I’m thinking about dynamos for my commuter bike.

I know nothing about them though, is there anywhere with info, overview etc.

Also if i ziptie the wires on and then change to a non dynamo wheel is that a problem?

does any hub with work with any light? what about connections?

what have you got? any pics?

Look up Robdeanhove. He’s posted some useful stuff.

I’ve got a Shimano dynamo hub with a B&M IQ Fly, plus a B&M Toplight Flat on the rear. The IQ Fly has a decent beam shape, so bright enough for most on-road riding, and doesn’t dazzle other traffic. I’ve had it a few years now, it works well, very handy to always have the light available. The light is the “Senso” version, so it automatically switches on when it gets dark.

There is now the IQ Cyo, which is a bit brighter then the IQ Fly, or the IQ2 Luxos is even brighter, but not available yet, and more expensive.

Yes, any hub should work with any light. Though some lights are designed for roller dynamos, which means they don’t have a switch. So if used with a hub dynamo, they would be on all the time. For B&M, you need to get the “N” (switched) or “Senso” (automatic) version for a hub dynamo.

The lights and hub should include all of the wires and connections you need. It should be fine if you ziptie the wires in place, then use with a non-dynamo wheel.

There are a couple of new IQ2 lights this year that incorporate a USB charger (but are not cheap).
Best-priced sources for dynamo and lights are the German online stores.

English B&M pdf catalog(ue):www.bumm.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Katalog/Katalog_2012_GB.pdf

Old thread on dynamos with good links

In terms of hubs, the main choices seem to be Shimano (cheap but heavy), Schmidt/B&M (lighter but well spendy) or Shutter Precision/Exposure (light and relatively cheap, win!)

Get yourself some velcro cable ties and you won’t have to worry about leaving the wiring on when you use a normal wheel.

I have an older Schmidt SON hub running a Solidlights head unit. It’s a spendy setup (for the time) that I got second hand. It works great but modern hubs are lighter and the spade connectors are a pain if you ever need to take the front wheel out. The mrs has a newer SON hub with a Supernova E3 Triple light, which is designed for 24 hour MTB racing and easily bright enough for any road in the UK.

Have a look at Practical Cycles to get a general idea of what’s out there.

http://www.practicalcycles.com/userimages/procart39.htm

I use spirawrap for semi-permanent wiring attachment to the forks and rear rack on my commuter.

The SP or more expensive Shimano dynamos are probably your best price/weight/performance point, especially if you buy them from Germany. Spa Cycles and Practical Cycles are good UK stockists.

I bought my SP direct from Taiwan on ebay. Came within a week.

bikediscount.de is cheap for B&M too.

And the Philips Saferide is good for a rear
[img]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-JvnwPwjVLoc/UGNC9L0mDkI/AAAAAAAAHuI/q47fp0MUmGY/s400/20120926_190012.jpg[/img]

I just ordered one of these from Rose

Shimano/Mavic dynamo Wheel

Couldn’t see it cheaper anywhere else. I also got the B&M Cyo lamp all for less than £120.

I use a Son hub, Leds are so efficient you can use the one designed for smaller wheels which is a bit lighter. I made my own light out of a miniature flask.

I’ve got a SP hub running with a 3 x LED headlight plus some backup capacitors for 5 mins or so of 3/4 brightness light when stopped – it’s about as bright as my diablo on medium brightness, and I use it for off-road commuting each day.

It was very easy to get up and running, but then took (is taking!) some time to get tuned right.

In summary – the overall concept – brilliant, the DIY approach is great if you’d like a project. I hear that Exposure are bringing a dynamo light out that sounds very promising indeed

Oh, I forgot to add, I’ve got a 26″ dynamo wheel to sell as I’m just moving over to 29ers – it’s a Shimano XT dynamo hub with a mavic 717 rim in case you’re interested. I’ll put it on the classifieds at some point (was waiting until the clocks change and more people are interested in lights)

@mark interested. Email in profile.

Why just limit yourself to commuting? I have a couple of dynamo lights that I use for commuting on road, and off road, all year round, I also use dynamo lights for midweek night rides in the woods, I’ve taken it on touring holidays and endurance racing too.

Like Mark, I have made my own, but I am now using the new Exposure Revo light, although I have a slightly larger pre-production model. 800lumens of light, all the time, everywhere I go, plus 10minutes of standlight time too (and it stays on for much longer with a dimming light level, not enought to ride at any speed by, but as soon as I start riding the brightness come right back up again of course!)

To answer your question: I’d recommend the Exposure Revo, it’s the brightest out there and, more importantly, has the most powerful standlihgt. the ability to also power your rear light, which will also stay on on the standlihgt, makes it a winner in my books. I’d pair this with the SP (Shutter Precision) hub, as per the recommendations above

Yes, any hub works with any dynamo light.

The SP hubs can be had from IDC this is the eBay store link

Pictures of my Exposure Revo below, with my bike in “bikepacking race” setup, it powered me through 800miles of the EWE. th light also powers Exposure’s standard redeye rear light which i use for commuting, touring and winter road use, 80lumens of super bright rear light, this is also kept alive by the standlight when I stop at junctions. Genius!

Exposure revo, standlight after a several minutes stationary

Rear light works from the standlight too

Also below is my DIY setup, only 600lumens from a triple LED setup, as Mark says, a DIY build is hard 9much harder then buying a ready made driver for a battery light) as you have to make up your own circuit, then tune it to your particular components if you want all the function and brightness of an Exposure Revo.

