Fix Vintage "Wonder" Bicycle Light

[sw-uk]

The best ever bicycle lights from the 1980's and very commonly part of my 90's childhood. I use them on my bike. I managed to source one from ebay which was opened/barely used but sadly water/moisture had rusted away one of the battery terminals which crumbled, I intend to make a new terminal once I can source the thin 1mm type of firm but flexible metal used, shouldn't be difficult.

The light works and even has the original 3.5v 300mah bulb with "France" written on it. I hooked up 4.5v from 3 c batteries as I don't have any of them 4.5v 1289 lantern batteries which I'm so amazed are still produced and easy to find online. I have never seen any other device use these type. Their rated from about 5000-5500mah so should run the lamp for about 16-18 hours.

I'm hoping to get back into cycling eventually and intend to use these lights, not the modern flashing junk. These wonder units really hold up well today. I have the red one also in the loft. On an energy efficiency level, an led upgrade will improve battery life and give them a 21st century appearance.

 

[Diver300]

Most modern LED lights have non-flashing modes. I think you'll find that the modern ones are a lot brighter as well.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

The original connections are most likely just steel wire or piano wire, which is not all that good as it corrodes.

You can easily get 1mm brass rod on ebay - eg:

model engineer round brass bar rod shaft 1.5mm 2mm 3mm 4mm 4.75mm 1/8" 500mm | eBay

Model makers round brass cz121 selection. tolerance on bars are + - 0.02mm.

www.ebay.co.uk

Anneal it at the points it will be bent, to avoid it cracking.

You can also get tiny square or rectangular sections, phosphor bronze (springy) strip etc.

 

[sw-uk]

@rjenkinsgb - your spot on ;-) - this light uses 0.5mm steel wire as its battery connections and piano wire matches. I'll use my miniature butane blow torch for heating and bending in my small vice.