Decent Bottle Generator - Does it Exist?
 

Is there such an animal as a decent bottle generator...preferably a vintage one? Is there another way besides a hub w/ a built in dynamo?

Spanninga makes an inexpensive black bottle dynamo that I'd like to try, but I don't have a bike that needs one at the moment. Buy the mounting bracket and this, and you're lit up for little investment. Not very vintage looking, though.

I removed a cool aluminum, German bottle dynamo, chrome headlight and taillight from the Puch touring bike I'm restoring for a friend. It had hung in the garage for years, but lit right up rolling down the sidewalk. I've yet to ask her if she wants me to reinstall it.

I have a front bloc Soubitez on one bike and a Soubitez gen with separate front and rear lights on another. They work.

The old Union generators work well and are very reliable. One key for efficiency is to be careful about getting the mounting right. Make sure the axle of the generator is pointing right at the axle of the hub so the generator wheel will turn smoothly against the tire with no scrubbing. And place the generator high enough so its wheel contacts the main tread portion of the tire rather than the sidewall.

A couple sorts: German
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/dymotec.asp
and the Netherlands
http://axabasta.intermix5.nl/cat/fro...&setlanguage=2

I have an old union bottom bracket-style generator and have no complaints about how it works. The front light isn't quite as bright as I'd prefer—which I chalk up to being 30 year-old halogen technology rather than any problem with the generator (and the lens does cast a great pattern)—and occasionally it'll kick itself out of alignment after going over a big curb—which I imagine isn't so much a problem with bottle-styles—but otherwise it does its job and does it well. I imagine the old Union bottle generators are of similar quality.

Check yellowjersey.
Peter White also has some really nice bottle style generators—nice as in they cost quite a bit more than a basic dynohub—so I can only assume that there are decent new generators out there.

Here is one US source for the AXA Traction model. I am going to be ordering one for my basket bike.

Aaron :)

If this is going on a bike with a standard rear wheel, like the kind that has a derailleur, then you might consider the Spanninga light set that comes with a Pioneer dynamo; the dynamo is a donut-shaped thing that attaches to the left side of the rear hub. Extremely cool, reliable dynamo. Search on ebay for "Spanninga" -- there's a seller in NJ somewhere that has a bunch of them. It's a whole set --dynamo, headlight, taillight for fender mounting; lasst time I checked I thought the price was pretty reasonable.