Originally Posted by
Velocivixen
I have no idea what you are all talking about, therefore I am impressed. So would my dynohub power new, modern lights? Like if I removed the current ones & put some Busch & Muller Dynamo lights on? Could I just hook them up and off I go?
Probably. The SA dynohubs only produced about half the power of other generator light systems and, therefore, required special bulbs, so I understand. LEDs produce more light with less power than regular old incandescent light bulbs and should give better results than you get with the original. So, if your hub is working properly and has a good output, I would expect that it would power an LED system just fine. But, that depends on at least one assumption and I don't know if it is justified. I don't know the electrical characteristics of the B&M light system -- what other electronics, if any, they have inside hidden from view to accommodate different generators, guard against over voltage, etc.
In the garage we have a wheel from a Raleigh Sprite which has a dynohub. Tomorrow, I'll get it down from the rafters and see if I can get it to produce light with the B&M headlight that we recently got for the 79 Sports. When we got the Sprite a bunch of years ago I checked that the dynohub was producing voltage, but didn't test to see what sort of power output it produced. I didn't want to spend a lot of time or money messing with it because there is not a real great need around here for a steel-rimmed and heavy 27" wheel with a dynohub -- nobody around here rides a bike with 27" wheels after dark. Also, didn't want to build the hub into a new wheel without verifying it's serviceability. In the end, buying a Shimano hub seemed the way to go as far as getting dyno-lighting on the Sports, which does get ridden after dark.
But, I've always been curious about the dynohub, so we shall see what we shall see.