Antique bicycle lighting

Like boat lamps, green on starboard, red on port

Imagine navigating cobbled Seattle roads with these bicycle lamps

Not very bright, but pretty cool

From back when candlepower meant candlepower

The headlamp still works

Cyclists today are all soft.  Why, in the old days we didn’t have any fancy L.E.D. lights.  Nope.  We couldn’t see where we were going, and that’s how we liked it. Seattle was all cobblestones, gravel roads and there were only seven street lights.  We still rode our bikes in the dark.  Got run over a lot.  Ran into parked cars and a even a few parked horses.  Made us tough…

We have a fun collection of old bike lights in the shop.  Kerosene lamps, oil lamps, old generator systems.  We have some big old D-cell battery systems that weighed a ton.  The funny thing is, with almost all of the old lamps, you still couldn’t see where you were going.

The headlights retract by flipping a handlebar mounted switch

Dual head lamps

Vintage generator and battery lights

Monark headlight made by Seiss of Toledo, Ohio

Early ‘90’s Night Sun bicycle light

Laugh at the “antique” stuff if you want, but we recently put an early ‘90’s Nightsun system on display, and I know a lot of you had one of those…