Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Radey Shouman <shouman@comcast.net>
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech
Subject: Re: bike light optics
Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2024 16:41:22 -0400
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Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> writes:

> On 4/8/2024 2:08 PM, Radey Shouman wrote:
>> Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> writes:
>> 
>>> On 4/5/2024 12:36 PM, sms wrote:
>>>>   What would be nice is a higher-end battery powered light that could
>>>> be charged with a dynamo, and operate at lower power directly from
>>>> the dynamo, but there is no such animal.
>>>
>>> ISTM that the market generally finds a way to fill almost all real
>>> needs. If such a thing doesn't exist, it's probably a signal that the
>>> benefits are too minor to make it marketable.
>> That's just silly.  Do bicycles fill a real need?  If so, why did it
>> take millennia for the market to produce them?  
>
> Are you serious? The answer is blatantly obvious: Because the science
> and the technology were not yet present to allow manufacture of
> bicycles.

It's funny how needs become "real" only when they can be satisfied.
I'm not sure what the alternative to "real" is, maybe "fake" needs?

Maslow claimed there was a hierarchy of needs, from basic food and
shelter on up to less pressing desires.  They're all real, but some are
more easily deferred than others.  Markets provide solutions for needs
when money can be made by selling them; that seems an odd way to define
reality.

> It's just as obvious that the technology exists for the fancy
> headlight Mr. "sms" proposed. Sheldon Brown did something vaguely
> similar decades ago. Search https://www.sheldonbrown.com/dynohubs.html
> for the words "low drag".
>
>>> But if a person really wanted such an item, shouldn't some Electrical
>>> Engineer be able to design and build one?
>
> That question remains! Mr. "sms" Scharf is an electrical engineer.

I have confidence in Mr. Scharf, and believe he could do it, just not at
a price he wishes to pay.

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