Really? Is this your ultimate argument against a dynamo light? Is it really THAT much better for any light mounted on your bike?

I got a flat with my handlebar mounted removable LED once (an all in one, not with external battery pack). Yes, I could easily remove it to use for lightning while I changed my tube, but I couldn't easily hold it while using both hands for the job. If it was a light with an external battery it would have been even harder to manage as it would have been too parts to deal with.

In the end this is one of the many reasons I decided to get a helmet mounted light as a secondary headlight.

At the rate I'm going it'll be next fall before I actually get to try my dynamo setup. Of all things, the spokes and nipples I ordered were held up because the nipples were on BACKORDER. GMAFB. Just send me a substitute. And then the light I chose, the new B&M CYO Premium, is on backorder everywhere except Peter White, but even he may be on backorder as his page is not connected to his inventory.

Anyway, to answer a few of the questions above: Cost? A lot more than a battery light. I'm $150 into the wheel and I haven't order the light. Weight? Pretty heavy hub, heavier than the batteries would be. Brightness? TBD. It should be almost as bright at 80 lux as a ~400 lumen light, but with a directed beam. Wires? Not really an issue, they only run from the hub to fork crown mounted light. Friction? There will be some, but everyone says you don't notice it. Theft? I never leave my bike outside anyway. Standlight? Yes, but it doesn't last forever.

http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/b...ght/aid:709237

will ship to the US.

remove 20% VAT and add £19 for shipping/customs.

edit: maybe you mean this one:

http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/b...ht//aid:709233

you need to be more precise.

but both are available and Rose is a very reputable family run companies. a fair number of my German colleagues bought tri bikes from them :)

No, that is not my "ultimate" argument against a dynamo light. It's an argument against generator lights but a good one. If I have a problem such as a flat, I can slide the light off the handlbars and set it so that it illuminates the problem. But I only have to do that if my helmet light isn't working.

I still think that the "flats" worry is overrated.

I've gone 5000km with no hassles. ILTB has made it roughly 50000km without a flat.

A wider tire and a proper street maintenance program seem to work wonders.

I think a lot of people getting flats are because they're using thin, easy-rolling tires rather than commuting/trekking tires.

local culture matters .. US throws things around where the Austrian's and Swiss Don't,

It reminds me of how we differ with our cars. I've heard that cars are taxed by power or displacement, in addition to high fuel taxes. They can't imagine cars with more than 200 hp, and most cars there are have much, much less. A lot of people here can't imagine driving a car that weighs less than 4,000 pounds!

You need more power on the helmet. This should be your primary protection. My bacon has been saved innumerable times by shining 1,000 lumens right in the eyes of drivers who only make cursory checks at stop signs.

When you can see head shadows being cast on the back seat of the vehicle, then you have enough firepower.

I used to also run about the same lumens on the bar, but now I am only running a 2W blinky light there. It is pretty bright, and noticable, but the key requirement is the helmet light.

So the headlamp is a Chinese mail-order CREE-based flashlight velcro-strapped to the helmet. Works off of a rechargable 18650 battery - good for about 40 minutes per battery. The blinky works off 2 x AA batteries. The whole setup cost about $40.

Dave Mayer, when 2,000 lumen lights become available, will you use one? How about 10,000 lumens?

Keep right on thinking that. It will give you cold solace when you get a flat. The only reason that Benjamin Franklin didn't include flats in his quote about inevitability was because tires hadn't been invented yet.

There are two ways to avoid flats: Don't use pneumatic tires or don't ride. Neither option is a good one. But if you ride a bike and you use pneumatic tires, you will flat a tire. And the width of the tire has no bearing on that fact. I ride tires from 23mm to 50mm. The 50mm tires are knobbed mountain bike tires that stand above the pavement by a good centimeter and I have gotten flats in them. It's just going to happen eventually. It doesn't necessarily happen often but just because you've gone for a while without a flat doesn't mean that one can't happen the next time you put wheel to pavement.

Nor is 5000km really that far.

Flats are only one of the problems that you can have happen at night on a bike. There are an infinite variety of other things that can happen for which you might need a light off the bike. The range from the mundane like a derailer adjustment to the bizarre like sucking a squirrel into your disc brake.

cyccommute:

So are you saying that any given cyclist will eventually have a flat tire?

Yup...unless they are using solid tires or non-pneumatic tubes, both of which are horrible options.

It's true. Flat tires happen.

