The tubeless plugs work just fine with a tyre with latex in, no need to deflate the tyre, let alone take it off the rim even. I’ve been using them for years and several of my tyres have plugs in with no issue – I used to live on the South Downs and got plenty of flint cuts too large for latex to heal.

The patches, designed to go inside your tyre, are a pain in the ass, require a dry tyre and removal of the tyre from the rim to heal a hole. Not trailside friendly.

I’d recommend using latex for 99% of holes and taking plugs in your repair kit with you for the odd hole, once or twice a year, that won’t heal.

My Exposure Revo pushing out a few hundred lumens from its standlight:

The standlight also keeps the rear light on, a standard cable Redeye, too:

The lights are currently seeing daily commuting service and have been bombproof (and, importantly, always there!)

More about my setup here

It will be fine. As above, the output is AC, so there’s no such thing as “wiring it up in reverse”, just clip the connector that comes with the hub to the wires at the end of the light cable (no tools required) and ride & enjoy :-)

No news anywhere of when the SP QR15 dynamo hub will be available, fingers crossed it’s soon, although I’m guessing a few months as that’s a computer generated pic from the CAD, not a photo :-(

Like you, I balked at the price of the SON. Bonkers!

Cheers ir_bandito :-)

The best description of my dynamo setup can be found in this entry here, which covers the SP dynamo hub, the Exposure Revo light and an additional external charger I used last year, although I have now switched to plugging the Exposure boost cable into the back of my Revo, a much tidier solution.

MORE IMPORTANTLY[/u] – SP have just announced a QR15 version of the PD-8, just as light and efficient as the SON (arguably slightly more efficient and, like for like, lighter, although they don’t do a centrelock version), and 1/3 of the price!

This is definitely on my shopping list as soon as it’s available :-)

No, there’s no other rear light that will plug in. But the good news is that the Revo is more than bright enough to run on a mountain bike, off road, on proper technical trails, not just on fire roads, so you’ll be able to get value from your purchase ;-)

I used a large screwdriver with a wide, blunt end, a large hammer and a lot or force. This toolkit high score combo worked just fine and it’s never creaked and the headeset is still happy a year on.

You could do a lot worse than look on pilom.com, Martin’s circuits are a great summary of a few neat ideas that should get you going, and some more complicated ones for the more ambitious:

PILOM.COM DYNAMO CIRCUITS

It’s well worth a look on candlepowerforums too, once you have understood the basics

Happy tinkering. Oh, and you don’t need batteries, they’re nasty heavy things that need voltage regulation ;-)

how quickly do the capacitors charge for the standlight

The capacitors last longer than they take to charge if you’re in town and only need a bright “be seen” light, this makes it a great commuter light. You’ll find your light bright enough to be seen by after a few metres, after a full day discharging in the bike sheds, and bright enough to see with off road, after a full discharge after about “a car park” of length, and then it will be back up to off-road (or dark country road) level of brightness after a few metres. If you’re in heavy traffic, as long as you move a little bit every few minutes, your light will stay on.

This only goes for the lights I have tried of course, which are the Exposure Revo, the K-Lite systems which are fully techhnical off road capable, and the new Dosun light, which I have replaced my previous B&M commuter light with, the Dosun would make a great town & touring only, fork crown mounted light.

The Dosun light has a “be seen” only standlight which (1) lasts for ages and (2) means the main light comes on in the first metre of riding! This might be the light you’re after given the concerns you had.

Remember, all dynamo lights are not equal. They vary as much as battery lights, everything from a single AAA battery of light through to an Exposure MaXx-D is possible!

Dynamos rock! Hub plus light is lighter than battery light, plus a normal front hub, plus batteries too.

They’re not just for touring, commuting and off road touring (although I use mine fir these too), with the latest LED lights, with proper good standlights (Exposure Revo or the K-Lite system or the more expensive Supernova E3 Triple, which has the weakest standlight) you can go racing off road or just night riding in the woods with your mates too!

