How To Make A Night Bike!

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How To Make A Night Bike!

Category: How To Created on Tuesday, 03 January 2012 05:15 Written by Sam Justin

night bike Gas is too expensive and not ecofriendly, so I like to bike wherever I can... unfortunately that means a lot of biking back from work at night. This always makes me a little nervous, how much can you trust drivers going 45 miles per hour right past you? I mean, a little dinky bike light can only do so much.
After too many close calls to count, and a lot of weekend tv watching I was inspired by the Blackberry commercial, As you can see, they had much more than a small flashing bike light to keep them safe, and those bikes certainly had some flair!
After doing a little bit of research, I found that there were some super glow in the dark paint, better than your typical craft store stuff. In fact it's called phosphorescent paint which can glow for up to 12 hours, is substantially brighter than simple glow in the dark paint, and only takes 10 minutes to charge up!

I must say, after creating this bike I feel much safer riding in the dark, cars are able to spot me from quite a far distance. I've even gotten a few compliments on the cool style of the bike! Safety and style... it's a win win!
So thus begins my instructable - a glowing bike that will not only amaze friends and onlookers, but be extremely safe for riding in the dark.

Phosphorescent Paint

F23IN8IGWYAWPEQ Now I want you to know that when I say this bike glows... it REALLY glows. Back when I was a youngster and was fascinated by glow in the dark paint, I was always disappointed by how dull and short lived the glow was. The typical craft store glow paint is zinc-sulfide based in an acrylic medium, if it is colored pigments are used. The problem with using pigments is that these colors absorb most of the light, and thus the glow isn't as bright.
Instead, phosphorescent paint (used for this bike) is strontium based and glows 10 times longer and brighter. Impressive!

The paint works only after it is exposed to an energy source, like the sun or black lights (these work really well) or regular lights. The paint absorbs the light energy and the little electrons get excited and jump up a few energy levels, sort of like climbing a few steps on a ladder. This is not a stable state for the electron (eventually you have to come down the ladder) and once it falls back down to its "ground state" it emits light, in the color of your paint. It turns out that strontium aluminate is more efficient and better at this than craft store glow paint.

You can find more information here and here.

Credit : This Article was originally posted by Adobi. Read full article on Instructables.