So emboldened by a glass of wine last night I bought a set of new wheels for my commuter / tourer with a dyno hub for Xmas.

I’m going on a 10 day cycle tour next summer and planning on a few longer audax’s so want to be able to recharge phones & my garmin 810 on the go.

Equally I want to power some decent output commuting lights – my occasional commute takes me along unlit canal paths as well as main roads.

So, now I have the hub (xt dyno) what other bits do I need / want?

The B&M dynamo lights are pretty good – they comply with German road regulations so aren’t the single bright spot that MTB lights provide.

To charge USB devices you need some buffer between the dynamo and the device – something like http://bearbonesbikepacking.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/cycle2charge-electrickery-part-2.html

Have a look through the info here on Peter White Cycles regarding dynamo lights, lots of good info regarding output/beam pattern/suitability etc.

But as this STW i’ll recommend what i have as i researched what was available last year and decided on the following for my Tripster.

I’ve a Son dynamo hub and Edelux II front light and son seatpost mounted rear light , the beam spread and power is really good for road riding, i’ve never felt that i wanted more light.

I also bought a Cinq – The Plug last year for my tripster build but my average speed is so low that it’s utterly pointless having it on my bike, it’s a neat usb headset top cap that enables charging of iPhones/garmins etc as long as your average speed is above 7mph.

Got all the original info and spare usb rubber caps for it, i’d sell it for £75 if you are interested.

What options are there in the USB charging manner for those intending to use a dynamo hub on a bike with a sealed fork crown so unable to route up inside the steerer tube. I’m thinking of either the Busch and Muller USB Werk or to incorporate lighting the B&M Lumotec IQ2 Luxos Light.

Good comments from Soma – have got an Edelux 1, and also a B&m IQ with built in USB charger. Both have great beam patterns, but I too had problems with my speed for charging over the summer. Getting a cache battery might solve this . I’ve previously used a solar charger with a cache battery which worked well (strapped to the side of a pannier). B&M rear lights are great too, and pretty cheap. Do you have a 3 watt or 1.5 watt hub or order? I think that the 1.5 watt hubs my be too low powered for charging.

I’ve an edelux 2 also and one-off the cinq5 USB chargers both very good
I can’t charge and run the light though unless I use a buffer battery which is a shame I think but it’s no problem really. I don’t bother with a dynamo rear though as led is good enough and easily swaps between bikes or positions on the bike depending on what saddle bag or panniers I’m using at the time

A cache battery will help, but prolonged periods below 7mph-ish with gadgets on will obviously run then flat in the end. On a road bike it shouldnt be a problem with a decent cache.

That’s good info guys, thanks. I’ll pass on your USB at the moment Soma, I can’t really justify extra personal expenses this side of Xmas bit it does look a very neat solution!

There is only one real option here.
Busch and Muller IQ Luxos U. Nothing else needed, nice and neat. Fantastic light for road riding and a USB port off the handlebar high beam switch. It will charge and run lights at the same time. It won’t charge a huge amount like that but it will charge. It’ll add half a charge or more during a days slow paced riding whilst running Strava. Around £85 from one of the German online shops. Really, seriously, don’t look any further. I’m massively impressed with mine. Having a separate light and USB charger is throwing money away. This thing is cheaper than The Plug on its own
I also have it linked to a rear light which has a brake light function. An LED on the front light tells you the rear is working.

I’ll second Peterpoddy here, got the same light and it just works. Even my slow speed pootling keeps it going. Get one.

I have the same light as peterpoddy. USB charging, handlebar control which even has a main beam function! Light sensing too. I have one of their rear lights hooked up which automatically switches on too – and is a brake light which detects when the hub is slowing down quickly as when to put the brake light on. Works perfectly too! All electronics are inside the Front light head unit so no extra boxes or anything.
Can’t see why anyone would get anything else, it really does everything.

I have the Luxos U, too. It’s certainly a good solution, though not perfect. I’ve found that the cache battery doesn’t necessarily provide continuous output, and certain devices don’t like external power fluctuating all the time (notably, all the Garmin devices I’ve used). Maybe my battery is faulty. Do also remember that its output is modest, so it charges slowly.

For long rides, I generally prefer to use a 1-2 cell external USB battery, pre-charged. For hotel-based touring I might be inclined to do the same. Where you’re off-grid for a while the Luxos starts looking much more worthwhile, but I would still add an external battery. If you don’t really need the Luxos, then the Cyo Premium 80 plus a USB battery is cheaper and gives you an equivalent quality beam.

I recently got one of these which should be useful for use with either light. It’s a standard battery but has an LED in the end, so you could stick it in a Twofish Lockblock or (I think) an Exposure Joystick mount and use it as a backup light if need be.

As for the other aspects of the Luxos: the beam is good (as above, the Cyo Premium’s is just as good), it’s a big old thing, and the “main beam” feature is frankly useless: it just switches on the DRLs, and adds no value at all once you’re moving at any speed. Vaguely useful once you’re away from tarmac, though. One of these days I’m going to rig up my two Cyos side by side with one as a switchable main beam…

There are other lights with USB output worth checking out: the Axa Luxx 70 Plus, for example. Somewhat cheaper than the Luxos U.