And the longest day in 2013 is June 20

SEE HERE: http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/longest-day/%5B/url%5D

I would do the bit you do first in the dark, when you’re fresher and are riding harder. Once you’re exhausted and going slow you’re more likely to get cold at night (even in summer). Plus, riding in the daylight, it is easier to keep your spirits up when you get overwhelmingly tired, at night it all seems harder!

If there’s one bit you know the navigation, I’d do that in the night and leave the harder navigation to daylight riding. Even simple navigation can be hard once you’re exhausted and it’s pretty hard to keep concentrating for the whole 202miles so simple nagivation mistakes do happen, particularly at night. Mike Cotty took a wrong turn on the section of trail that was almost closest to his home in the night on his last SDD!

Good luck! :-)

Great to hear it’s not just me using this off road, and that people’s experiences match mine

it’s light enough

The hub plus the (87g!) light is lighter than an equivalent battery light and a normal, non-dynamo, hub :-)

Yes, the dynamo weighs a little more than a bare battery but, with a battery light, you still need to add a front hub to your bike too! ;-)

Is there anyway of attaching this above the brake caliper on a road bike so that it frees up space on the handlebars like the B&M Cyo?

The cleat on the bottom of the Revo is held on my a single bolt. Just buy someone else’s fork crown mounting bracket and screw the Revo to it.

In fact, the Supernova fork crown mount would do nicely:

Bracket for fork crown:[/url]

Compatible bracket for base of light:[/url]

Or bend one of these[/url] to an appropriate angle and bolt your Revo directly to it:

SJS are asking £270 for that Schmidt Qr15 hub. Ouch.

Ouch indeed!

This is why I am crossing my fingers for a QR15 dynamo hub from SP, ideally a version of the PD-8 hub, which can be had for a (comparably) paltry £85 in normal QR format from IDC HERE

The wear is not just a function of unit pressure, but also a function of how worn (or stretched) your chain is, a chain that ha suffered more stretch will load the sprocket teeth more unevenly and cause more wear.

If you change your chain before 0.75% wear, or eralier, you may expect manu years of life from a single sprocket, if you buy a cheap chain and run it for 20months without changing it, no sprocket will survive.

I would say chain quality and chain stretch (and lubrication of sprocket and chain) are more important considerations.

But, to answer your question, for the same chain, a wider sprocket should be expected to last a little longer.

Are you still using a stand-alone charger or can you charge USB devices from it using this?

http://www.exposurelights.com/product/000084/boost-cable/

Yes, I am still using a stand alone charger. I don’t know the answer to whether you can use the boost cable, but the only product that is mentioned in the official stuff is the redeye rear light, you have a good question though!

Was what I was initially thinking, but actually when you look at it in more depth, it’s clearly designed more for as a powerful commuter and night time road rider light than a proper MTB light. The Cree XPG’s are very underdriven, only producing 200 Lumen’s each, rather than the 400 they’re now capable of at 1A+ current on battery power.

I’m going to have to disagree with you there. I should state at this point that

(1) I am sponsored by Exposure
(2) I use a Revo off road regularly, including racing
(2) I was involved test riding the Revo during its development

The light was designed very much as a MTB light. Making it a kick ass capable light for road use is straight forward, hence there are plenty of less powerful lights out there with lower specification of LED, standlight and light output.

Making what is the brightest dynamo light that you can buy, with the most powerful standlight by several orders of magnitude, that remains usefully bright for riding on for many times longer than any other standlight, was very much a case of developing a product for off road use. It just so happens that this makes it even better for using on the road for winter training, touring & commuting!

I can assure you that the Revo has absolutely been developed as a MTB light. However a happy coincidence is that it also makes it a great road & commuter light too, particulalry with the ability to power, and provide standlight power to, their Redeye at the rear. I mean, why wouldn’t you make your light capable of both. If you try one of these off road next to one of their competitors, you will pretty quickly see the difference between the Revo and a light that has been developed only with the road in mind!

