chimblysweep

So, I have the Schmidt's Original Nabendynamo hub. I love it, it's awesome. But, two questions...
- taking the front wheel off. is there an easy way??
- riding with the light off. Is it bad for the hub to have the light off when i'm riding?

sorry for the dumb questions... thanks for your clever advice.

CHenry

1. Hex key?

2. No.

Rowan

Replace the hex-release skewer with a standard front-wheel quick-release skewer. As to the terminals, I just pull the wheel out of the forks, and the terminals release themselves. It's a bit more fiddly getting the things back on (positioning of the hub terminals especially).

And no to the second question as stated by CHenry. There is no circuitry in the hub, and there is no current flowing if you have the light off.

Olden Crow

... can you really get 30 minutes lighting after flipping off the Baush&Muller headlamps? I'm talking about with the generator off (such as standing the bike still with generator hubs). This thread seems to indicate that 30 minutes is possible, 15 minutes for sure...

https://www.ihpva.org/pipermail/trike...q3/004303.html

Juha

I've got the Lumotec Oval Plus headlight in my winter beater, with the standlight feature. I'd say 15 minutes is a good estimate after any decent amount of riding. 30 minutes may be stretching it a bit. The standlight dims after a while. You may have some sparkle left at 25-30 minutes, but I doubt it's enough to make any real difference to your visibility in traffic.

As mentioned, I use it in winter. I don't know if it burns longer in warmer conditions.

--J

Rowan

Unlikely. It is not battery powered, but relies on a capacitor that stores charge to a certain level. The standlight remains on all the time the dynamo is operating, of course, but when the dyno stops, the capacitor takes over. I suppose there might be minor variations in the capacitor's charge level. My old and now defunt Ovalpluses gave 10 to 15 minutes of LED light.

NoReg

I'm assuming by now there is a dyno hub that runs all LED, is there any improvement in drag efficiency?

Allen

I also have the B&M Oval Plus, I agree about 15 minutes is about as long as the standlight lasts, summer or winter.

--A

chimblysweep

on the first question, sorry, shoulda been more specific. I like not having QR - i ride in a city and prefer the allen wrench bolt attachment. The question is whether there's a trick that makes disconnecting and reconnecting the hub faster.

wow, 15 min of light! i haven't needed the standlight feature yet, but it's good to know the oval plus will do it for me when i need it. thanks for the answer on running witht he light off... which i'll do now!

Juha

Busch and Mueller have a full line of LED units (in addition to their halogen lights) in their product catalogue. And Peter White has a discussion about their differences, but no mention to drag (scroll down to maybe halfway through the page).

--J

thomson

I have the Lumotec as well. That 15 minutes of standby light is not the same as the generated light. It is a different bulb, an LED. It is bright enough to be seen and even some map reading. I think it is a very worthwhile feature.

chimblysweep

so... umm...
i tried to attach the taillight, and i think i might have done it wrong, because now neither light works.

(i knew i should have stuck with my track bikes. i feel like an idiot at this stuff!)

thus, i give you MORE dumb questions, like...
could i blow a bulb- or the hub?!?!- by hooking the taillight up wrong?
the headlight's a lumotec that has four copper doohickeys under the lamp. i assumed you just hook the two tail light attachments up there, but i'm wrong i guess...anyone?

geez. how embarassing.

eibeinaka

One of the connections for the taillight has to be on one of the top copper doohickeys, and the other on the lower one on the same side.At the headlight end I have the black cable on top, the black-and-white one on the lower one. This is on the doohickeys on the right.


From the front of the bike looking at the back of the taillight, the black cable goes to the right, the black-and-white one to the left.

This works perfectly on mine!

I pretty much tried every combination to get it right,and didn't blow a single thing.

CHenry

I have a Schmidt running an LED; no different than for a halogen setup as far as rolling resistance goes.