Bike with light fitted but off

Light on standlight (bright isn’t it!)

Circuit tucked at base of fork

There’s more words and large pictures on my blog post about my DIY dynamo light ON THIS LINK HERE

There’s more on my Exposure Revo setup, including a little bit about a USB charging setup that I have also wired in in parallel on my bikepacking dynamo setup ON THIS LINK HERE

^^^ 8)

Told ya.

I am a big fan of hub dynamo lights for commuting bikes – real fit and forget solution – lights at the flick of a switch. I have a Schmidt SON on my main commuter, I dread to think how long I have had it – 10 years plus. The B&M front light went at some stage but this was replaced by St John St Cycles who sold me the set up free of charge. I broke the lense on my B&M rear with standlight but I could buy a spare. Other than that I have had to replace the front light bracket and I decided to upgrade the wiring. Whilst it cost a fair bit to begin with, I think it has more than paid for itself.

My bottle dynamo on Brompton went last year so I was given the Shimano hub dynamo set up for Christmas and again this has proved very good and I would certainly be happy to buy another.

I will certainly consider using a dynamo set up for off road night riding once my Halogen Lumis need to be replaced and I have bookmarked RDH’s post for future reference when that time comes – very comprehensive post much appreciated as I have found it quite confusing researching this area – albeit half-heartedly.

Couple of other points I missed:

does any hub with work with any light? what about connections?

As above, yes, any hub works with any light. As for connections, most lights are sold with open ended wires, the connectors are then supplied with the hub and are clipped onto the wires without the need for any tools in the case of both the Shimano & SP hubs. Additional connectors can usually be had for about 99p if you need them.

if i ziptie the wires on and then change to a non dynamo wheel is that a problem?

No, the wires will just sit there happily. I leave my dynamo on my bike all the time, I either unplug the cable from the light if I want to turn the light off (which is rarely for both on and off road) and, on one bike, I have put an in-line switch in the cable between the hub and the light so I can switch the power off if I want.

If you switch to a non-dynamo wheel, having the cable dangling will be fine as long as the length you have left unsupported is safe from getting snagged in the spokes. I have put my wheel back in after fixing a puncture and have forgotten to connect the light (it was daytime) and got home to find the cable dangling when I came to clean the bike. There are no potential ill-effects to light or hub from this.

I think that’s everything!

Thanks guys (particulary Rob).

chatted to the guys at exposure about the Revo at the cycle show at the weekend.

It’s 800 lumen (like Rob said) which is actually more power than my maxx enduro that i’m running & is still enough for off road riding/ racing etc.

what isn’t perhaps so ckear is how neat both the hub and the light are, you wouldn’t realise the hub is a dyno other than the connections etc

also looked at the son hub & lights – light seemed to flicker a lot – but maybe that was the speed the wheel was spinning.

Cheers thomthumb 🙂

I tend to agree with your observations on the low speed flicker, the main advantage of the Exposure Revo (other than the 800lumen output) is the standlight, which is what makes it properly off road capable (stays on and bright at low speed for technical terrain), this has the added benefit of killing the low speed flicker that other dynamos I have tried can put out.

I haven’t tried the SON, but the Supernova E3 triple, that I was led to believe was the benchmark, was notably worse than the Revo

That wheel from Rose is a bargain, even for German prices (buying dyno kit from Germany works out *a lot* cheaper than buying the same from the UK).

I have the XT hub (same as the DH-3N80 but with contact seals) and It Just Works. Also a Cyo, which is a great light. I shall be buying the Luxos as soon as it’s out, though.

Don’t worry about lights being on all the time. Once you’ve got a dynamo, you’ll leave them on all the time anyway.

What are the options for a light that doesn’t dazzle the oncoming motorists and has a proper car-like dipped beam?

The Revo looks to be more of an MTB style light? I already have one of those and point it downwards, but it still spills a lot of light above the horizon.

What are the options for a light that doesn’t dazzle the oncoming motorists and has a proper car-like dipped beam?

Any of the Busch & Muller lights, or the SON.

The B&M IQ Cyo is fairly cheap, and bright enough for most road riding at a decent speed.
The B&M IQ2 Luxos will a lot brighter, but more expensive, and not available yet.
The SON Edelux is slightly brighter than the IQ Cyo, plus has a better quality metal case etc. Though it costs twice as much, probably not worth it.

Or the Supernova E3 Pro claims to have a shaped beam for road use, though I’m not sure how good it is.

To CraigW‘s list, it’s also worth considering the Philips Ridesafe dynamo. Good metal case and a wide, shaped beam. Some have reported an issue with the fork crown bracket, but a washer under the nut seems to have avoided the with mine.
As Bez mentions – leave them on; the LED life expectancy makes permanent running a non-issue.

I’ll be using a B&M IQ Cyo and a dynohub, no rear light connected. Do I need overvoltage protection in the circuit?

No but it comes with the wiring for a tail-light built-in, so it’s no hassle at all to fit one.

Lots of B&M info on this page.

@mragreeable not sure if I was clear. I’m not using a wired tail light so the full 3w will be going to the front. Back in the day, that would blow the front until we started fitting diodes. Does the B&M light need a diode to protect it if I’m not using a tail light?

Sorry if that wasn’t clear, it’s got over-voltage protection so you can use it without a tail light. I think only the “bottle” versions are still sold without protection.

Thank you. My lights etc turned up from Rose today, just waiting for my wheel from them now….