I believe the under-driving of the XPGs comes from the way in which the dynamo itself produces power (a constant 500mA) and how that can be provided to the light so as to deliver maximum efficiency of light output vs. power drawn from the hub. Driving fewer LEDs harder is both far less efficient as their is less theoretical light output per Watt from the LED at a higher drive current, plus the additional heat output reduces the real light output further. The high efficiency they achieve, plus the efficiency of their hub (which is also extremely light) is the key to making the power loss so small as to be completely trivial.

That dynamo lights have come of age and are now not just MTB capable but MTB specific, is shown by the fact that not only do Shimano, SP and Schmidt now make a range of centre lock and 6-bolt dynamos that were not availalable only a few years ago, but Shimano make a dynamo that is part of their XT groupset, which is specifically an off road groupset, I am supported by IDC & SP with their dynamos, specifically for my MTB endurance racing background, to ride and race their dynamos off road, and Schmidt have now bought out a QR15, disc compatible, dynamo:

Theoretically, no, as IIRC GXP spindles are stepped down to 22mm. However, Hope (among others) make a GXP adapter sleeve for the NDS bearing – would have thought this would also work with Shimano BBs but don’t know.

No, you can’t use the hope adapters with a Shimano BB. The Hope BBs have a special bearing with an inner race that sits directly on the axle and the adapters push onto the metal of the bearing. Shimano (and other “normal”) HT2 BBs use a standard sized bearing and plaistic shims to adapt to the axle, this precludes the use of the Hope adapters.

It might be possible to bodge this but it would be a pretty nasty solution. You’re better off getting either a Hope BB with adapters or a GXP type BB from SRAm, Truvativ or someone else. Any GXP compatible BB will fit.

Would also consider getting the Shutter Precision dynamo laced onto a light rim for the road bike to double up the value of the Revo

I have done exactly this! PD-8 on No-Tubes Crest on the MTB and PV-8 on Mavic Open Pro for the road bike. I’m a very happy chappy about this.

NEW CLICKY LINK HERE

I have the connector pointing back up at about 45°, but this varies between different forks.

Connector on a Rock Shock fork(tiny picture but you can zoom out to a much bigger one that’s not appropriate for this thread on my blog link above)

Connector on my SS rigid fork:

I used mine for for the 800miles of the EWE which was 99% off road. It rained for what seemed like the entire time for the first 8 days and the bike and I were outside 24hrs a day. Mine has also just done the BB200 (for which it also rained) and it now gets used commuting, off road and on, to work every day come rain or shine, as well as on regular Tuiesday night tear ups with my friends in the woods, and I’m definitely not under powered with my front light compared to them. Aidan Harding & Steve Heading also did the EWE with one, we all used the standard SP hub Exposure connector and they were all fine (which is more than can be said for the rest of our bikes and the riders!)

Regarding the hub connection, as well as all that use, mine’s done a dozen of so river fording misadventures and seems as robust as I could ever hope for, it’s well hidden by the fork and hub, my original dynamo light did several years, with the same connection, through the winter salt and rain and I’ve never had one fail on me.

Off switch? I generally leave mine on as the “drag” is so negligable I just leave it on. If I want to I can pop the cable out the back. However I must confess that pulling the cable isn’t ideal and I did cut the cable and pop a switch into a second cable that I made up for a second bike, but I tend not to use it as I can’t think of a reason I’d want to be less visible to traffic on the road or reduce the illumination of the trail in front of me off road ;-). I guess this got missed off as switches are not super robust and, for a bombproof, super reliable light and what is expected of a dynamo, a switch might be the weakest ling (this is purely speculation though!)

Here’s a bit more on my dynamo setup CLICKY LINK[/url]

Commuter SS bike & dynamo standlight – it’s bright!

Standlight illuminates the RedEye rear light too. Clever.

OK, Revo/RedEye it is then

A wise choice ;-) Enjoy!

I just picked up some Magicshine lights with 1000 lumens for £69 posted

I ride with a few people with these lights. The 800lumen Revo and an older 1000lumen MaXx-D are significantly brighter than the claimed 1000lumens of these cheap lights, although they do put out plenty of light for riding I will concede.

