Solar Backpack and Bicycle Back Up

My backpack became a solar backpack when I sewed a $5 solar tail light and a $10 solar headlight to it.  The plastic blister pack is the holder for the headlight.  I've been assembling my own solar backpacks from off the shelf materials for close to a decade and a half now and this is the third version.

This Solar headlight (links to sellers are from a search made on 11/26/17 and you should probably check others out even though these are now commodity products made in gross quantities)

https://www.gearbest.com/bike-lights/pp_425123.html

costs about $10.  I've been using one for a year or two and it works fine.  The on/off button top came off during the first winter but it hasn't affected the switch's performance.

The solar light comes with a mini-USB to USB plug so I can supply battery power to another small device.  

This Solar tail light

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA67040E8150

costs about $5 and, again, I've been using two for a year or two, one on the rear fender of my bike and another sewn to my backpack, given one or two away, and they work fine. 

I have just ordered this bicycle chain charger with battery and USB connection for about $50 

https://www.bonanza.com/listings/Bicycle-Chain-Charger-to-USB-Dynamo-1000mAh/164100759

I want to see how that works out.

The combination of solar and bicycle power gives anyone essential energy autonomy whatever the state of the grid.  Or the world.

The fact of the matter is, for less than $100 dollars you can have a 5, 10, or 20 year, depending upon the quality of the equipment and based upon my experience, supply of basic electricity:  light, phone, radio, batteries, possibly a computer....

Small solar and bicycle power can also be entry level electrical power for the more than 1 billion people who don't now, in 2017, have access to reliable and affordable electricity.

This is one reason why I say Solar IS Civil Defense.

It is also why I say a Solar Swadeshi (http://solarray.blogspot.com/2005/05/solar-swadeshi-hand-made-electricity.html) is extremely practical and an entry into Gandhian economics, nonviolent economics, and a new sense of independence and self-reliance.