Originally Posted by
Ken Wind
I'm intrigued by your comment about dynamo lighting. Are you talking about hub dynamos? If so, what don't you like about them?
I use dynamo lighting systems. I use a bottle type tire driven dynamo on my touring bike. As others have noted lighting on a touring bike is for the time you screwed up your planning or you've had a serious mechanical breakdown that took a while to fix. (IE: broken spoke on the cassette side of the hub.)
A tire driven dynamo has two advantages over hub dynamos. No drag at all when disengaged whereas a hub dynamo has some drag even with the lights off. Cost is the other advantage. I paid $7.50 for a Schwinn dynamo that came with lights. The lights in the kit were junk but the dynamo is as good as any of the others on the market. Hub dynamos are for people that spend considerable time on the bike at night or must commute in the winter and must deal with ice or snow that would cause a tire driven dynamo to slip causing your lights to quit working. Hub dynamos must be built into a wheel so not only do you have the cost of the dynamo you must add rim and spokes plus the cost of lacing it all up if you can't do that yourself. You can't mechanically disengage a hub dynamo so there is some level of drag all the time. Cheap hub dynamos have just as much drag with the lights on as when there off. For some strange reason the Pioneer system has more drag with the lights off at some speeds than with the lights on! The more you spend on a hub dynamo the less drag you'll have with the lights off.
Dynamo lights are improving but due to German government regulations there not as bright or as reliable as lights you can build yourself if your good at DIY. So whats the German government got to do with dynamo lights I use outside of Germany? All quality dynamo lights are produced in Germany following strict government requirements. All other dynamo lights are made in China and are junk using flashlight bulbs which burn out after only a few hours. German lights use halogen filament bulbs producing a little more light and run longer but will still burn out and are sensitive to vibration and hard knocks. If you want a really bright dynamo light you must build it yourself. This link has everything you need to know about building LED lights powered by dynamos or batteries.
http://pilom.com/BicycleElectronics/...lectronics.htm