agreed, I'd like to get an LED emitter with heat sink that could fit in to my Schmidt E6 halogen headlamp. That lens and a bright LED would be good but I wasted money with that headlamp, the drag is especially noticable compared to the LED headlamps

+1 My commuter has a generator hub (Schmidt), and the Supernova E3 Single. It gives me more than enough light to see the road by here in California, but if I were riding at night on icy roads, with less street lighting, I'd probably want to augment with a second battery powered light. I have the supernova tail light as well. My biggest complaint with generator powered lights is that for use in a primarily urban setting, the lights are more to allow you to be seen than to see by, and therefore you want to have blinking lights. I am not aware of any blinking generator powered tail-lights (I have the PB Blaze on another bike and it works as a headlight). As a result, in the winter months when I am riding in the dark more, I augment the generator powered lights with ones that blink - I have a dinotte tail light mounted right under the Supernova tail light.

I wasn't impressed with the Nexus 8 when I rode it for comparison versus the Alfine I currently have on my winter bike. Some people have said the newer Nexus8's are better and different...it could be, just sayin'.

I know Hiawatha Cyclery - a bike shop here in the cities which does almost nothing but commuter stuff (so no "only like race bikes" bias) said they used the recommend an IGH found a number of the Nexus 8 hubs (probably the early ones, I know they made changes) tended to end up getting water and stuff inside them and they didn't recommend them any more for winter biking over a regular derailler.

I'd be careful with Roller Brakes - everything I've read about them says they have longer stopping distances than regular brakes. Some have said it's in the "unacceptable" range, other advocates have claimed it's "fine", but they usually admit it's longer than with regular brakes and to me it sounds like way to much of a compromise.

I'm not sure my advice will be terribly helpful - I've found that if it wasn't for cars seeing me, I rarely need any sort of light in the cities when winter biking. There's a couple reasons:
- City lights tend to provide most of lighting I need a lot of the times anyways -
- In the winter the white snow makes that effect even brighter
- And I'm biking a little slower in the winter (15mph or so)
- And I don't need to see as much detail on the road surface with the relatively fatter tires on my winter bike

I have a Lumotec Cyo on my winter bike and it's all the light I need for winter biking...though for the reasons above, I'm not sure if this will really be helpful advice. My only complaint is that while it's great for going straight, it's not quite as good for sharper turns as it's shaped beam lights up the road but not off to the sides to much...though on the other hand most of my non-helmet light aren't dissimilar.

In the summer it was a slightly different story - my Cyo was "enough", but I felt more comfortable if I added a more floody beam to light up off to the sides of the path.

The other poster who said it's all about the beam pattern is certainly right - I cannot believe how much that matters, but after going through...more money on lighting than I'd like to admit, it's become blatantly obvious to me. I have a Seca 900 and Seca 1400, and find that I'm comfortable with both on, the 900 at full brightness and the 1400 at 50% brightness. Or - with a single Dinotte 200L on medium for 15mph kind of riding (except it's not quite wide enough)...we're talking 1600 lumens versus 100 lumens...how are they so close? It's the bizarre world of lighting...something about putting a bright spot out in front of you makes it hard to see everything else.

I've found my generator tail light to be worth it just for the convenience - not only do I not worry about batteries and the light dimming from the batteries when it gets cold, but you turn on and off both the front and rear light just by turning on/off the front light. One less thing to turn on and off, and more importantly if the front light is on the back light is on, so no forgetting to turn on the back light. The drawback of generator lights, though, is that they don't blink they're only on steady...fine for MUP riding which I'm usually doing in the winter, not as good for street riding. When I ride on the street I use a second battery blinky (though I've ended up almost always using 2 anyways after I twice found out my blinky that turned on when I left wasn't working by the time I got home - kinda scary).

The Nexus 8C31 and 8R36 have Alfine 501 internals. I have an older 8R35 with the older Alfine 500 internals, it is well sealed and has held up for three Chicago winters.

https://bike.shimano.com/publish/cont...een%20Hubs.pdf

What about two one-watt LEDs with a half watt taillight?

The Nexus 8 on the wheelset in question was one of the newer models where they supposedly had solved the sealing problem.

