Originally Posted by
cyccommute
This is a good illustration of what I've been talking about. Looking at your link, you paid $160 for part. A wheel build, even when you do the build, would add another $25 to $40 for spokes. If you didn't do the build, that would add another $60. That pushes the price over $200...for a light for a bike. I understand the convenience factor but I fail to see the economics. For the same money, I could buy 3 lamps ($70), up to 6 battery packs (I've found them for as little as $11) and a taillight (PB Superflash, $25) and still be $70 to the good. With that much light, I can ride 25 mph on city streets...which require far more of my lights than a dark road does.
And that's 3 lights for any bike I care to put them To me, that's a huge part of the convenience of battery lights. I may not have them all the time but I can use them any time I like on any bike I like. Dynamos seem very limited to me in that respect.
How often do you replace these battery lights? Dynamo lights typically last longer, so they balance out.
I also value the reliability. You could say I pay more, but I also get more. I could charge the battery for my headlight and think it's charged but discover on the road that I hadn't. Or I could take a longer ride than expected, and it discharges. This is not even possible with a dynamo. Has your battery ever discharged when you needed it to work? What's the likelihood it will happen? It's zero for me. If, however, this type of reliability isn't as important to you as it is to me, then battery lights make more sense.
I'm surmising that you're trying to optimize only money. I'm balancing money and convenience. That's why we come up with different solutions.