Festive Lighting

It's no secret that I'm not much for the "holiday season". Yet I don't mind getting a little in the mood for it every once in a while. For instance, I often decorate my bicycle with Christmas lights. I've done it off-and-on for many of the years I've lived in Portland. And just like bicycle lights, battery powered string lights have come a long way in the last few years. It used to be that you were stuck with standard bulb lighting powered by 2 C cells that would be dim by Day 3 of use. Now you can get LED string lighting powered by 2 AA batteries that stay bright for weeks.

This week I made the jaunt to a big box store to pick up lights. I'm not disclosing which one it is, besides the fact that it specializes in Scandinavian designed home furnishings. I picked up a few light sets for myself and April. 

I decided to do the most festive displays on the Worksman cycle truck. The front of the basket would get a string of white lights and the top tube red. The basket makes a convenient place to mount the battery pack.

While the saddle bag holds the battery pack for the red top-tube lights.

And of course you can really only get the full effect at night.

I may ride this bike up to North Portland on Monday night, where Portland International Raceway has its annual festival of lights. This is normally a "cars only" thing, as it requires driving around the circuit to see all the lights, but they reserve one day for bicycles and pedestrians. I've attended the past couple years, and it's always been a fun, if not chilly, night.