Hi,
I have an Electra Amsterdam Royal 8. I love the bike but the lighting left me wanting more.
I pulled the original headlight and replaced it with TWO Busch and Muller LED headlights running off of the one AXA generator that comes with the bike. It is breathtaking to see the amount of light these two lights generate on my commute to work.
The top light is connected to the bike at the handle bar level and is the latest in the B&M IQ series and is the one that I recently purchased from SJS Cycles in England
www.sjscycles.co.uk . It is the Lumotec IQ Cyo. It pumps out 60 lumens of light. The other is a year old and is the Lumotec IQ Fly. It produces 40 lumens and is mounted to the fork, just above the fender. Again, all this light with no batteries. They both have a capacitor in them. After riding for a minute, enough of an electrical charge builds up in these capacitors to keep them lit for several minutes at the traffic light. While running on the capacitor, the lights run at a lower output to save energy but are bright enough to be seen.
You said that you wanted to get a wheel with a generator hub in it. There are three options available through SJS:
1. Buy the rim, spokes and generator hub and assemble them together, yourself.
2. Buy one of several ready built kits, available in different size rims and generator hub manufacturers.
3. Buy your own combination of rim, spokes and generator hub and have them assemble it for you.
These guys are great!!! They helped me keep my bike going when I was in Iraq last year. The base that I was on was very big (Taji) and I got tired of spending half an hour walking to the chow hall. However, the place is hell on bicycles. The roads are in very rough shape and it was not long before things needed replacement. I was able to order all the equipment and tools that I needed from SJS and they are very helpful when I e-mailed them with questions on how to do a service on the bike that I was not sure of.
The lighting pattern from the two B&M lights is incredible. I do not want for light. I go under a freeway bridge on the way to work and it is unlit. I'm not just lighting the street immediately in front of me, but I am seeing the underside of the bridge and the sides of the bridge to my left and right.
I used to think that I could only put on one headlight with a generator. But obviously, I was wrong.
The AXA generator is a bottle type and according to SJS Cycles was their favorite generator until B&M made their own. I can understand why they like it. I have used it in the rain and there did not seem to be any loss of light output, so it doesn't seem to slip in the rain.
The generator is mounted to a bracket on the front wheel. Up until I bought my bike, I had never seen it mounted there. However, having commuted now with it there, I can assure you that this is a great place for a bottle generator. It is in front of you so you can confidently reach down and push the button to pivot it onto the sidewall of the wheel without worrying about getting your fingers caught in the spokes of the wheel. It turns out that the "Dutch bikes" from Europe use this same generator mounting setup.
I also replaced the single LED tailight with a B&M 4Dtoplight. This too was also bought at S&J. It is battery powered and is very bright as well. There is a battery life status LED on top of the housing so that you can tell when it is getting close to the time to replace the batteries. I recently bought some rechargeable AA batteries to be more green. It turns out that the AA rechargeable batteries come in different capacities. I bought the ones sporting the largest charging capacity. I will post an update on their effectiveness versus regular batteries.
That should do it. Do take a look-see at the SJS site. I'm sure one way or another, you'll end up with the generator hub and wheel combo that best fits you.
Good Luck,
Butch M.