[Closed] Elctrics, charging, dynamo experts assemble!

Son and exposure not in the same ballpark

Exposure is a rebadged sp hub.

I've not had hassle with either of my sp hubs but if I had the choice id choose a son having built a few wheels over the years with them . Nice bits of kit

As for usb duffers - I can tell you that the cycle2charge is a piece of crap.killed 3 now.

I'd also look into the igaro stuff - I just fitted a d5 titanium to my bike and it's much easier to place the power ports in a convienant place . The top of the stem was never convienant. I have the leads tucked in through the bladder hose port on my bag.

One piece of info I have gleened from killing these things and speaking with the designers is that they don't like being run at speed with no load - which ties in with when mine appear to die...

Latest one I killed after decending sunwapta pass sitting at 60-70 kph for not an insignificant amount of time.

Pick one with a switch so you can turn off the gubbins or always have a battery pack plugged in.... Which was my plan but id killed my usb cable prior to this 🙁

I've got the Exposure hub which was built up with Stans Grail rim. All working well for me over 2 years, although for same/similar price if buying again I'd be choosing the Hunt wheels offer with SON hub.
Run with B&M lights, so nothing to add on USB adapters. All the cables are small gauge, so think about routing, and consider heat shrink tube to cover connectors if not the whole cable.

Offering what experience I have…

I've only used two charging devices (both USB): the Kemo M172 and the B&M Luxos U. Both work; the former is very untidy. Both can be run at the same time as lights (I wired up my Kemo across the rear light output from my Cyo rather than as a switched input).

Don't assume, even once you have USB output, that charging is a simple matter of plugging in. The dyno charger will lose output below about (rough guess) 10mph or so, meaning you'll have intermittent power. Depending on what device you're charging and what sort of ride/tour you're doing, you have several options: 1. direct charge from dyno, 2. direct charge to a battery, then use the battery later to charge a device, 3. use a specifically designed cache/passthrough battery as a buffer between charger and device, and 4. simply use a battery which you charge from mains when required and use the dyno for backup only.

Personally, I want power for sub 48hr big rides rather than for weeks of wilderness bikepacking, so after some experimenting I've settled on option 4 (which also allows option 2 or 3 if need be, depending on choice of battery).

If you're looking at on-road lighting you have a couple of integrated options: B&M, Hermanns and Axa all make USB-compatible headlights, as I recall.

Don't discount Shimano hubs, as you can simply fit a 6-bolt adapter. They're user serviceable with some care, and I've found them (other than the cheapest ones) to be extremely reliable: I've put thousands of miles on LX/XT level ones and they've never missed a beat, so the XT would normally be my first choice. I have an SP, too, which is a little lighter and has been faultless so far but I haven't put anywhere near as many miles on it. The SONs are nice but still aren't user-serviceable: they lose a little weight over a Shimano and the gain over an SP is one of perceived level of reliability and service, but it's hard to predict how that pans out in practice. Personally I think the SP and the XT are the best value, but then I have several bikes rather than one; otherwise I might reconsider the SON.

If you're considering the Exposure then you should also consider the Love Mud and the SP, both of which can be had for about £70 from UK retailers at the moment, which is less than an XT from Germany (thanks Brexiteers: dyno hubs went up about 30% not long after the vote, and while I know correlation isn't necessarily causation I'm blaming you anyway). The Love Mud has different markings on the side which may suggest different internals to the others.

I've a Schmidt dynamo hub on my commuter, at the moment it's just powering a B&M light but I am thinking of adding a charging/battery element to the system. It has a centrelock disk mount. Looking at prices there's a bit of a price differential between SONs with and without 6-bolt disk mounts. I think Schmidt now do a 15mm axle version of one of their hubs but otherwise it's just the SP model if you need one of those. There seems to have been a bad batch of them (SP PD-X) with some people seeing failures within a couple of hundred Km whereas others have done 10,000Km without problem.

On this year's HT550 I did some calcs about the power usage of my electrical devices and came to the conclusion that I was better just using a pre-charged Powerbank to top things up at night when I was sleeping. It did require that I turn the phone off for most of the time. Others did use a dynamo. I'd use the same system again for similar duration events.

You also need to consider your device(s) - if their internal batteries won't last for a day's riding then they need to be charged whilst riding. Most require some form of buffer battery between them and the dynamo to avoid varying power input.

word of warning about shimano - i have 2 on "utility bikes" - they weigh the same as a small sun in comparison to the SP.

but perfectly good hubs , feel marginally less draggy than the SP in the hand.

I have the SP and a Shimano Ultegra equivalent. Both ace. No problems.

I use B&M lights with both. Had a Luxos U which failed which I think they have a tenancy to. My chum had one that failed and there seems to be a few on the various audaxy/adventure forums too.

I now use a USB Werk but you'll need to charge a back up battery and then your phone/Garmin. If you connect straight to an Edge, every time power drops out (e.g. low speed) the Garmin gives you about 15 seconds warning before switching off. Bastard annoying. I know charging another battery is inefficient but rather that than keep finding an off Garmin (after day dreaming 🙂 ).

SP hub and Kemo here. Relatively cheap to try out the concept. No major issues other than my Garmin Oregon won't run off the USB output as it cuts off at junctions, steep hills etc. I have a small cache/buffer battery to sit between Kemo and Garmin but haven't tried it out yet.

You also need to consider your device(s) - if their internal batteries won't last for a day's riding then they need to be charged whilst riding.

That's true of my Garmin, but I found that quick top ups from a battery bank (when stopped at audax controls) are sufficient to keep it going. I use a B&M battery light and a spare set of AAs, which combined will go on high power for about 12 hours.

That approach wouldn't work for longer rides/ tours, obvs.

when in canada i was charging a USB battery pack off my early model D1 then charging my shit at night - basically a phone and a garmin - occasionally my ipod.

riding for 8-10 hrs a day this approach was self sufficient.

once the d1 died coming down the rockies it was a pain in the arse to try and get stuff charged - lucky it was the last week at least.

word of warning about shimano - i have 2 on "utility bikes" - they weigh the same as a small sun in comparison to the SP.

Which models, though? The cheap ones (like you'd normally have on a "utility bike") are very heavy but the high level ones are only about 90g heavier than an SP or SON (480g vs 390g, roughly).

Well, 90 grams of hydrogen would make for a small sun in the right conditions.