The 1948 Raleigh Dawn Tourist now has a complete, cleaned, and working Miller bicycle generator set. The headlight has a glass lens and two of the old-style, 'globe' bulbs.
The generator is a 6v bottle type. The bottle generator is an interesting piece of technology in that it provides modest power at the high cost of friction on the wheel.Newer bottles are much more efficient than these old Miller ones, but this is the old-style piece I want for this project.
The tail lamp set up is semi-custom. Most Miller tail lights bolt onto the generator bracket, right below the bottle. In this case, I have a rear rack that blocks view of the tail light if I put the light in that position. In this case, I used a very small, black hose clamp to attach the tail light in a higher position on the rear rack strut. This makes the tail light fully visible to vehicles behind me, and particularly to passing cars.
I don't ride much at night, but do enjoy rides at dusk. The tail light draws attention so a passing car driver knows immediately that I'm a bicycle and on the move.Do not underestimate the value of being seen. While the Miller lamps may not provide modern, LED-type light for you to see, they do make it much easier to be seen by passing motorists, which is also valuable. In fact, at dusk, it is more valuable than anything else because it is still light enough for you to see the road, but a passing car may not see you right away.
