SpeedofLite 

The following two-part article was published in Bicycling magazine, August 1983 (Part I; Selection and Installation) and September 1983 (Part II; Troubleshooting and Customizing) issues.
Part I is in this post. Part II is in Post #2 of this thread.

SpeedofLite 

RCMoeur 

I remember my first Dynapower. It was truly revolutionary in terms of lower drag per lumen as compared to bottle generators, but still susceptible to blowing bulbs on dark descents.

I will have to say that lighting technology is one area where current (heh) options are far and away better than what we used to have to manage with, such as expounded upon by Mr. Allen in the article. I'm grateful for my LED lights that shine all night on a few small cells, uphill or down.

Velo Mule

I'm a big fan of the Sanyo Dynopower generator. Or at least I was. It was far better than fettling with bottle generators riding on the sidewall. I have heard the downsides on these are that they slip when the tire is wet and since the generator is right in the path of muck and water flying off the tire, it will eventually fail because of grit getting into the internals.

I haven't had this problem because I wasn't riding that much at night in the rain, but I know if you are a commuter particularly in the Pacific Northwest, you ride everyday and you may have this issue.

I still have this system on one of my Trek 800's. I played around with adding a super capacitor to it to try to keep some light going when I'm stopped at an intersection. It worked for a little while but then dimmed out. Then when getting going again, it took a some time to charge up the capacitor to the level where it would allow the bulb to light. So, my attempts didn't work out as planned. It still is a nice generator that doesn't require having to build a wheel around an expensive hub.

There were some cyclist that put a shift lever on the seat tube and connected the cable to the lever on the Dynopower to activate it. I found that when I originally installed mine, I was using it enough that I knew where to place my toe to both to activate the generator and to move it back to it's parked position.

These were fun times before modern LED lights with advanced batteries.

Velo Mule

I went to find my spare Sanyo Dynopower and came up empty, but I did get pictures of a DynoHub and a Miller bottle style generator with a fluted (ribbed) lens.

gilesa

Thanks for posting that. A good article, especially the table of bulbs. Many of those are likely unobtainable now, but why bother when LEDs are so much brighter? I am using a fake bulb with small LEDs mounted on a bulb base in a chromed S-A headlight, powered by a Dynohub, on my Raleigh Sport.

RCMoeur 

Regarding the lights-when-stopped problem, in the mid-80s on my recumbent I wired up a 6 volt 1/2 AH gel cell to the lighting circuit with an easy-to-reach DPDT switch to change between battery and generator. That eventually led to a bigger gel cell and not using the generator except on longer rides. And in the early 90s the generator just came off and I went 100% battery, once higher-efficiency 6V halogen bulbs hit the market. And all of that eventually ended up in a box and donated once I moved to LEDs.

steelbikeguy

John Allen really did a thorough job on this article!
Getting the right bulb was essential for good performance, and I recall trying to find suitable bulbs at Radio Shack. I don't think I ever considered going to a bike shop for them.

I relied a lot on a little "block" dynamo where the light was attached to the dynamo....



Once I got a Schmidt hub dynamo and the incandescent Lumotec headlight (in the days before white LEDs), I tried the old block dynamo on a different bike, and was barely able to see anything.
Now that I've got a decent LED headlight, I'm surprised that I was able to get by with the incandescent Lumotec.

Steve in Peoria