Originally Posted by
Road Fan
If I recall, Magnic is a German company. They probably think about watts electrical output, but I bet they think even harder about compliance with STvO compliance. This standard states the minimum power needed for legal sales of a bike light system in Germany. I haven't followed bike lighting standards for a while, but in the past it was necessary.
I'm not sure if they started out as STvZO compliant, but their website now advertises that they are. Interesting.
Those regulations started in the days of incandescent lights and was based on the illumination of the road, and I don't think that it takes a lot of power to meet the standard when using LEDs.
Their general website is
here.
A little deeper into their site, they list some technical specs for the front lights....
- Illuminance (2 front lights) ~11 lux at 15 km/h . 20 lux at 25 km/h (see data sheet)
- Light intensity rear lights 2x5 Cd (see data sheet)
- Generator output 0.1-0.5 watts
- Voltage 2-5V (AC)
- Weight 52g per dynamo lamp (brake pad + brake pad + generator + headlight)
- Weight of alternator+headlight: 32 g
I'm guessing that the "0.1 to 0.5 watts" is per light, with two in front and two in back. That's still only 1 watt of light going out the front, which is less than a vintage Sturmey Archer Dynohub, IIRC.
It would be interesting to know how hard it would to get it up to 1 watt for a single generator, if only for the simplicity of just having one front and one rear one. I suppose that one drawback would be having so much weight attached to one side of the brake calipers?
Their website mentions that they are back-ordered right now, so I guess business is good!
Steve in Peoria