In our office there’s several of them, currently two are broken after just a few weeks of commuting in the dark! You pays your money you pays your choice.

Revo[/url] vs. E3 Triple: The Revo is brighter. A simple case of 4 LEDs vs. 3LEDs and dynamos put out constant current, so more LEDs = more brightness, no matter what the marketing numbers. I have owned both, my Revo was brighter and far prefereable in useful characteristics the E3 is sold and I now have a revo each for me and my girlfriend. The Revo is also lighter and has a standlight that is so much more powerful and longer burning the comparison to the E3 triple is almost ludicrous. The RRP of these lights is £250 for the E3 triple and £200 for the Revo. I declare it a non-contest!

Standlight, it’s pretty bright!:

Both the E3 triple and the Revo have conical light patterns, I just rotate the bar clamp slightly to point more downwards for commuting so as not to dazzle oncoming traffic, the Exposure mount is stiff enough that I can do it up such that the light does not move or vibrate, even on rough off road, but can be rotated by hand. This is helped by the fact that the Revo weights only 87g!

I use the Redeye at the back as a rear light, this is kept alive by the light’s standlight when I stop at junctions. Battery lights now seem like such a faff.

When I first started using the Revo, pointing straight ahead, I did get flashed quite regularly by oncoming traffic to tell me it was dazzling, I quickly pointed it downward and with plenty of forward light projection still, I no longer get flashed by traffic. During my dynamo experiments I loaned my lights to a friend, who was a dynamo sceptic (and long time sufferer of my enthusiasm for dynamos) and his experiences were the same, he loved the simplicity of a dynamo, but was moaning about the triple compared to the output of a MaXx-D battery light, but when he used my Revo his only complaint was “it’s a bit bright” i.e. much brighter than his expectations and the E3, but that this was fixed by pointing it down on his road bike. He now runs a Revo ;-)

Revo vs. E3 Triple: The Revo is brighter. A simple case of 4 LEDs vs. 3LEDs and dynamos put out constant current, so more LEDs = more brightness, no matter what the marketing numbers. I have owned both, the Revo was brighter the E3 is sold and I now have a revo each for me and my girlfriend. The Revo is also lighter and has a standlight that is so much more powerful and longer burning the comparison to the E3 triple is almost ludicrous. The RRP of these lights is £250 for the E3 triple and £200 for the Revo. I declare it a non-contest!

Both the E3 triple and the Revo have conical light patterns, I just rotate the bar clamp slightly to point more downwards for commuting so as not to dazzle oncoming traffic, the Exposure mount is stiff enough that I can do it up such that the light does not move or vibrate, even on rough off road, but can be rotated by hand. This is helped by the fact that the Revo weights only 87g!

I use the Redeye at the back as a rear light, this is kept alive by the light’s standlight when I stop at junctions. Battery lights now seem like such a faff.

When I first started using the Revo, pointing straight ahead, I did get flashed quite regularly by oncoming traffic to tell me it was dazzling, I quickly pointed it downward and with plenty of forward light projection still, I no longer get flashed by traffic. During my dynamo experiments I loaned my lights to a friend, who was a dynamo sceptic (and long time sufferer of my enthusiasm for dynamos) and his experiences were the same, he loved the simplicity of a dynamo, but was moaning about the triple compared to the output of a MaXx-D battery light, but when he used my Revo his only complaint was “it’s a bit bright” i.e. much brighter than his expectations and the E3, but that this was fixed by pointing it down on his road bike. He now runs a Revo ;-)

do you just swap out wheels in the lighter months?

@rewski – I thought I might want to, but actually I have one of the SP switchable hubs on my “just riding around/commuting bikes, and I just left the dynamo on my MTB and road bike, and they’ve been rock solid, I can live with the nought point something watt power loss with the light disconnected which, to be honest, I leave on the bike 24/7, there’s still a night time, even in summer ;-)

ctznsmith – Member
If go the dynamo route and want a UK made light then I am very impressed with the Exposure Revo that I started using this week*

http://www.exposurelights.com/product/000098/revo-dynamo-mk1-(new)/

*86 miles so far in all weather conditions. Haven’t taken it off road yet though.

