Thanks for the info. The SON hubs are very expensive to be a bicycle generator (and you may need special forks to fit these). I will probably settle for Shimano hub dynamos. Wheel bearings rarely need much maintenance, so the Shimano hub should be ok for years, if not decades. I dont ride in show or rain, so it should be good as new.

The pre-built rims sound like an excellent idea. I will look for it on ebay. The LED light beams seems so much worth it's price, I dont think i will regret shelling out $$ for these units. I am not sure which one though, but this page really gives an idea of what would be the best: https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/headlights.asp

Peter White did an excellent job with his site. Hat's off to him.

The normal SON hub does not require a special fork. The SON hub does cost more than a Shimano, but there is no difference in light output. There is a small amount of difference in drag.

My daughter's bike has a Shimano dynohub, mine has a SON. We have identical lights, and they both light up brightly at low speed. My hub is prettier.

I guess you could call it your *bling bling*

It does looks nice and very shinny!

I put one of my Dynamos on an oscilloscope , the sine wave is limited in amplitude ,
it increases the frequency with speed , IE an Alternator , rather than a DC generator.

Union bottle type ones, decades back, were DC, electric circuit has one insulated +/hot lead,
return/ground came back thru the steel in the frame..

Hub dynamos are Alternators too..

One of the best prices I have seen for a ready to go dynohub wheel is from Anthony at LongLeaf Bicycles. He will do you a complete wheel out the door for $112 +$15 for shipping, that is his lowest priced wheel. Changing the number of spokes, type of spokes or rim will add to the price, but it is still very reasonable. He builds quality wheels and is a great guy to deal with. I build my own wheels, but still buy parts from him, mainly lights, rims and saddles.

Aaron

Wow. That's hell of a deal Aaron, but are there any Sanyo hubs with skewers available? I prefer not to use bolts on wheels...can be a pain to fix flats...

Ah...never mind ...i spoke too soon. Here are all the Shimano options: https://www.longleafbicycles.com/prod...-3n72-dh-3d72/

Checking them out now.

Thanks for such a great link.

The sanyo hubs come with a quick release skewer, check out the caption below the picture.

The Sanyo hubs are QR, for some reason he has a picture of a nutted hub. FWIW I probably will buy a Sanyo hub for the expedition bike I am working on right now, if I ride it enough. It will be part of the next round of upgrades. If not that one, it will probably go on my DD's soon to be built winter bike for NH.

FWIW I currently own about 30 bikes (too damned many) and roughly a third of them have lights with some type of generators. The newer dynohubs are the best way to go, ditto the LED lights, they are worth the money. If you will learn how to build wheels the dyno hubs become even more of a no brainer.

Forgot to mention those wheels from Anthony are handbuilt, which makes for a much better quality wheel than most machine built wheels in that price range.

Aaron

Here is a bit of trivia for you...

Sturmey Archer had a 12v dyno hub from 1936-1938 Then apparently it was replaced with the GH6 6 volt around 1945. They also made an 8 volt hub. Here is a link to a brochure on the 12v hub.

Aaron

Cool. Thanks for the info. Sanyo is more affordable. I can afford to shell out $150 anytime. I will need the wheel before this winter for commuting and occasional weekend training/touring. I will switch to the sidewall dynamo during the rest of the year.

And 30 Bikes!!!! holly molly...i only have four, and i thought that is one too many

Oh...and ever crack open a hub dynamo? i wonder how difficult or easy it would be to maintain one. I will crack open one of my bottle dynamos. I will need it for spare parts, so i dont see why not. Could be a good learning experience.

Cheers..

Depends on the hub. The old Sturmey-Archer Dynohub? I do those all the time. I haven't had to crack my Shimano...yet. Biggest problem is there aren't really any replaceable parts in there. Haven't had to service bearings yet, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

I have the tools for the SA dyno's and those are caged or free bearings no seals. FWIW they stopped making the GH6 SA hub in 1983, I have a couple from around 1960, and several more from the 1970's they all still work, some of them after some serious abuse. The single worst thing you can do to one of those is to separate the magnet and ring, that kills the hub and I have yet to figure out a way to remagentize them. But I am working on it. I have never heard of a dyno hub going bad from use. I don't doubt someone somewhere has had one go down, but it can't be a frequent occurrence.

BTW the 30 bikes...most are vintage, some belong to my kids (a 25 year old and a 26 year old) and at least 3 belong to my wife. So I am guilty of maybe 20? And some of those will get sold or donated, eventually.


Aaron

Did some digging...and came up with this knowledge base...pretty interesting to see whats inside.

https://hubstripping.wordpress.com/20...le-dynamo-hub/

oh well..i got the link from folks at the Dahon forum. cool stuff.

Here is the wheel I was thinking about getting for my commuter bike. The wheel is built by Handspun, which is QBP's wheel builders. These are hand built. If you do a Google search for that wheel, you might even find it a bit cheaper.

I have a set of Handspun wheels on my fixed gear. I have never had a problem with them. I have also recommended Handspun wheels to customers without any complaints.

Thanks for the comment on Handspun wheels. However, just a passing comment. When searching old posts, links that are dead are useless. So I think it's useful to describe what is in the link.

deleted by poster

https://www.google.com/search?q=hub+d...owerforums.com

There are soooo many thread to read.

My light is a two XP-G warm white leds wired in series in a square aluminum housing with a schotky bridge rectifier and a switch. For reflectors I use two reginas from ledil optics.
It is really simple and provides more than enough light for less than 20-30$
One day I will add a circuit that "senses" the frequency of the dynamo's output and when it is under a limit (when the lights start to flicker) it will switch to a backup battery. If you can read a datasheet and can make a pcb google LM2917.

ok...i got some spare parts...so what i do what the dynamo?i cracked one open. To my amazement...there are NO bearings inside. No wonder, this unit heats up badly. The shaft is only lubed with some grease, which will dry out in no time and cause even more friction/heat.

The only benefit of using a sidewall dynamo is the ability to engage when you need to. Question to all, do the more expensive bottle units have bearings inside? I hope so...

Not sure but I would hope so, or at least have some sort of bushing. I don't have any high quality ones at the moment. But need to buy a B&M or Axa pretty soon for my beer bike.

Aaron

Yes...the dynamo does have nice thick bushings around the neck region. It is not going to wear out anytime soon, but given how fast it rotates...it probably needs some sort of bearings to smooth out the friction. I need to take it out for a ride at night and see how it holds up.

A bit off topic...but can one build a perpetual motor if we replace the electromagnet with permanent magnet? I know many here seem to have some electrical engineering background...so I am asking. I looked at the bottle dynamo..and basically it seems it's run to 2 magnets (the rorating shaft is permanent magnet and stator is electromagnet)...and there are no commutator to reverse the current...so I am a bit baffled how it works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commutator_%28electric%29

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6ppevDxpw8