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I have a disc equipped road bike which i intend to use for some extended tours...NC500 etc. My partner has a non disk equipped road bike. We also have a 29er mtb. If i built up a Shimano disc dynamo hub, onto a Mavic A719 rim, can the wheel be used in either of the road bikes? It would have the provision of both a rim brake track and a disc mount. I appreciate i may have to remove the disc for the non disc bike forks.
The 29er is 15mm front axle. Do shimano do a 15mm axle dynamo hub? It seems like building with an SP would allow a 15mm axle to be adapted to qr, but they have some grim reliabilty issues.
Should i consider a SON?
Thanks
A disk hub is wider than non-disk so you can't swap between those, but it should fit fine into the 29er.
I use a SP dynamo hub and it's been fine. I'm guessing any reliability issues are the usual thing where you only hear complaints.
speak to strada wheels!
SP QR15 dynamo comes with adaptors to drop down to 9mm QR.
Also, scotroutes is talking nonsense. I run a disc hubbed SP PD8X in both a disc equipped MTB and a 700c road bike with no issues. You will need to remove the disc rotor for the rim braked road bike.
Edit: does your road disc bike run a QR15 or QR12? If so, you're a bit buggered.
I'd recommend building a SP PD8X into something like a A719 or a DTSwiss TK540, that'll sort you nicely.
So long as you are talking non boost front, road & MTB qr and 15mm front hubs are all 100mm wide surely? Be unlikely for mounts on hub to foul a non disc fork but possible? Any 15mm hub can be converted to qr with an axle insert.
The A719 may be too wide for tyres that fit the road bike.
Bollocks! I was getting my fronts and rears mixed up 🙂Also, scotroutes is talking nonsense. I run a disc hubbed SP PD8X in both a disc equipped MTB and a 700c road bike with no issues
SP hubs unreliable? Really never had an issue with any of my SP hubs, on the other hand my shimano dynamo hub died after about 1800km (in terms of power it still rolls fine)
The SP hub reliability issue seems very hit and miss and relates mainly (as far as I'm aware) to the 15mm axle version - some fail quite quickly whereas others just run and run for thousands of Kilometres.
As Scotroutes says, it could just be complaints rising above the background noise rather than anything significant. If SP have sold 10,000 and have 1% failure rate then that's 100 units. If you buy something you expect it to work as intended so if it does then you've no need to shout about it, some will of course but it will be a much, much smaller proportion than from those who've had units fail.
I now fully expect my SP hub to collapse in a heap of dust.
The SP hub reliability issue seems very hit and miss and relates mainly (as far as I'm aware) to the 15mm axle version - some fail quite quickly whereas others just run and run for thousands of Kilometres.
Mmmm, hopefully my pd8x is one of the good ones as only done about ~600km on it so far
Maybe i will just get a qr hub if the SP issues seem to be with the 15mm ones.
Thanks for clarifying the hub size detail 🙂
My SP dynamo hub (QR) failed after one winters commuting - maybe 1500 miles. Bearings seized solid and non replaceable outside the factory. I believe shiman hub dynamos have replaceable bearings so despite them being heavier and less efficient thats what I would go for in future.
[quote=tjagain ]My SP dynamo hub (QR) failed after one winters commuting - maybe 1500 miles. Bearings seized solid and non replaceable outside the factory. I believe shiman hub dynamos have replaceable bearings so despite them being heavier and less efficient thats what I would go for in future.
[quote=tjagain]
Anecdote is not evidence remeber
Just for balance - around 4000 miles on mine and still as good as gold (commuting in all weathers).
I've had two SP's that are going strong and one that died prematurely after about 1500 miles. I've replaced it with a SON.
I've had 2 shimano dynamo hubs, the first with 10s of thousands of miles on it, the second only bought as I needed disc brakes.
No. 1 got some slight pitting in one of the cones, and I couldn't source a replacement. That was early in its life (probably 2-3k miles), and a couple of regreases kept it going fine until I got the second. No. 2 has done >5k miles and still runs smooth (really should regrease it...).
However AFAIK, 15mm Shimano dynamo hubs don't exist, and I've heard bad things about the bolt through Shimano hubs reliability.
I have a wheel with a Shimano DH-3D80 dynamo hub, and A319 rim. So I am using it with rim brakes now, but it will allow me to upgrade to discs in the future.
All works fine, probably a few thousand km so far, no problems.
Though I wouldn't bother swapping dynamo wheels between bikes. Its a bit of faff bolting on lights, and wiring it all up etc. The big advantage of a dynamo is its always there, and just works.
The swapping thing will be fairly rare i think. My GF has designs on some endurance events that will need lights, but mostly its to provide power to a battery pack that can then be used to charge things like gps and phones if required.
Depending on how long the events are and what you want to charge up each night, you might not need a dynamo. Obviously the dynamo means you've always got the option to charge things. Work out the capacity of the batteries in the devices to charge, multiply by the number of nights and look for a powerbank battery that holds enough charge.
Even one of the "lipstick" style/size batteries has more than enough juice to recharge a phone and a GPS for example. A 20,000mAh battery is under £30 for example (but weighs quite a bit)
As craigw says, moving a dynamo between bikes is a faff unless both bikes are set up with the wiring and lights which is extra cost.
Spa Cycles are selling the SP PD8 hub for £65 at the moment - bargain! Only in QR but worth checking if you can convert it to 15mm too.
[url= http://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s133p3037/SP-DYNAMO-PD-8-Disc ]clicky[/url]