If you wish upon starlight

Back, way, way back, when I was a seventeen year old junior racer and prizes were merchandise, I was consistently fortunate in two ways. One, I was wining prizes. Two, a week or two after contemplating trying some product, I would win it. I thought about trying suspension; I won a Flex Stem. I wanted a repair stand; I won a wall mount bike stand that worked for that. I really wanted clipless pedals; I raced the senior sport class because they won better prizes than the juniors, and then I had to buy shoes for the SPD pedals that were first prize. After that, I started racing the top expert class for non New England Series races, and winning prizes wouldn't be an issue for a couple years!

Jumping forward, a lot, I bought a bike that's a bit small for me a few weekends ago. I really wanted the internally geared eight speed hub, and no longer winning prizes as a junior means Craigslist the more effective way to satisfy my whims. The seller knew I only wanted the hub and shifter, so to sweeten the deal, he included a helmet mounted LED headlight. I'm not a proponent of mounting an oblong protrusion on the helmet I may need to protect my already rattled brain, but the light was available with a handlebar mount, one that I might already have, even if I couldn't immediately find it.

It did occur to me to me to reach out to the interverse, specifically Freecycle, and ask if anyone still had the mount from a light that had ceased lighting up their life, or the road, but it seemed a bit of a long stretch for length of my arms and legs. Then Bike Lab happened. My friend Ben is a Pedal Person, often lends a hand at the Bike Lab, and even grew up near DC listening to Fugazi, but to add to the reasons I like him, earlier that week he'd found a free headlamp that didn't charge, so Adele suggested giving it to me on the chance I could repair it. The mount? Yes, of course, it was exactly the one I needed!

Thank you, thank you, Ben. It feels like my lucked hasn't completely waned, and to further that sentiment, this morning I opened the case in the hope a simple electrical connection repair might fix the charging issue. It was a simple failure, a leaky seal, but the extensive corrosion of the main board means I'm content to at least give that handlebar mount a new home. Maybe, just maybe, I'll also try grafting in the newer optics for more diffuse starlight!

New optics 

came with a new country of production,

but alas, 

lower quality sealing.