Before I had the Luxos U I used a Kemo 172. It worked fine (no cache battery, of course) but they’ve designed it so that you can’t really mount it on a bike, which is a little weird. Not the tidiest solution, but cheap. The Axa is probably the wiser budget option.

There’s a cheaper alternative to the Plug, called the Cycle2Charge. It seems to get good reviews.

At the risk of ‘me too’, I’m also running the B&M Luxos light with USB. I use mine to charge Garmin, phone and back up battery. I charge the phone in the morning and the Garmin for the last couple of hours and the battery backer as and when (sometimes from a Café plug in). Which means I rarely get low on my critical device; the Garmin. I’ve not had any issues with the cache battery mentioned above.

Watch which external back up battery you get as they’re not all compatible with the Luxos’s electronics. One I tried didn’t like charging from the Luxos but is fine from a charger or USB cable.

The light is a really neat solution and so far reliable now they’ve changed the USB output lead design. It used to plug into the lamp body and obviously leaked as they changed it to a hardwired design. If you pick one up s/h, watch out for this as they fail – regularly.

FWIW I’ve not had a problem with water ingress on my original plug-in lead. Haven’t subjected it to torrential rain yet, though.

Oh, and another point about the uselessness of the main beam: it switches itself off below a certain speed (which is basically any time you go up a hill) and doesn’t automatically come back on again.

Before I had the Luxos U I used a Kemo 172. It worked fine (no cache battery, of course) but they’ve designed it so that you can’t really mount it on a bike, which is a little weird. Not the tidiest solution, but cheap.

I have one of those on my bikepacking bike, spliced it into an Exposure Revo cable. For a past ride i mounted it on top of the stem just in front of the garmin, so switch is in easy access and the charge cable goes back into the top-tube bag.

Ive currently got the light and Kemo on my commuter mtb and have the Kemo mounted under the stem with the switch pointing out the side, works just as well and switch is easy to reach.

Obviously with the Kemo its lights or charging, but not really a problem on bikepacking rides where i use a cache battery to catch charge during the day, gives enough power to charge phone and Garmin overnight.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/BnwWeL]Caringorms Bikepacking bar setup[/url] by Richard Elsdon, on Flickr

I’ve got a Edelux 2 with a B+M USB-Werk wired from it. Wiring is in the fork with a modded top cap and spacer for the USB power cable. It all sits in my frame bag or gas tank that also holds whatever’s being charged and is close to the Garmin that it keeps topped up. Works well, used it for a few multi-day trips now. The USB-Werk battery is enough to give constant charge on the Garmin on all but the hardest climbs.
Doesn’t really do anything the Luxos doesn’t but it let me be a bit more creative / flexible with wiring or where it’s packed and the light unit is sealed and a bit more compact for bar bag space.

Obviously with the Kemo its lights or charging

When I used mine I wired it across the rear light terminals of a Cyo, so I had both. At the time I used it with a battery rear light; maybe it could be wired in parallel with a rear without affecting the rear light performance, maybe not.

Might be worth looking out for one the “Biologic” USB chargers on ebay like this http://tomsbiketrip.com/biologic-reecharge-a-dynamo-powered-usb-charger-for-smartphones-more/

There;s a little charging circuit, one end of which plugs in the dynamo, and another into the buffer battery. The battery then has a USB socket on it to charge stuff, and is capable of being charged charging something at the same time. You can use the battery on its own, or top the charge up in a pub/cafe if you’re cycling slowly, or just use it in a tent if you’re camping.

Its not as neat as the integrated solutions, but a bit more flexible and no cut outs when cycling slowly for extended periods.

I think some of the more modern USB chargers have upped their USB power output to 5v 1.0a, i.e. 5w of power output.

Dynamos are rated at 3w at 12mph or something, so to produce 5w they have to go faster, which might explain more cutouts with the higher powered USB chargers. I’m not sure if they’ve got enough electronics to step the power down to 5v 500ma?

The battery then has a USB socket on it to charge stuff, and is capable of being charged charging something at the same time.

Most cache batteries allow this, through charging i think its called. I found it ok but i found it worked better when you just charged the cache. That way you knew it would be fully charged at the end, rather than a 3/4 charged garmin and only unknown % charge cache for example (mine dosnt have a display to say how charged it was, might look for one with now you make me realise that limitation).

I thought relatively few batteries allowed it (can’t say I’ve tried) because without some fancy electronics it basically knackers the cell relatively quickly. I may be wrong; I’m pretty clueless with electrickery and tend to think it’s basically just witchcraft.

I also seem to recall a number of threads on other forums about the Reecharge… ah, here’s one. Someone dismantled a dead one, mentions missing zener diodes and other things I don’t really understand 🙂 https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=40524.0

Bez – Member
FWIW I’ve not had a problem with water ingress on my original plug-in lead. Haven’t subjected it to torrential rain yet, though.

For convenience, question and answer in one sentence. 🙂