Lights Out!

Yesterday I went and did an off-road base ride at Blankets. I rode some of the new trail that they are in the process of building and was amazed at the progress they have made. The trail has a good number of switchbacks and some long (well, long by Blankets Creek standards) uphills and downhills. It was hard to tell how the trail flowed since I was trying to keep my heart rate low. Luckily no one was out there to see me poking along at a snails pace. Next, I headed over to the Dwelling Loop to do some night laps. About halfway through my first lap, I pulled out my NiteRider Moab and was shocked to find that it wasn't working. In the two years that I've had it, I've never had any problems with this light, but it finally decided to flake out on me. While I'm messing around with the cords, some guy comes along and asks if I'm ok. I say I'm fine and then he continues to stand there and watch me jiggle the cords, push buttons, and curse under my breath. "I'm really ok, you can go ahead" I say to him, as him standing there watching me is getting me more annoyed. He finally leaves and shortly thereafter, my light comes on. Hooray! Time to roll! I was very careful (meaning slow) on the downhills for fear my light would go out and send me hurling off into oblivion or some broken off trees that I could impale myself on. Against my better judgement, I rode two more laps with the jacked up light and sure enough it did go out halfway through my third lap. Luckily I was going uphill at the time, so no carnage. I jiggled the cord some more and it came back on. After that, I figured I'd better call it a night and I headed home. When I got home and disconnected the light, the whole plug ripped out of the lamp, exposing wires and otherwise rendering the $600 light system useless. I contacted NiteRider and was pleasantly surprised that they said to just send the whole system back and they would warranty it. Apparently, a lot of other folks have had similar problems since the rep knew exactly what I was talking about. Since the light is technically out of warranty, I expected to pay for the repair, so kudos to NiteRider for recognizing that the systems have a design flaw and doing what is necessary to remedy the problem. Its nice to know customer service isn't completely dead. A big thanks also to Kevin of OutSpokin' Bicycles for letting me borrow his NiteRider Flight system while mine is being repaired.