Originally Posted by
Arcanum
Pretty much whenever someone asks for recommendations for bicycle lighting, I recommend lights driven by a dynamo hub, despite the extra expense. A few weeks ago, I had an experience that illustrated why.
It was still light out when I got home from work, and I didn't expect my trip to take long, so I decided to leave my bag of lights and such at home.
Dang it, you put a hole in your own argument by leaving the lights at home... But,
And that is why I advocate dynamo lights for anyone who is serious about practical riding. You never, ever have to worry about having usable lights. If you're riding your bike, you've got lights.
That's what I've learned with my own dynohub bike. I tried getting into the habit of putting my Dinottes' batteries in the recharger every night, but whenever I didn't, I was screwed. I even started keeping a charger at work.
Within a week of getting the dynohub, I wasn't charging batteries at all. I could be out as long as I wanted at night and I still had lights. I could wake up and rush to work without taking batteries out of chargers and loading them into their packs.
Basically, it made that bike as brain-dead convenient as a car. I would get really irritated if I had to regularly charge batteries for my car's lights. Grab-and-go, no worries about whether I'd still have lighting four hours later.