I've heard the same thing about roller brakes and for that reason I was thinking of trying them on the rear only. Shimano has a few different models and these were pretty beefy. The guy selling them (pawn shop owner) referred to them as disk brakes due to the large cooling disk. The model number identified them as rollers. They were appealing from the low maintenance and "works the same in all weather" standpoint. I'm getting tired of freeing stuck cantilever arms. Adding disk brakes to my bike is an expensive proposition. These roller brakes were also pretty heavy, would have made tire changes more difficult, and would have required that a lot of thought be put into cable routing, plus I probably would have needed travel agents. So there were quite a few negatives.

As far as lighting goes I think this thread has convinced me that a generator light would be OK for my purposes if I'm willing to spend the money on a good one.

I see you can get a "red band" Nexus 8 complete with shifter and anti-turn washers for vertical dropouts for about $190 online. I may go that route.

Yeah...for the reasons you listed I've never found an interest in drum brakes. Not willing to lose stopping power in exchange for less maintenance, not to mention the additional hassle if you need to change a tire.

I have disc brakes on my winter bike and have found them very consistent even in rain. Have to admit they're not cheap, and retrofitting is sometimes not worth it, the cost involved just requires a new bike with the correct frame mounts and stuff to begin with. They've been great so far - consistent braking when it rains, never seized up the winter (though to be fair you do more regular and serious biking than I do), etc. Drawbacks other than cost are just that they tend to squeal loudly when they get wet (which can happen in the winter though it's not raining), and if you take the tire on and off several times I've ended up with a slight amount of brake rub at the disc - it doesn't seem like it really slows me down (whereas disc rub with brake pads always slows me down), but it's slightly annoying.

Red band means nothing, it must be an 8c31, 8R31, 8R35 or 8R36 to be the better Nexus. These have Alfine internals and same basic sealing (same as Alfine on non-drive side and similar to Alfine on the drive side). Most discount "Red Band" Nexus are 8R25, not what you want.

It's from bikeman.com and they list it as an SG8R36

$189.99

That's a good one. I see 8R25s (with a red band) going for less than $150, those are the ones to stay away from. Lots of OEM red bands are 8R25, it's killed the Nexus name (OK, the 7 speed didn't help).

I have recently moved from a magicshine to an IQ cyo generator light.

At speed, I would say the generator light puts out the same amount of light as the magicshine where it matters. The magicshine is far more floody however, and lights up the verges and trees as well as the road.

I have left my magicshine fitted for the moment, but I haven't switched it on for a couple of weeks.

Is a generator light significantly dimmer at say 12 km/h than at 20?

Mine puts out full brightness above about 6 km/h.
So if you were doing technical off-roading it would be a problem, but on the road you get full brightness at any reasonable speed.

going walking speed you don't really need full light anyway. I get adequate light when riding at 6 yr old dawdling speed (involves a lot of track standing). One zoom here or there will fill the capacitor enough to get you through some really slow patches

I have to admit it, until this thread I have never thought seriously about generator lights as an option. In the U.S. at least, battery lights predominate and are available at all price points low to money is no object. Performance varies too and I am finding out that more money is not always indicative of more performance. At least that is mostly true in the ~$100 - ~$300 working range of reasonable bang for the buck. AFAIK there are no cheap knock-off generator hubs giving competition to Shimano and the European players in that market. So, in the U.S. at least someone who wants generator light will have to shell out $$$ for the hub and even more for the light. I see a lot of contact type generators on European bikes but I have read too many "just don't do it" admonishments by cycling authors re: tire contact generators.

Ironically, I think a similar situation exists with IGH (internal gear hubs) in the U.S. Here the derailleur is king and IGH comes at a significant price premium even for three and five speed hubs. Only one company to my knowlege has attempted to combine multiple derailleur speeds and multiple IGH speeds: Sachs. IMO if they ever got insane and put five or more internal gears along with seven or more derailleur gears they would have the Rohloff killer par excellence. One can hope.

