hi all i want to but brushes in the head tube like rene hurse bicycles had. i can find no reference. i have s sanyo generator for under the rear wheel in place of the kick stand. any ideas bout the set up there must be pic some where?

Brushes in the head tube?? I'm confused Are you thinking of a dynohub??

The wiring and circutry is housed inside the steerer tube and partially at the tailight. https://www.renehersebicycles.com/Chr...Randonneur.htm

Proprietary Rene Herse Rear Light

Powered by Generator - internal wiring through frame featuring carbon brush on steering tube to eliminate external wire! Light is a red 1 watt LED, extremely bright!
i want to do this as in the abobe web site.

Get a Rene Herse bike, then.

Either that or make it yourself, I guess. I don't think that external wiring is worth worrying about.

Brushes are used in electric motors, car starter, alternator etc. This is the area you might poke around. A hand mixer for the kitchen might be about the right size as far as a device from which the brushes could be adapted. Otherwise, within bikes, this Herse design has been rather unique. Unless you are a skilled mechanic or have one to help you, you are not likely to succeed in reproducing that design.

have skills to do just needed a kick start in the right direction after all its tried and true.
i am making a bridgstone 300 into a rando bike got no $ for new in todays econ new for ne might be never and i like transforming junk frames into nice rides. drill motor set up might work?

As one more idea, you might try robot shops. There must be situations where you need brushes in a robot.

you should be able to get brushes for a dc motor. Seems like they have them at the big-box hardware stores. Or McMaster-Carr Not sure what you would use on the other side as a wiper. I suspect the Herse did this as a gimmick, it really doesn't sound like a particularly good idea to me. Especially if money is an issue. Motor design is fleeing brushes as fast as they can, and that's a much better application for brushes than a bike light.

Boulder Bicycles is the successor to the French builder, you get new bikes custom made by them under that name now... made in COLORADO. ask them,
they kept the top of the fork steerer switch that made those brushes needed.

site link in #3 should help.

But I dont get the reason the BB dynamo needs a switch
purpose seems not thought through
... Sanyo BB generators switch on and off

by lifting the dynamo drum off the wheel, no switch needed...

Its tire driven .

the custom feature back in the day was a shift lever
on the top backside of the seat tube operating a cable down
to engage or disengage the Generator without stopping..

the setup now is Schmidt Hub Generators , then the switch is either on the headlight itself. or if you were buying one of those $6000 + Full custom bike frames
you can get the top of the stem switch ..

NB the frame fork and rack at 6K+, not including bars wheels components.
saddle, tires.

I used to have one of those Sanyo Generators [still do it's in a bin around here]
I found it easy to trip the spring catch lever with my left toe,
with out any fancy brazed on lever .. just had to stop when I wanted to turn it off.

I'm Never in so big a rush , I cannot manage that sort of task.

Sanyo , big electrics company that they are , are also in the hub generator game , I understand they make the parts for Shimano and all those other Taiwan Based brands: SRAM and Sturmey Archer Sun Race.

then you take the electrical load off the hub generator my switching off the lights,
it keeps moving the coil of wire around in that magnetic field,
but the resistance goes down..