I too am mostly a fan of Hub generators. Near no drag and BRIGHT light. I use just a standard shimano hub with a Busch & Müller Lumotec IQ Cyo(60 lux version).
https://www.starbike.com/en/busch-and...umotec-iq-cyo/

Personally, I ordered this from DX.com and it's been almost a month since but it still hasn't shipped. So, while I expect it to do its job properly, I won't be able to comment until I get my hands on it. Anyone else ordered this or something similar from DX? Anyone else experiencing late deliveries?

DX ships very slow. It's too late to do otherwise, since you've already ordered it, but there are lots of other retailers on Fleabay or Amazon that ship faster. You might even be able to get it for a little bit less. One thing I do when looking on Fleabay is to look for US shippers. There are a few and they ship much faster.

Well, the main reason I chose DX was the free shipping, plus the fact that they had something I wouldn't be able to buy in my country even if I were prepared to spend three times as much on it. It's next to impossible to find a 200+ lumen bike light here and those would cost double the amount I paid for a 1000 lumen light. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at my waiting now though.

This is what I ended up doing. I wanted to get an 18650 powered xml light to go with the Magicshine and the Viz 360, and couldn't decide between the single mode and 5 mode. So I bought both (at $15 each it was easy) and some spare batteries too. I ended up with not only redundancy, but different lights that work better in different situations that allow me to reduce my worries about running out of charged batteries.

I have a 5000 lumens lamp that run on 4x18650 battery pack. I can go for 4-5 hours between charges and I always carry a spare, full charge battery pack and I also carry a 3000 lumens lamp that run on a 2x18650 battery pack. So all is well for me but I have a question for those who are familiar with dynohubs. Is a dynohub able to power a 5000 lumens lamps? What is the max output of a dyno hub?

I bet $$ that isn't a 5000 lumen light.

I bought one for the heck of it, not that I need anymore lights.

The quality is superb. Extremely lightweight. The o-ring mount is very sturdy. Although I prefer quick release mounts so I changed it.




Here's a photo another forumer took.

https://forums.mtbr.com/lights-night-...es-876449.html

The cheap Chinese/Dealextreme Cree lights are often half the lumen at best. I have a tiny Fenix flashlight that runs on a CR123a battery with 180 lumens i usually strap to my helmet. Barely noticeable but have a really nice beam lights up most roads.

Was looking at those cree lights - user photos look promising.

M.

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.

https://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.

https://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.