Originally Posted by
Russ Roth
Last year my wife convinced me we didn't need a hub dyno and lighting and money was tight with the camping gear we already bought and on the first night we got lost in the dark. While it was nice to say I was right it wasn't convenient so this year's tour is being prepped starting with a pair of hub dynos for the adults and usb rechargeable lights for the kids. I'm looking at a shutter precision hub as it seems to get decent reviews for a good price along with a Busch and Muller 40lux light. During the day I wouldn't mind the extra drag to charge things and I'm looking at this
https://www.bike24.com/1.php?content=8;product=38306 Busch and Muller USB Werk 361bw
to charge the two battery packs I have which will keep phones and USB lights topped up while riding. Will this be sufficent and is it decent or should I be looking at something more?
Secondary question. Are dynamo hubs solid enough to build into the existing wheels and riding with full time or should I build them into seperate wheels for touring use only.
Dynamo hubs are something like 6W output at USB voltages that's 500mA so for an hour of riding you can get 500mAh out. Given that a cell phone battery is about 3200 Mahers that will take about 6 hours to charge your cell phone - give or take. So you can use that and decide if it's worth it for you. It's not for me, so I would rather have a larger battery with me and hunt for outlets on occasion.
With the newer USB-C PD input capable batteries, you can get a battery that charges very fast. There are a lot around that will charge at 30W in, a fair number at 45 or 60W for charging and now even seeing some 100W charging. That means you can expect to charge a decent size battery in maybe as little as 30 minutes. Anker makes some GaN based chargers that are about the size of the apple 5W charger for the iPhone but are 30W chargers. To my way of thinking, that's the way to go. Dynamos seem to be a lot of expense and weight for, at best, marginal charging capability. And that capability has to come out of my legs to boot.
Originally Posted by
noglider
A USB charger fed by a dynamo hub MIGHT be worth it, but extra batteries ARE worth it, so get them first, and then decide about a charger. And even if you use a charger, you should also bring the extra batteries. The charger is a lot of expense which doesn't really yield a lot of watt hours. If they made them so that they provided a lot of energy, they would also cost you a lot of energy from your body, and that's no good, so they don't make sense for most people. My favorite extra battery is the
Anker Astro E1. It's $26, and it's rated at 6,700 mAH. You can get a bigger one, but if you need more than that capacity, get two, because you can charge two at once, and you're not carrying any more weight than you would with a larger battery. If two aren't enough, get four. I got a gigantic battery that weighs a pound (450 grams) and it didn't work out so well: the charging time is much too long, and one of the connectors failed, and it's undependable, so the Anker Astro seems like the ideal choice.
Agree.