Originally Posted by
Joe Remi
I don't know how you guys got wrapped up in a lighting conversation, the OP never mentioned them.
That was easy - Avole invented the topic and wrote
here...
Don't bother with the front dynamo lights, modern USB lights are much better.
... which may be the case for him and with his variant but as a general judgement is totally wrong and he wrote is as it would be a general truth.
What he has on his bike is the old halogen lamp that got invented in about 2005 and replaced by the LED Lyt B already back in 2013. The Lyt is not on a different planet but in a different universe as the former halogen lamp - and still one of the most low end LED-lights you can buy today. This is how bad the halogen lamp is and how little it has in common with the actual factory standard from Brompton.
(grabbed from
here)
Indeed his light is a nightmare. But how useful is it to give advice to a buyer of a
new Brompton and do a total judgement about dynamo lightening based on experiences with the low cost variant only and even an
old, several years outdated variant of it that has been replaced on stock bikes already six years ago (and still years too late)? And w/o even mentioning this fact? Let alone that the even the current low-cost factory standard (Shimano with BuM LytB) is way below what is possible today with dynamo-powered lights.
Seems as useful as if you'd say "
the fuel economy of a Ford Mustang is traumatic - I know this from experience" to someone thinking about buying a brand new one in 2018 with your experience based on a Mach1 model from 1969.
Avole could dramatically enhance his light by simply exchanging the outdated halogen front light with a modern LED variant for as little as 20€ (or even bring it to current first class standard for ~75€ upwards). Instead he prefers to complain and to insist on his opinion that all dynamo lights are rubbish. Well, everyone to his own taste.
Originally Posted by
Joe Remi
Considering he's a roadie looking to go as light as possible on a Brompton that fits his riding style and budget, I assume he'll clip something onto the bars and seatpost if he uses any at all.
That's what I'd assume and that's totally fine. However - we don't know and furthermore threads get read by many people, sometimes years later and thus a wrong statement as the one from avole may lead a lot of people in the wrong direction and, even worse, enhance itself as they will say "USB lights are better than dynamo lights, I read it in an expert's forum and nobody was in doubt" and others will listen and so on and so on. That's why I wrote a correction for people to be able to have a better foundation for judgement. Maybe it even helps the OP, too.