I use several lights and wear a yellow reflective jacket. On the bar I use a 1 LED Cat Eye that uses 2 AA cells on flash mode and then a Light and Motion Stella 150 beside it on solid. If I am riding someplace especially dark I might also use my old Halogen helmet light. On the rear I have a PB superflash, a Portland Design flashing red and another helmet mounted one. Most of my commuting is on streets with some ambient lights so I don't necessarily always go whole hog with the forward facing lights.

Am planning on commuting some through trails. I am going to try one of these 1000 lumen Lezyne Mega drive lights. Battery is contained in the light.

http://www.amazon.com/Lezyne-Drive-L...s=lezyne+light

I'm a fan of O rings because I have a 1000 lumen light that I like to run on strobe mode during the day. I like to tip it down a bit. Also I sometimes adjust things a bit if I'm in hilly areas and am likely to be shoving the beam directly into oncoming driver's eyes when I'm topping hills.

Officially, 6 volts AC, 3 watts.

Unofficially, some folks claim that with home-brew electronics, they can get 10 watts out of them. Still 6 VAC.

This is what I use, a Lumina 650. It's pricy, but it's brighter than my magic shine was and doesn't have the ultra annoying external battery pack. It uses the same charge connector as my phone, so bonus. I attach mine to my helmet.

Not knowing much about that particular set up, but I'd think if you could get 3X the power out of it, you'd be running the components in the hub in a manner that would contribute to their early failure.

J.

Not necessarily. The limitation is legal/regulatory as opposed to technological.

German traffic law is the strictest in the world for both automobile and bicycle lighting systems. For bicycles, at least, the regs are known as StVZO/TA. All the dynamo manufacturers I can think of make their dynamos (either hub or bottle) compliant with StVZO/TA. Many of the better dynamo-powered lights do as well.

Most of the regulations apply for speeds between 10 and 15 km/h (6-9 mph). (This is one of my beefs with StVZO/TA.) As you go faster, the hub creates more juice. This extra power is regulated away. Over 20 mph, I can feel it as a buzz or vibration in my bars. In other words, the power is there, it's just that commercial lighting products are not allowed to use it if they want to be compliant with StVZO/TA, so they dump it back to ground.

See Bicycle lighting in StVZO/TA. Scroll down a bit to the section titled, "Elaborations on the requirements: what they mean, how they limit what manufacturers can make, and more"

This page, Dynamo-Powered LED Light Circuits for Bicycles, has circuit diagrams and parts lists you can use to home-brew lights in excess of those commercially available. It's something I can't do, so I'm stuck with the commercial stuff.

Yes, I understand all of that (I'm an electrical engineer).

A dynamo is not an infinite source of power. Presuming it was designed for these markets, it was designed ultimately with the 3W limit in mind. That, plus some engineering margin - say 10-40% or so, is likely what it was designed to provide not a 300% increase. And these circuits have no information on the dynamo itself and it's specs. Could work and it might be reliable, just saying it's worth some caution. Reliability is where it most likely would fall down. Right now, it's a known unknown. That's all I'm saying.

Then again, I'm not sure why anyone would feel the need to go to all this effort when there are a lot of lighting choices around that solve this problem without the need for modification. There is the hobbyist motivation, I suppose.

On the issue of government regulation - it seems to me the Netherlands have the right idea (essentially stay out of it) compared to the Germans. Bike lights are not a problem. We may approach that in the future as the technology improves, but almost with exception it's not a problem.

J.

I would imagine that, eventually, the generator would be producing enough to burn out components, should there be no failsafe for that. I remember catching resistors on fire in electronics so many years ago.

M.

I'm a newb commuter, and have only used this product for the past 2 months, but I did a bunch of research and decided on the frictionless magnetic induction method of generating electricity using the Reelight RL770. Got the full kit for around $78 US. I can only think of the PROS, and can't think of a single CON, except maybe the added weight of 1.5 lbs. max, which is well worth the peace of mind.

http://reelights.com/shop/index.php?...roller=product

The most important part to me was that the lights are always on (as long as the wheel is spinning) which means you will never forget the batteries nor forget to USB recharge, and you won't spend time keeping track of that battery/recharge equipment. There's a built in capacitor that allows the tail light to stay on for 4 minutes after the bike comes to a stop, which is important at an intersection or stop sign. The whole thing mounted very easily, and the gap between the magnets on the spokes and the receiver is nice and wide and forgiving, maybe a 1/2 inch.

BTW: This Commuting forum and archives have helped me a bunch, as well as keep me motivated. Many thanks to all who have come before me.

ordered this light from FASTECH and got shipping notification on Sept 24th still have received nothing and no further tracking information. REALLY REALLY NEED THIS LIGHT TO COME IN.... IT IS DARK !

I've been running a NR Mini-Newt, and while it was pricey ($100), it's adequate for the city commute I do and runs for days without a recharge. If I was to do it again, I would probably get something with at least 750 lumens, though. The mini-newt doesn't keep up with a good rolling pace.

I really want to take the jump and get the dynahub, but I don't have the cash for that right now.

They're made to a price point first and foremost. A new Shimano dynamo hub is less than €25. So, it's probably cheaper to overbuild the specs with lower quality materials and then down regulate the Amps.

Everyone else can stay out of it because the Germans control almost all EU regulation ... including bike lights. Without German regulations, we'd still have expensive and poorly engineered dynamo lighting system (or the junk that one sees in the US like Magic Shines.)

