looking for a front dynamo hub, to be used on and off road.
a mate has a Schmidt sondelux, which he loves, but he don’t reckon it will be good offroad. it is available in a disc version.

any help greatly welcomed.

Sp dynamo. Very happy with mine

SP8 seems to get the nod. It comes 15mm/Qr too so has more fork options. If you want it nice and easy buy the Exposure Revo light kit as that comes with that hub. Be aware that the number of lumens tails off rapidly at low speeds though.

My SON dynamo is around 8 years old now and thats on an off road commuter used all year round. Its never needed any attention in that time.

I’ve got a Schmidt and a couple of SPs now.

The Schmidt is on my touring bike and had been very good, done thousands of miles on it. The SP is half the price and has worked equally well. I’ve had one on my Fargo that has done a lot of off-road trips and tours, still faultless. Just got another for my Vaya.

Spa were selling them at about £80, great price.

We have used three dynamo hubs. Two are Shimano hubs which have been very reliable if a little heavy. My partner’s Shimano hub has been in daily use for over 10 years with no problems. Mine was used daily until the bike broke. My new commuter bike has an SP disc hub but has only been in use for about six months so it’s a bit soon to comment on it’s long term performance.

The SP ones seem very popular, with good reason I think. I have a pair of Shimano hubs, one LX non-disc, one XT which is disc compatible. The LX was £42 last year from Germany, which was attractive, XT about £60 I think. They do pre-built wheels as well which can be very competitive. A bit heavier than the SP hubs but not so much that I could notice I don’t think.

SP as mentioned but depends on what you want to run from it

If not being used to power an android device then you can run it through a very cheap Kemo M176 unit (I think) for about £20 which will happily split the power between a GPS an a Revo light.

I have two now, one for road / cx and one for mtb – wired up via a kemo to a Garmin 800 and a Revo.

The problem you may well find is that you will keep getting those ‘lost power’ beeps from the GPS if you go below 6ish mph and (annoyingly) above 20 ish mph.

To get round this you need a steady power supply and this can be done simply by running the power generated through the hub through a piggy back battery that can simultaneously charge and discharge. I will dig out a link for you and draw a quick diagram. Really simple to wire up and makes the whole thing better in my opinion.

SP is light and reasonably priced – shimano works as well tho.

Schmidt is for bling-pimps only IMO, no tangible benefits whatsoever.

I had a Shimano LX one which was cheap and worked well, not really made for off-road commuting though and was totally shagged after 2 years. I don’t think servicing is particularly possible/worthwhile with that particular one.

Replaced it with a Hope hub and to be honest I would think twice before getting another as external batteries are so cheap & good now.

I’ve gone for the Schmidt Son 28 with an Edelux II headlight and a Cinq-The Plug usb charging socket built into the headset top cap.

It seemed the best combination to get the most stable power output at low speeds

Good write up on Dynamo hubs here, on Peter White Cycles page and for various dynamo powered light spreads look here.

For info regarding Cinq – The Plug look here

my sp8 hub has done almost 2 years of commuting (i try and ride at least half the week).

never had any problem.

would also recommend B&M iq cyo (60 lux) lamp.

is the sp8 15mm adaptable?

IMO, buy the SP dynamo for 80 quid, or get a cheapo shimano one from rose bikes for 30 quid. The mid-range Shimano is too close to the SP to be worth it.

Best charging solution i’ve seen is the USB-Werk, charges at 1A and has a battery built in for 50 quid http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/b–m-usb-werk-power-supply-and-charger/aid:639422

@somafunk – how much did all that cost, if you don’t mind me asking?

I’m interested in getting a dynamo setup, but put off by having to buy something then start splicing cables from the off, to make it work as I want.

is the sp8 15mm adaptable?

I think there is a qr and a 15 mm version. not sure they are adaptable.

pd-8 = qr
pd-8x = 15

I think it’s cost me about £450ish for the above and Jon at just riding along is building the son hub onto a velocity aileron rim for me at the moment as well as a CK rear wheel build.
It all plugs together the neatest and all the usb charging gubbins is hidden inside the steerer tube.

OK thanks, that’s good to know.

My SP8 is adaptable. There’s a 15mm hole for a “maxle” and an insert for a 9mm QR.