[Closed] What dynamo/light/charging set ups are people using?

I have two dynamo wheels; an Exposure "Revo" (which is a re-badged SP) and a Shimano XT. Although they both have the same quoted output, the Shimano seems to develop power at a lower speed than the SP.

Lighting is an Exposure Revo, so not road-specific.

I've used a Kemo M172N as a USB charger but I usually rely on a powerbank to keep devices going and use the dynamo just for lighting (day and night).

On my Audax bike I have shimano deore dynohub and a B+M Luxos U (This looks like a newer version). I like it as the light has a USB out that I use to charge phone / wahoo / powerbank. It served me well through multi day rides with no top up. Avoids any faffing and gives enough charge to start night with full phone + gps. I've got a rear light too and this light leave that and the main light on as standlights. I used this for a bunch of through the night and multiday rides last year and would have again this year if they'd not all been cancelled.

For road use I'd look at the German ones or any with a road specific beam pattern, raw power isn't as good as light where you need it.

SONdelux hub with Edelux II light. I've not got USB charging as I'd have to go really quite a long way to exhaust even a relatively small powerbank.

I think mine is an Axa, from Bike Discount. Don't see them on the site now so maybe out of stock. But it was about £50 or so, lights, charges, does it all perfectly well.

Looked into some of the more expensive options but the reviews weren't great.

Normally pair this with a powerbank left on charge all day (and be warned charging is SLOW from a dynamo), partly so I'm not damaging any electrical devices with changes in current, but it's also convenient to charge on a night or while you sleep when touring.

On road or off? There's a minimum speed that you need to be moving at before you get charge/current, this depends on the unit and the converter device.

I've a SON Deluxe (QR) to a B&M light (can't remember the model) on my winter/commuter bike and a SP dynamo (12mm axle version) with an Igaro converter unit on my hardtail. On the HT I have two 10,000mAh batteries, one is being charged whilst the other is available for charging devices. You could use a pass-through battery but the two battery system gives some redundancy should one get damaged.

Some of the B&M lights have an inbuilt converter unit so you can just plug in a battery to get charged when you aren't using the light. Running a light and charging something may/may not work, you've got limited power to work with.

Don't know about Wahoo units but Garmins are a bit iffy with dynamo setups, they see the dynamo/converter system as an external power source but assume that it's permanent so if you stop they assume you are turning everything off! iPhones can also be a bit intolerant of the varying current being supplied by the system as your speed varies. This is why I do the charge a battery then use that to charge devices, you lose charge when moving charge from one device or storage to another but it's not that much of a problem in reality.

With limited phone use I'm able to ride virtually indefinitely recharging GPS and phone at night whilst camping then recharging the battery during the day. I found with the SP that I could still get charge at about 8km/h, obviously I'm not getting maximum output at those speeds. A full day of riding, say ten or eleven hours at 12-15km/h gives about 3600mAh of charge or enough to fully charge a typical 18650 cell.

I've got two Alfine hubs and a SP PD-8 running on different bikes. For road lighting I use a B+M IQ-X which is excellent, and for charging on longer trips I have a Cycle 2 Charge top cap. This is normally plugged into a powerbank as I ride, and I top stuff up at the end of the day, but it will happily run a phone/Garmin as long as I'm not constantly stopping and starting. I've rigged up a switch (I miss Maplins) so that I can have everything wired into the bike and just flip between lights and charging as needed.

For short trips (less than 4 days) I can get by without charging, just the powerbank as long as I'm careful about not using the screens too much.

Interesting that a power bank might be enough for the 3-4 day trips I'm thinking of, though I like the look of that B+M Luxos set up.

On the commuter I have an Exposure dynamo hub, Revo and RedEye. This has been working perfectly for 4 years of year round on and off road commuting.

I don't use the commuter bike for bikepacking but have a PowerMonkey Explorer 2 powerpack. This works for about 3 phone/garmin charges. For longer trips I charge the PowerMonkey from a solar cell strapped to the bar bag.

I have a b&m dynamo light, it’s 80 lux and tuv approved.
Plenty bright enough for unlit country lanes.
I don’t have a dynamo though, i power it with a 6v rc car battery, I don’t know how long it lasts, a minimum of 10hrs, but i got bored watching it after that.
I carry a powerbank for phone charging duties.
I’m not really much use here am i.

I've got a Luxos U, I like it. Does the job, has kept my phone/gps charged through several multiday events without fail.

I'm a bit tempted by a Sinewave Beacon, or possibly a Supernova/Igaro D2 setup, though.

Interesting that a power bank might be enough for the 3-4 day trips I’m thinking of,

Easily. I’m a convert since smaller cheaper banks (yet bigger capacity) became available.

Currently use an Anker 20000 (link)and it’s the one thing that stops me pursuing dynamo on my MTB. I have a Ravemen P900 rechargeable battery light with (road-specific and spot) dual beams/emitters so am effectively covered for days of mixed terrain. Lowest mode lasts 20 hrs ish.

So either I stump up for a new hub-generator wheel/set and dyno- light (hundreds) or I sell light, top up the budget with another £50 then buy the PR1600 which allows to extend runtime from powerbank (on addition to functioning itself as a powerbank, as per the pr900! Handy light!)

Decisions. I know I’ll get another dyno setup some day but this works out for 2-3 days at a time and multiple phone charges

An excellent source for dynamo and light information is Peter White Cycles, he has a vast amount of information on his site regarding dynamo output vs speed vs wheel size along with all lights and their beam spread/output.

