Originally Posted by
noglider
3. What's the question? The cost is $150 or more for a complete setup, including dyno hub, front light, and rear light. Reliability and durability exceed that of any battery powered system. Not only is there no toxic waste, there's no battery leakage to muck up connections.
First, with modern rechargeable batteries, there is no battery leakage unless something catastrophic has happened to the battery. The cells are usually isolated from the connections with welded tabs between any connected cells. Welded tabs mean that leakage wouldn't have an effect on the connections anyway.
With the exception of the (now) rarely used NiCad batteries, rechargeable batteries aren't "toxic" waste. They may be hazardous but that is different from "toxic". They are far less toxic, and hazardous, than many household items people use daily. If you use Drano, gasoline, ammonia or bleach, you are using substances that are both more toxic and more hazardous. A bottle of wine is probably more hazardous (flammable) and toxic (the buzz from alcohol is from low level poisoning) than a rechargeable batteries is...as long as the battery isn't NiCad.
Originally Posted by
noglider
4. The new headlights are brighter than before, and half of that is not due to output but due to brilliantly (pun intended) designed optics which are normally not found on battery lights. I can see well enough to go 20 mph or faster on a totally unlit road. Do you need better than that?
While the optics of lights used with generators
can be well designed, there is nothing that says they have to be. You could take the same headlamp and power it with a battery or you could wire up a Magicshine to a generator if you so desired. There is nothing particularly special about generators that they need to come with special optics.
Originally Posted by
noglider
7. They have a capacitor built in, so they stay on for a few minutes, long enough for a traffic light or whatever.
That capacitor is a super capacitor that is an electrochemical device similar to a Li-ion battery. They are about as hazardous as an Li-ion battery when it comes to disposal. That brings up another point, generator systems...lights, dynamo, control circuits, etc....have more electronics on board and, as such, have slightly higher amounts of hazardous materials when it comes to disposal than a normal LED light. The circuitry is likely to contain cadmium, mercury, lead and other toxic metals. The units are small so the amounts are small but these materials aren't just hazardous. They are toxic as well. If you are going to compare hazards, compare the hazards of both systems.
And compare them fairly. I am the owner of 8 bicycles and if I wanted to outfit all 8 of my bikes with generator systems, I'd have 8 times the materials in the bikes. I really can't see the point of having one generator system and trying to move it from bike to bike since portability isn't one of the reasons you use generators. I'd have 8 lamps and 8 hubs with 8 times the toxic materials in the circuitry. Compare that to having a single LED lamp and a single Li-ion battery...if we are assuming the same output of light. I have multiple lights but I don't
have to have more then one.