In my experience, cheap chinese lights are heavy, ugly, bulky, and have crap batteries. Did I mention that they were heavy? 400-500 gms is a freaking boat anchor!

My current favorite is the ~$65 cygolite metro which now provides 500 lumens at a total weight of 110 gm. I run it on high and it's just as bright as the ebay "1000 lumen" light that sits unused in a drawer.

Typically not the case so I doubt it.

The market forces (i.e. return on investment) have to be there or no one builds anything no matter what the regulations are.


J.

Or, without German regulations, you could have a vibrant and dynamic market where improvements are moving along so rapidly it is difficult to keep up with them. Where bicycle light technologies making huge strides per year while becoming cheaper and fitting the needs of the consumer better.

Personally, I like to go a bit faster than brisk walking speed which is what the StVZO/TA regulations seem to be limiting cyclist to. I don't usually side with the anti-regulation crowd but a little bit of Wild Westness is sometimes good for innovation.

The Magic Shines and their clones aren't junk, by the way. I've owned several and they all work extremely well...especially considering the cost. Lots of value for the money.

No, in both cases.

The German law states to any road-worthy bicycle must be equipped with a 3A light (even used bikes must conform to the law). So there are no market forces at work except one. The one that reduces the cost of the dynamo such that €100 bikes can still be made to conform to the law (that's why super inexpensive dynamos exist).

Shimano dynamos for €20

http://www.amazon.de/SHIMANO-Nabendy...ds=nabendynamo

Me thinks that you need a break from capitalism if you think "no one builds anything no matter what the regulations are." The government just hypothetically forces all construction companies to spend 10% of their work week on a non-profitable function or not be eligible to build anything.

Is this so confusing?

Based on the current state of the US government and America, in general, I politely disagree with you (as would most of the first-world).

I just got one to. Very impressed. The thing is extremely tiny. It has a couple of warts, however. It's more floody than I like, however. I like the tighter beam that my current lights have better. Both beams are on all the time as well. Would be better with an option to run the beams independently but I suspect that would make the circuitry more difficult.

I may use this one for a few rides but it's going off to my daughter for her to use.

So you say that because the German government mandates it, for profit companies will build a product and don't care if it's profitable or not? I'm sorry to say that a very tough lesson awaits you if you ever get into product development of any kind.

Also probably explains why dynamo powered lights are basically a curiosity in the tiny/niche bike lighting market (in other words, really tiny).

<yawn>

J.

I would bet in the first-world more bike are sold annually with dynamos that without. I think you need to get out/around more. Not only are they mandatory in the EU (which has 650M+ potential customers) but bicycle ownership is much higher here.

:lol:

Market analysis much?

because I'm not a jerk, here's a point of where to start looking (EU bikes have dynamos):

http://top10hell.com/top-10-countrie...es-per-capita/

calling them niche resides somewhere between naïve and ignorant ... hmmmm.

How fast can you ride in the dark and see, with the lights you use over there? I only average about 11 mph, but on downhills I get up to at least 35 mph if it's not foggy or raining too hard to see. My generator powered light is plenty bright at speed. When I'm climbing hills I go really slowly, and the light is dim, but it's still enough.

I do wish we had some uniformity in the way our light output is described. Some manufacturers use lumens, some use lux (they don't directly convert), and some think telling you how many watts their bulbs use tells you something. Peter White took a bunch of pictures of how various beams looked at night and has them on his web site, but he can't get every light tested that way. I think most of the ones he tested did meet the German specs.

I forgot until now about this sub-forum:

http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdispl...ng-amp-Gadgets

I should start reading that one, too.

It's pretty standardised in most places. Here's a brief synopsis:

http://swhs.home.xs4all.nl/fiets/tes.../index_en.html

Are dynamos mandatory or is having a light mandatory?
Is it all EU or just some countries? Looking at the photos it appears to only be some countries.

Do they MAKE a company make these dynamos or is there a market for them and they are filing the market?
Or to put it a different way, is this a capitalist venture or a socialist?

How do they deal with antique bicycles?

is this a serious question?

Serious question.
If the government is paying/subsidizing the production it is a socialist thing.
If the government is not paying/subsidizing the production/sales then it is a capitalist thing.

BTW, Please answer the rest of the questions.

Current political landscape

German standards (DIN) are usually adopted quite quickly by German-speaking countries (and become EIN or EN). The UK usually tries to resist and does a reasonable job because they have a lot of not connecting infrastructure (cars/trains). Most people on the continent just go with DIN. The poorer eastern countries usually adopt DIN because there's no way to finance alternative testing. In addition, newer countries much match safety in the current EU countries, which usually includes just adopting stuff like bicycle standards. In addition, the market is already saturated with those products at very low price points.

As far as reading every countries law, my Slavics are not good enough, but the way things are going DIN will just be adopted and the UK will leave the EU within 10 years due to the Germans not bending to the lack of financial regulations that the UK wants and Frankfurt is demanding more banking be transferred there.

German bike laws (help yourself as this one of the better analyses in English)

http://swhs.home.xs4all.nl/fiets/tes.../index_en.html

Shimano is not a German company.

Antique bikes are out of law and can be fined.

EU v. D

http://swhs.home.xs4all.nl/fiets/tes...ebruik_en.html

raw data:

http://www.mtb-biking.de/stvoz/beleuchtung.htm