I used my Exposure Revo for all 800.5miles of the EWE, where it rained for the first 8 days, almost constantly, and the bike was outside 24hrs a day, it saw me through the BB200 last week (more rain, except when it stopped raining to hail :?), commuting every day for the last three months, thrashing in the woods on Tuesday nigths with my mates and on a cycle tour holiday to the South of France, just going to the shops, and pretty much every other time I’ve reached for a road and MTB too! It’s never missed a beat, it’s way brighter than my battery lights when turned onto a medium to high mode that gives a sensible burn time (only beaten by the stuid bright, 30min – 1hr setting of some lights or silly heavy battery arangements!), I am a total convert and am delighted to never have to aory about battery life and constant charging that commuting brings, so enjoy and ride with confidence :D

Oh, it is quite bright, so I just point it down a bit on the road, I think a little clip on cowl would do a grand job, but this goes for pretty much every other MTB light out there!

The plus has a battery included in it to keep things charging when you’re stationary I believe.

In my experience, the power available from a dynamo, everything, and for me this can mean depending on the trip: GPS, phone, rear light and head torch, plus some AAAs for a small camping head torch, can be charged before lunchtime, making the weight, cost and inefficiency of charging an external battery to then charge another battery (which has a large amount of loss) not something I want to have.

I’d go for the cheaper Plug 2.

I should caveat this by confessing to the fact I am lucky enough to be supported by the lovely people at The North face, however, that Dirt tracks jacket is great and one of the pieces of kit I get by far the most use out of all year round. It’s good value at RRP, so a steal if you can find a significant reduction online.

Your freewheel would go the wrong way. i.e. you could only go backwards!

There may be some hubs you could disassemble and then reassemble the freewheel mechanism to work the other way around, but I’ve no idea which ones myself.

simon1975 makes a good point about disc brakes too, but again, on frames with swapouts on, that may be overcome without too much drama.

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

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!

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

Amazing ride Rich, and a HUGE course record!

It’s not for nothing we call you “Fast Rich”. Will Ian Leitch be back to try and reclaim his course record next year?

So….. When’s your SDD ride then? :-P

A friend just borrowed my dynamo setup for a 1 week road tour. He was the only one with a dynamo, everybody else had a mixture of normal batteries & external battery powered chargers.

He just came back & reported that the dynamo kept not only his phone and GPS going, but as it charged anything in a couple of hours, he also charged everyone else’s phone and GPS every day for the whole week too, without any problems…… he then had infinite burn time on his light at night, and subsequently had to charge other people’s lights too!

I’ve got a dynamo light, the new Exposure Revo, and I lust leave it turned on all the time. Why would I want to make myself less visible to traffic? I never used to do this with battery light though as I was forever running out of burn time! I’m sure I get noticed more and have fewer near misses or need to brake as pedestrians and other road users see me rather than pulling out in front of me as they’ve not looked properly and not really noticed a cyclist

Or get a second dynamo light? The new Exposure Revo is a great option for off road. I use mine commuting (on and off road), but it’s my light of choice for mid-week blasts in the woods after work too.

No more turnng the light up and down through modes to conserve power, no more “damn I forgot to charge it”. The SP hubs (and the shimano nes) have held up to two winters now without any problems. I’ve raced on it successfully too.

Monsterous ride, much being proud of oneself to follow I hope.

All the more impressive for being able to pick up the bike to above head height at the finish line instead of crumpling in a broken heap!

Rob, any idea when the exposure dynamo light will be available and how much it will be?

I’m not sure, I had one for EWE (see here:

They’re showing it at Eurobike, and if you google it, it’s listed for sale on a few websites already, so if you can’t already buy one today it should be in the the next week or so. But this is only a guess!