That second paragraph was my segue into the idea of hybrid systems. IMO they work for IGH/derailleur systems but fail when it comes to generator/battery light systems. Beyond a $10 blinkie for the all important flash duties, putting serious battery light power on your handlebars IMO trumps anything obtainable at reasonable cost from a generator. Why this is I don't know. A Magicshine consumes ~3W. From what I have read here 3W and more is completely reasonable power output from a hub generator. Most generator light systems, however, stop far short of MagicShine light output levels. If you get a useable amount of light from a generator and are happy with it, rejoice. You can always carry a small tactical in your tool bag for repair projects or finding keys, etc. You won't (shouldn't) also need a full on battery light on your handlebar to back up your Busch and Mueller, or vice versa for that matter.

H

In particular the reason I want a bright light is when I'm picking my way through treacherous snow and ice packed streets. I want to be able to see the contours to help much judge what's underneath. Is it just snow? A snow covered ice ridge?, etc. This is really just for the last two miles of my commute which are often poorly plowed. I'm also not going particularly fast which is why I wanted to know at what speed the lights would get dimmer.

For most of my non-winter riding I get by with a pretty tiny Blackburn Flea. It's fine for the city and most of my riding is during the day for the summer anyway.

In another thread he wrote:
I bought a Shimano gen hub for $70, paid the same for an SRAM gen hub. Both take disc rotors too...I bought a Sturmey-Archer gen hub with 90mm drum brake for $70. I don't have to replace the hub like you do a battery pack, also don't need to dispose of a toxic battery.

You can pick up a very nice dyno wheel (VO PBP rim on Shimano 3N72 hub) for $160, and drop an IQ Cyo onto your bike for $105. Total system cost of $265.00, total system weight of 650g. Factor out a front hub weight of 160g (Ultegra) and you've got a system that's only adding 500g to the bike.

For a sub $300 system that offers unlimited hours of lighting, you're not going to beat it with a battery setup.

Velo Orange now has a 36 hole dyno hub on sale for $35. I have this model on the front of my summer commuter... having been using it since late August. I needed a front wheel at the time and the price of the dyno hub is in line with most hubs you'll buy.

You can purchase LED dyno headlights in the $50 range and slightly less for taillights.

As for durability, everything working fine on my system. Spanninga taillight works great. My Planet Bike dyno headlight stopped working after a month or so. Contacted Planet Bike and they graciously replaced it.

There is also this Sanyo hub for $40

https://www.longleafbicycles.com/prod...anyo-dynohubs/

Dang, beat me to it. I've got that bookmarked in another browser (playing with IE9RC right now). And the guy at longleaf used to carry that hub that VO has, but it's not as good as what he has currently. He's also upfront about how the Sanyo isn't on the same level as the Shimano and SON offerings.

Durability on the Novotec, Sanyo, and lower end Shimano hubs isn't the concern with many dyno users; it's the mechanical drag. For a commuter bike it may not be much of an issue. For a randonneur it can become a huge concern, when additional drag might decrease a rider's speed by 0.2mph.
May not sound like much; and on a 1hr commute is really isn't. Applied to my own commute, it's the difference between 1 hour (at 16mph avg) or 1hr 0m 45s. Over the course of a 40hr brevet, it becomes 30 minutes, which could mean the difference between a 600k medal and a DNF.

The above is part of the reason I decided against getting the wheelset.

The IGH isn't THAT much heavier than a derailleur setup, and it's not THAT much less efficient.

Likewise the roller brakes don't add THAT much weight and the roller brake grease doesn't affect performance all THAT much either.

Finally the drag and weight of a dynohub don't make THAT much difference, all things considered.

But the thought of putting the whole deal on my poor commuter, which was designed to be a cross-country racing machine... well, it would have made my old Huffy "Sante Fe" seem like a Trek Madone by comparison.

Individually there wasn't too much of a penalty for each component. But put all of it together?

I just couldn't do it.

Dude, we should have a Huffy Santa Fe club. You're the 3rd I've heard here now.

It's the IGH not the dynohub that I wonder about. I am sticking w/ SS for my CC rather than introduce the inefficiency of a derailer to my finely tuned system (and to make up for whatever resistance the dyno introduces)

Tell the truth. The Positron II shifting of the Sante Fe ruined you for any kind of geared bike that came after.

I put quite a few miles on that thing before I was old enough drive, and I still see one every now and then. It was a nice looking bike. My poor little brother on the other hand couldn't get a Huffy 10 speed to last him more than a few weeks before something broke.