I used a son delux hub and son edulux 2 light/son seatpost rear light and I never ran out of visibility with the wide and focused beam spread, for charging I used a cinq5 headset plug with hidden cables through fork, worked very well as long as you were above 8mph

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some interesting points on how powerpacks have improved/got cheaper ...I've used a solar charger and power pack but all a bit hit and miss but that was a few years ago and only noticed last week in camping store powerpacks with huge capacities for a lot less money

nearly went down the hub dynamo route for multiday last year but read somewhere think it was a kickstarter project dynamo like the old rub on the tyre type but they were claiming some fundamental design change that gave decently high watts at the sort of speeds I do so thought would wait and see if snakeoil or if the Germans would take apart and use whatever the technology is in their hub dynamos...can anyone remember what was called and any independent reviews?

Battery packs are a lot more flexible imo

I had a luxos but it was quite bulky and I didn't like the cables bouncing around for the 90% of the time I wasn't charging anything. It also charged quite slowly so only really useful for multi day trips.

Phone chargers have also got better too, some recent ones are like 45w or something?? So a 30 minute stop in a a cafe will put more charge in the phone that a few hours riding.

Don't bother with solar unless you have a HUGE panel.

Little ones on battery packs are useless.

Anyone using the (semi diy) Forumslader USB charger? It seems you buy a kit of parts and solder it together yourself. Can be arranged to fit in a steerer tube I think. Results are impressive. Not been much on their website for a while.

“ Little ones on battery packs are useless “
Indeed, a guy on YT tested one, and noted that the tiny led which lights up in direct sunlight to let you know there’s solar power available actually used more power than the solar panel provided.

All my bikes have 15mm through axles. Seems the dynamo hubs for them are a) hard to get hold of and b) break a lot.

Can you get converters you screw in to your fork legs to run a QR wheelset?

All my bikes have 15mm through axles. Seems the dynamo hubs for them are a) hard to get hold of and b) break a lot.

Son 28 with 15mm through axle here - though bizarrely I run it in a QR fork with a converter. Don't think it is any more fragile than its QR cousins. It is Son money though!

Interesting that a power bank might be enough for the 3-4 day trips I’m thinking of...

That's the kind of stuff that a powerbank's perfect for, although longer trips are easily do-able as well. Depends if you're charging lights as they can take a lot of juice.

I love my dynamo though, it takes any stress away and there are really no disadvantages other than the initial cost, which really doesn't need to be that high.

I started with the Kemo, which is a really inelegant and faffy piece of kit. A cheap way to dip your toe in the water but not a long term solution. Then I got the Luxos U when it came out. A lot better, but to be honest I've never really used the USB facility; partly because I tend to keep my lights on 24/7 and if you do that then charging is intermittent and feeble. Which would be fine for charging a power pack to then use overnight, but when used directly into a Garmin they tend to misbehave if the power supply is repeatedly on and off.

So if you're not going to be more than a 2-3 days away from a mains socket, a power pack or two is better IMO. (I quite like the small cigar ones which can be strapped under a stem.) Otherwise it's ok if you're happy to switch the lights off. But it's a pretty bulky unit.

On the lights front, having tried a lot of B&M's offerings, I've come to really like the IQ-XS. The beam is easily as good as the Cyo Premium or the Luxos U, it's got side illumination, and it's a nice compact unit, about as small as they come (the Eyc is smaller but the beam is poor).

Luxos U / Garmin has been fine for me.

Garmin can be a bit annoying with backlight settings, as when it's powered it automatically turns the backlight all the way up, but otherwise it seems to just work.

I love my dynamo though, it takes any stress away and there are really no disadvantages other than the initial cost, which really doesn’t need to be that high.

I was just going to say exactly this.

The dynamo you can just ride and not worry about your Garmin/phone/lights battery, if you're moving then they're working (until it gets dark, then you have to perhaps prioritize lights). Whereas a powerbank just becomes another resource you have to manage.

XT dynamo and IQ-XS.

Luxos U / Garmin has been fine for me.

Maybe the newer ones don't play up the same way. I think the last one I tried powering from dynamo was a Touring/800; haven't tried it with the Explore.

Maybe the newer ones don’t play up the same way. I think the last one I tried powering from dynamo was a Touring/800; haven’t tried it with the Explore.

I've mostly used mine with an 800. I think it's the slightly newer version of the Luxos U though (with the connector lead off the switch, rather than having a usb port built into the switch).

I think for the most part, once it's reached full charge, then it uses so little power that intermittent isn't too much of a problem as the cache battery doesn't deplete enough.

Interesting that a power bank might be enough for the 3-4 day trips I’m thinking of

Start with everything fully charged and don't go mad on phone usage and you should have more than enough juice to last that long.

My Garmin 520 lasts about 16hrs, my Oregon lasts about 20hrs. Those figures depend on how much I use the maps, etc. I've most of the power saving modes enabled on the Oregon for example, things like the screen turning off after 30 seconds of no user input like scrolling - you just have to tap the power button for it to turn on again.

With those sorts of figures you are getting almost two days of normal 8-10hr touring done off a single charge. To recharge the Oregon (2 x Duracell AAs) will use about 1/4 of the charge in my 10,000mAh powerbank. The Garmin 520 uses a 600mAh battery so in theory you could recharge that 16 times from the same powerbank!

Of course when touring and in cafés you choose the table nearest the power outlets 😉

No one perfect answer, just depends on what you want to spend, how far off-grid you will be, etc. My first step would be to characterise your personal power usage and then figure out what you need for that plus a little in reserve.

Edit: You can get inline USB multi-meters so you can see how much charge you use/need for a typical day's riding. Maybe a tenner or so on Amazon, mine's a Muker. Also useful for seeing how much/little you generate from a dynamo when riding!