Originally Posted by
irwin7638
Personally I still like tire driven dynamos with a good LED.
Me too! Pick me! Pick me!
Originally Posted by
pdlamb
Another possibility is that some of us old farts remember the bottle generators from the 19X0s. Hooked up to a flashlight bulb, you could almost see the ground.
True enough. But those bottle generators provide plenty of juice for today's LED lights! My Union (I think it is) is over 35 years old and powers a B&M Lumotec IQ CYO (meant for a dyno-hub) and a B&M Topline taillight with ease. The Soubitez generator which came with our '82 Peugeot tandem also handles them easily. I think the Soubitez is lighter and smoother, and on the tandem we never notice any difference whether it is engaged or not, except that the lights come on!
The generators weren't the problem back then, the lights were.