Damn it's getting dark early...

The H.O. came home from work at her normal time, so I jumped on the bike and did a loop around the Fort. I was out the door at 5:45 and on my way.

The sun was low in the sky, but still shining brightly! Man, was that short-lived! I was barely to the top of Hartsville Guard when it started to disappear behind the trees. I planned on doing a slow-ish loop, but chasing the daylight seemed de rigeur, so up the pace went.

I stopped at the top of the hill on Wildcat to make an adjustment to my new cleat and heard the telltale call of a coyote. That's right folks, Wile E. himself is evidently living with his peers out on the base. The call came from far away, but I wasn't going to hang around to see if any of his asshole buddies were going to return the call from my general vicinity. The pace went up yet again...

Once I turned onto Dixie, I clicked the new light on so that oncoming cars could see me. I can tell you, a good L.E.D. light is damn bright. As the light faded, I was really shocked by the output of the two tiny heads. I kept my newly accelerated pace on the ups and the downs. At the top of the penultimate climb, I saw a blinky ahead of me. So the pace went up again...

I stomped up the last climb and caught the rider just after Golden Arrow. As I approached, I noticed the guy's stroke was UGLY! Not that mine is a gift from the Madonna Di Ghisallo, but this guy wasn't even pedaling squares...more like octagons. As I went past, I could barely make out the shape of...wait for it...The Peanuthead. Riding in the Fort with a barely there blinky and no headlight...in the dark! I wasn't about to have him try to follow me, so the pace went up again...

I kept a hard, 38-40kph pace for the rest of the trip out of the Fort and it actually felt really good. Sometimes, going hard feels better than futzing around.

The Niterider MiNewt Dual X 2 light performed well. It's VERY small. The housings themselves are about the size of a walnut (and metal) and the battery is similar in size to a package of granola bars. The whole she-bang weighs less than a pound. Run time is 2 hours on high and 4 hours on low. I also will run for 8 hours on flash. Flash is a bit trippy though. It flashes as fast as a strobe light and the flash is high power. I turned it on in the middle of the neighborhood and almost had a seizure. The light system was great on the road...we'll see how she does in the woods.

Here's the whole system...(Powertap not included)...battery fits right under the stem!

Jonny5 aliiive...