my dream light/rack set up: does it exist?
 

I commute on my Windsor Kensington 8 - while I like the color-matched racks, I really want to get better quality ones in shiny silver. The racks I want are Tubus Cosmo rear and VO Porteur (w/ rail) in front.

I really REALLY want a dynamo lights that are somewhat "permanently" bolted onto the bike, preferably to the front of the Porteur rack and the rear of the Cosmo rack. However, I've already got a MagicShine up front and a PDW RadBot 1000 in back, and boy have those lights spoiled me. Are there any dynamo lights that approach the same level of brightness and can be installed on racks?

Check out peterwhitecycles.com

Best site anywhere to find out information about dynamo lighting systems.

Not to my knowledge, and probably not for a good long time.

The reason is the limited output of dynamo hubs. Three watts ain't much. As long as German law restricts dynamo output to three watts, and as long as dynamo manufacturers continue to treat one country's law as a worldwide standard, it won't be changing. I imagine technology will eke a few more photons out of LEDs, but that will benefit battery lights just as much.

I own a Cosmo rack with a B&M D'toplight XS+ bolted to it, along with a Schmidt Edelux on the front. I've had them for three years next month. Yes, the convenience of the combination is outstanding. I also own MagicShines for the front of my bikes, and a DiNotte 300R for the back. And yes, the dynamo lights at both ends are weak and dim by comparison.

That said, many people with better eyes than mine (age-related night blindness has hit me pretty hard) find lights like my dynamo ones to be perfectly adequate. And, with better eyes than mine, perhaps that's the case for seeing.

However, on the be seen side of the equation, the MagicShine was the first headlight I've ever owned that makes cars stop and wait for me to pass, rather than turning in front of me. I don't want to give that up, so I run both it and the Edelux.

In the back I like the that the B&M light does not flash and that it can be seen from the sides--nearly 270° without panniers on the back. So there, I also run both the B&M and the DiNotte.

The DiNotte, BTW, can be bolted-on, and with its internal battery pack, all you need a longer cord for the USB charger.

Probably not what you were hoping for, but it's the best I've got.

Well, it's cleared up a lot of my questions. :)

I guess I'd probably be better off figuring out how to bolt my current lights onto the racks. The main problem is that lights which are bright enough are too bulky to take off for stops (MagicShine + battery pack) but too easy to take off to leave on the bicycle.

ETA: Now I'm thinking - I wonder if there's a way to rig up a locking bracket or something for the battery pack. It wouldn't have to be too heavy-duty, just enough to dissuade opportunists. I might be able to rig up something with zip ties for my taillight. I need to look at the RadBot - if I can drill through the tab that clicks into the bracket and secure it with zip ties without making it impossible to change the batteries it might work. Come to think of it, if I start keeping my commuter in my apartment instead of in the bike locker outside, I might be able to do something similar with the battery pack and MagicShine, because I wouldn't need to take it off the bike to plug it in. I could put it on the underside of the Porteur rack so it would be more stealthy...hmmmm

Have you tried the twofish lock block type mount? And the U type clamp mount? Both of these mount the powerful flashlights, that can be taken off in a second or two. And mounted back up in a second or two..

IMO, would go nicely with that 87 Tempo. ;)

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Yeah, but I don't want ones that can be taken off quickly, the whole point is to have something that will take a few minutes to pry off and probably damage the light in the process if you don't have the correct tools so I don't have to schlep bulky lights into stores with me.

I've got to disagree with tsl on this one. I've run a generator system for the past 5 years and I've been quite impressed. I started out with a Supernova E3, original series, symmetrical beam. While brighter than the 13W halogen L&M Solo I was using, it wasn't a perfect solution because of the symmetrical lens; a lot of the lamp's oomph was lost to skyward scatter.
After a year or so, I traded up to an Edelux; what a difference from a symmetrical beam! Most of the light is focused where you actually need it; *on the road.* There is minimal upward scatter, the same way that an automobile headlight works.
I had some issues with the Edelux though; mostly 1st gen design problems which have been solved. But in the mean time while mine was off for repair, I tried a B&M IQ Cyo and I've actually kept it on as my commuter and rando lamp. It's got the same innards as the Edelux, but a plastic housing with an Alu heatsink top instead of the Edelux' design of using the entire lamp housing as the heatsink. The effective losses are not noticeable in light output.
In riding 300 and 400k brevets where I've been out in pitch black national forests doing 12 mile descents on rutted service roads in the rain, I can't say I've ever been disappointed with my generator lighting.

And you're free to. You'll note that in my post I told about the issues with my vision and that some folks with better night vision find them perfectly adequate. You must be one of them. On that basis, you don't disagree with me at all.

The part about cars turning in front of me with the Edelux, but not doing so with the MagicShine still stands. And that one doesn't depend on my own vision, but on drivers' interpretation of what they see coming.

In this case, part of the problem is precisely because of how well the Edelux keeps its photons confined to the road. There is less scatter for oncoming drivers to see. Remember, you can't see any light that doesn't actually enter your eye. Unless you're actually in the main beam of the light, all you can see is scatter from it, and unfocused light from the source.