I am pretty sure you could find a 2,000 lumen light with a way to mount it on your helmet today, but unless you are riding alone in dark mountains I surely don't think anyone should. If you are ever on a MUP, or even a road with a sidewalk next to you, you will really be obnoxious, if not blinding, to anyone going the opposite direction.

I don't see the need for 1000 lumens on my helmet. I also suspect that many of these cheap bright lights don't really output a real 1000 lumens.

I have a helmet light that is 250 lumens on high and 150 on low I think, but it is a high quality light with great optics. It has a great beam patter and is plenty bright to both see and get a drivers attention without totally blinding them.

I'm not sure he'll stop until he can vaporize them.

FFGS with rim brakes ... less points of failure, which is why I started the BSO thread :thumb:

also 5000km is 250 commutes or 2 years at my current days of work / year

i think one hassle every 2 years is OK and rejects your null hypothesis ;)

You have enough firepower when you can COOK bacon with your helmet light, IMHO

There are some drivers that basically adhere to the law of the jungle, which is that if my vehicle is bigger or more banged up than yours, then I have the right of way. This definitely applies to 4-way stops and roundabouts. So the only thing that will cause these drivers to yield the right of way, or simply come to a full stop at signage, is some sensory input that is too ominous to ignore. Like the prospect of getting hit by a freight train.

Second, many drivers have a lot of other things on their minds, including a nursing a GPS screen, fiddling with the radio, talking on the phone, applying makeup, eating, changing a diaper, reading the paper and text messaging.

So a awe-inspiring spectacle of lights like the Second Coming/Judgement Day may be required to overcome this already taxing sensory overload. Unfortunately this may become a necessary arms-race of attention getting, where it may someday require the equivalent to a thermo-nuclear explosion to get drivers attention.

Ah, so when cars or other bikes are emitting 10,000 lumens, the true warrior will be spewing at least 40,000. Sounds like an nirvana.

Uh, no, that actually is not the case... Bike shops in parts of Europe sell commuter bikes with everything ready to go, including built in locks. Everything is there from racks and fenders to dynamo lights to built in locks and skirt guards. It is quite a different market than that of the US. You would be quite hard pressed to find the same thing in the US. Is the Portland commuter even as readily equipped?

The shops I went into in Spain, France and Finland had rows and rows of these bikes and about the only options were single speed, three speed or more gears and color. You could order other bikes, and get the "US" models (I saw Trek offered) and get a "stripped bike." But the bikes on the floor were fully loaded and ready to go. Of course things could be different in your aforementioned Germany or Holland... I have not been to those places.

Finland had the least variables... all the bikes were almost of the same brand, and all fully equipped. France had the most variables... a wide range of bikes from fully equipped to fully stripped, all readily available. But fully equipped commuter bikes were a mainstay.

Maybe they have it. When I looked at xxCycle.com, a French site, they had it listed as in stock, but when I placed it in the cart I got a message later saying it was out of stock, with no stock date. No matter. I have to build my wheel first, and I still don't have all the parts. It is also 10 degrees outside and I'm not riding anywhere, although it is supposed to warm up over the weekend into the fifties.

It's not.

Fully-equipped bikes are the norm ... even the €200 Lidi/Aldi/Rema500/Netto specials are fully equipped and usually with a nice kickstand. Sometimes, a pump may not be included.

I think someone has let the cold get to their brain ;)

my favorite bicycle shops in madrid carried orcas but no omas:

http://www.oterociclos.es/
http://www.calmera.es/ (formerly el caballo de acero)

You are completely missing the point. Even on a bicycle with a simple drivetrain, there are dozens and dozens of things that could go wrong that would be fairly simple to fix in daylight but impossible to fix at night. Flats are only one thing...and random at that. You could have a bolt come loose, spokes break, brake pads slip, chain break, flats and many, many other things that can happen completely at random. You could even drop something...keys, glasses, wallet, gloves, etc...while doing something else that your generator light would be useless to help look for. Having a light that you can turn on and leave on is extremely helpful and comes in handy. At the very least, you should carry something that you can use as a back up in case something happens to your main light. Stuff happens.

Night bike warriors start arming up. Got a couple of those 1200 lumen CREE lights from China already? That is nothing, time to step it up to the new 5800 Lumen model with 7, yes SEVEN, CREE XM-L2 LEDs!

The are $49 for one, but you save if you buy in bulk
http://www.chinavasion.com/china/who...ter_Resistant/

Two of these will put you well over 10,000 lumens!