Originally posted by Thunder
(although I think painting "Thunder" onto a bike would be a bit cheesy myself 
).
yes it would... i mean, if you were going to drive it around the HLP forums, then yeah it'd be cool cause everyone knows you as "Thunder"... but people seeing you driving around on the street would ask you what you're smoking, and call you bad words, like a crackhead, an ass, and a fag probably.
That's a really good idea about 'spicing up' your bike though!
What i did (this would look cool on yours) is i 'integrated' two 'light kits' together. I had one that worked on a dynamo. (i.e. a little motor that produces electricity... when the wheel turns it turns the motor... so as long as you ride you have electricity)... the side effect is... well, if you stop or slow down the light goes out/dims (respectively). It's mounted like this: (the dynamo)
I don't know why i drew two wires coming from the dynamo... actually only one is needed, and you can run it outside the frame, or what i do is drill a little hole in the frame, and thread it through, so it can't get snagged by something (this is imperative on a mountain bike) and the rain doesn't affect it. Then just use carpenter's putty or whatever the hell you have in England (just use gum... it always works
lol) and when it dries you can sandpaper it, paint it, and you won't even see the hole.
You also note that it's run by friction, and it's not 'connected' to the wheel. In this case after hours and hours it gets really hot, but it won't get damaged, cause it's got a rubber wheel that's against the rubber tire, so every few hundred milese you just buy a new one (about 50 cents in the USA)... also, the way it's situated, one rotation of the main wheel (bicycle wheel) is about 300 of the dynamo's wheel... lol, so you get a LOT of power
So anyway, i integrated them (dynamo and battery operated light) so that when you flick a switch (on the left handlebar, cause you don't use the gears on the left as much as you do on the right) and when you flick the switch it ties in dual 9 volt high integrity batteries (which i had under the seat) (this was a mountain bike). and also a couple of diodes and other goodies, because you don't want the dynamo to charge the batteries (this could be dangerous) and also if it's charging the batteries then that would affect the bicyle's light (the power would go to charging the batteries, not operating the light). Oh, and if you're riding in the day and you don't want the dynamo/battery... you just press a little switch on the dynamo and that releases a spring, and so it pops away from the wheel (like 3 or 4 centimeters away from it)... when you need it, you reach back, and snap it back into place against the wheel... it's on a spring, so you can never really put it TOO tight against the bicycle wheel so you don't damage either of them.
That takes care of your 'lights'...
Then I got this speedometer/times/pretty much everything else you want/ thing, that attaches (not friction driven, attaches on the axle) and it has a monitor that you can attack anywhere on the handlebar. It's very 'user friendly' and the ones nowadays can even tell you when you need to shift gears once you program it right. Like, it'll tell you what gear you're in, then it tells you (according to your pedaling) when you need to shift, and what gear you need to shift to... I'm not sure if they have this, but someone told me that they have these things that actually shift for you using miniature pistons and stuff.
Then there's a little bicycle radio (i never had one of these or anything mentioned below) that has AM and FM, and some of the newer ones have tape decks and even shock resistant CD players (haven't seen the CD player one, only heard)... but if you're planning on putting it on a mountain bike, these things (the CD player anyway) is made for racing bikes, so the operation is smooth. A mountain bike would jerk, and the CD would skip every second lol
They have jacks, so you plug headphones in... they don't come with headphones i don't think. You can also get kits that attach this to a dynamo with a little battery, so if you're riding in the day and listening to the radio (not using the light) you can use the dynamo for this... once again i'm not sure if you can use this on a mountain bike where the speed is constantly being changed... on a racing bike you can, cause you keep a pretty constant speed.
If you really want to keep going, get one of those kits that go between the seat and handlebars (under the frame, inconspicuous) and it has like an emergency pump, an extra inner-tube, patches, spanners, and everything else you want.
If you have money (and are really stupid) you could even attach a laptop to your bicycle, but that's just an option
any other ideas you want? if you can't find anything in England (or wherever you live) then me or someone else (i wouldn't mind) could buy it here and ship it to you
Regards
~Stealth~
Oh, and i know this has nothing to do with 'words/logos/images'... but you did mention 'spicing your bicycle up'... and this counts
