing red light (cue-light or something
  like that), it attaches just great to the pocket of a bicycle jersey
  or to the band of your trousers, if the waistline of these is high
  enough. It's small enough to not interfere with clasping your hands behind
  your back, unless your trousers have a low waistline.

  If you balk at the price of a nightsun gizmo and still want to skate at
  night and don't really need a "see" light but only a "be seen" device, I
  think flashing amber lights similar to the red one described above
  run for only about $15-20.  There's no question in my mind you can
  figure out a way to hook it to your helmet (be creative with velcro and
  foam. . .).

Ricardo
pinch@cs.washington.edu
Newsgroups: rec.skate