Anyone got any thoughts on the latest generation – thinking about getting my Solidlights upgraded but wondered what else is out there now?

Ta

I've a got a B&M IQ Fly which is great for commuting. They do a Cyo now which is even brighter.

But the beam is rubbish/dangerous for off roading. How have you got on with the solidlight?

I only use it on road and was quite impressed when I bought it – able to maintain near normal speed on unlit roads and I guess you could use it off road – they offer an upgrade to latest model but it's a fair chunk of the price of some of the units from B&M etc

Supernova lights of Germany.

Just fitted up a 275 lumen commuter light. £165!! Awesome CNC headunit & you can get different lenses to suit different applications.

http://www.supernova-lights.com/en/index.html

J

The Supernova looks impressive – what dynamo are you using with it?

Jamie have you tried the light off road? I'm looking for something that will replace a couple of 10W Cateye halogens that I'm currently using for the off road commute. I have a Son hub so the dynamo option supernova is attractive but the specific off road E3 triple is over budget.

I've used the old version of the Supernova E3 (the non PRO version), a cheap shimano halogen, and the old version of the solidlights (borrowed). I've only used the e3 on roads so far but it is the brightest of the three (NOTE – both the E3 and solidlights were old now superceded version) but I'm not certain how good the e3 is offroad. I used the solidlights for a couple of 24 solos but only really for a 'going uphill slowly saving battery juice' or backup light if the batts died on halogens/HID.

I suspect the new e3 will be better than mine (sob) but costs £165 or so in the UK whereas I got mine for £70. The new solidlights gets great reviews on road, should be pretty good offroad (but might need a helmet light to supplement for slow twisty bits) and is almost certainly the best your going to get for your money as an upgrade (was it £70?). For full offroad at speed you probably 'need' a triple (I know you can get away with less as I've done a 450 mile offroad ride including lots of night riding on a crappy petzel and 1w lumiled after the halogen dynolamp bulb blew) – something like the supernova e3 triple but thats £235. Or do what I'm in the process of, build your own triple 🙂

what voltage are the dyno hubs?
Could you not just wire it up to your own light?
What price for hub alone?

Quite like the look of the E3 Triple for proper nightriding duties.

I'm curious as to how much resistance it would add though, I'd have to try one first.

Junk – short answer – no. They've got simple to very complicated electronics converting dynohub power (variable voltage with speed, rapid peaks and troughs – it might even be AC I forget) to what the LEDs need. A battery on the other hand is DC constant voltage. Hubs – 30 quid for cheapy non disc SHimano to 100s for nice German made SON disc hubs. The top end SHimano are pretty nice now though (I have an alfine disc dynohub and a non disc nexus/ultegra level DH-3n80 but I think there is a disc hub at the same level as the latter now too, better efficiency than the alfine). Resistance – I find the e3 just about noticeable so i expect you would notice the triple – the e3 supposedly loses about 1km/h at 30km/h if you keep a constant power… but much less at low speeds and hardly any when off.

Loads of real cool stuff on dyno lights here .
and not that hard to build either .

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=202121

It looks ferking tricky to me Trouty!!! 🙂

I remember the bloke I parked next to at D2D in about 2006 running a dyno light I thought he was a bit mad then I spent the next 12 hours riding around almost blind trying to save battery power. So maybe it wasnt him that was mad.

edit.. when using the dynamo is it the only power source of do you use the dynamo to charge a battery so you dont get a power drop when you stop? I realise eventually the dynamo wouldnt keep pace with power drain depending on light unit but maybe the benefit of massivly extended runtimes would suit some applications?

You use it directly, but most modern ones have a capacitor that will keep it half lit for 3/4 minutes after you stop.

What's holding me back now is the fact disc dynamos are still only QR. The supernova looks awesome but my full sus is 20mm only, and I wouldn't want to lose that stiffness.

I had an older Supernova E3 and it is great for commuting, and OK used off road if in conjunction with a head-mounted light as well.