Led bike pedals

I just found these on sale for 7 euro. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

(click for bigger pic)
They have 6 red 3mm leds each that flicker when you turn the pedals, due to a small built in generator. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
The quality isn't top notch, the bearings are a bit rough, but it's nice to see stuff like this being developed. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Beamshots! ;p

Seriously, is it bright enough to be noticeble? Will cycling too fast kill it?

I've got those pedals too. Bought them a year ago but haven't put them to real use. They are definately not bright enough to get you noticed well. I had been thinking about swapping the LED's for some 5000mcd 30° LED's but they are not easy to get to, they're very recessed. Nerd's second question is a good one. For the price and quality you get I don't think they have built-in protection like good generators have. But you never know. It would be cool to see Shimano or some other company develop such pedals (with high-brightness LED's of course /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif ).

This is an interesting bike part. I guess red LEDs don't really require much current to be bright. If you really want to know if will kill the LEDs you can try to flip the pedals real fast and see. If it's good it should have a capacitor in it to store the extra current. Then you continue to have light even when you are cruising but according to your desc. it sounds like it doesn't. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Well, I did flip the pedals really fast several times...

I mounted the pedal in a drill and gave it a good spin... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif The leds are still fine. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

They are not very bright, as Velcro already said, but they are noticable in the dark.