Hello,
I am pondering on the idea to have a 6 volt bicycle dynamo installed on my bike. Anyone here have any experience with bicycle dynamos?

I can see great benefits from a dynamo during touring, but i wonder why it's not as much popular in US as it is in Europe?

As with most dynamos, once you stop pedaling, there is no power, but I do have a plan to use it with small LED blinking lights, so that I am not totally left in the dark if i have to stop. However, if i could have a rechargeable battery installed, i should have no trouble at all at slow speeds or at a complete stop.

I have already purchased the 6v 3 watt dynamo, but have yet to install it. It does seem to be a bit noisy, but If i like it, i may upgrade to a hub dynamo.

Any advise from experiences users?

Thank you

The advantage of a sidewall dynamo is that when not in use, there is no drag. If you rarely will use the dynamo, a sidewall one is a good choice. If you will use the dynamo a lot or in wet/snowy conditions, then a hub dynamo is a better choice.

There are lights out there that have a standlight. This is so you have some light when stopped. The light only last a couple of minutes and is at a reduced power, but they are good for when stopped at traffic lights.

The Ixon IQ runs off of batteries, but the batteries can be charged with a dynamo while riding. You can use this to charge up batteries for other items that use the same size battery. If you want a dynamo so that you can charge batteries for other devices, there are a couple of choices, the E-werk can charge many devices. There is also the Pedalpower. I have not used these types of devices, I only use my hub dynamos for light, so I can't tell you how well they will work. I'm sure others have used them and you can get good information about them.

I use a hub dynamo and modern LED lights. Modern LED lights have a standlight feature that keeps the lights on for several minutes after stopping. They dyno-powered tail lights don't flash, but you can always put a second tail light (battery powered) for flashing and redundancy.

I liked the setup so much for my bike that I put a similar set up on my daughter's bike. She rides at night more than I do and was bad about keeping fresh batteries installed.

I commute daily with a hub dynamo. I still like to have a battery light as a back up, because my dynamo light is more of a "be seen" light, but you can get brighter dynamo lights, I just haven't spent the money yet.
For touring a lot of people try to do their touring during daylight, so a dynamo solution might seem like too much hassle/weight/expense with limited pay off. It depends on your riding style. I wouldn't want to be without mine.

If you have the money a hub dynamo is great for lighting. I wouldn't bother with a hub dynamo for charging batteries. Dynamos are more popular in Europe because a lot of cities/countries REQUIRE head/tail lamps and there's nothing more reliable than having the power source on the bike at all times.

I have a German made Schmidt hub dynamo on 2 of my most used bikes..

Got some of their Halogen headlamps , and one I wired up the taillight, also ..
it is on the rear rack..

the Bike Friday has a seat post mounted blinkie taillight... , no rear rack..

I really do not notice the resistance .. with the light on, or off..

yes Regulations in Germany are for only steady taillights

those made in other countries .. have flashing mode..

Hub dynamos are much better than sidewall ones for regular use. My Shimano hub dynamo is great, the only disadvantage is that servicing is more complicated, to the point where few people like to open them up for fear of severing the electrical connection.
My experience of sidwall dynamos is a quality Nordlight2000 mounted on a solid braze-on tab and a standard Union dynamo mounted on a seatstay clamp. The brazeon clamp wins hands down; dynamo clamps are horrible, bendy, slippy things. You need to think about trailling vs leading edge mounting and the axis of the sprung loading. Vertical axis is affected by mount position and favours leading edge ie wheel rotation forces the dynamo in not out, ie the dynamo to the rear of the seatstay or fork. Horizontal axis is unaffected.
The Nordlight unit is heavy by modern standards but does not overheat.
You need a tyre with a file edge to engage the rotor. I prefer a rubber rotor to metal.
Twin wirering is more reliable than using the frame for earth. I'ce had fun and games locating poor connection on tour.

I use lights on a touring bike for short evening jaunts into town from a campsite and for fog/mist/heavy rain. These days you may get sufficient battery life from a battery LED lamp to last a few days of riding but when I kitted out, dynamos were the only way. I have ridden a few days with lights on the whole time.

LED lamps are much, much better than bulb lamps with one exception, If the front lamp becomes disconnected, the power goes to the rear and blows the circuitry. I have blown 2 rear LED lamps. You cant blow the front LED lamp this way, they work with or without a rear. If you wire your rear from the front lamp, you have a built in fuse no front lamp, no rear lamp) but sidewall generators can be wired with front and rear in parallel.

Do you have a specific brand recommendation? I could not find anything on Amazon or ebay for LED lights with standby power. I can see multiple uses of a Dynamo. I want to start off with lights, but it could very well charge a battery during day time, which i can use to charge my phone or laptop when I am not riding.

Also, during winter months, i find myself riding quite a bit after dark. (the days are too short.), so a powerful LED 6v or 12 v bulb would really brighten up the trails or road.

Thank you.

Interesting, i did a test with my 6v dynamo light, and it was very bright. (or maybe my cateye LED battery light is not as powerful or highend. Or It could simply be i need to replace the batteries).

I dont prefer riding at night, but during winter, i would love the option of using having bright dynamo powered lights to ride as long as want. (it get awfully dark even at 5 PM during winter). The rest of the year, I can use the dynamo to charge a auxillary battery to recharge my phone or laptop. (i'm not sure whether anything exists like that..but I haven't done a search yet. )

Thank you Michael. You've got some very interesting info.

Hub dynamos seem like a great idea, but that would mean i will have to make changes to my bicycle and spend $$. But ultimately, the hub dynamos would probably be the way to go. As for maintenance? Do Hub Dynamos require greasing and cleaning the contacts or brushes? Does anything wear out in a hub dynamo? If that is the case, I guess it would be the same for a Sidewall dynamo.


I am afraid, i am bit lost of what you are trying to say. Any video or instructional notes on how to properly install a sidewall dynamo? I am completely new to this, so please bear with me.

Yes, all my tires are schwalbe, which does have sidewall threads for Dynamos. As for the dynamo rotor, do the rubber rotors wear out? If it does wear out, do you have to buy a new dynamo or are there replacement rotor for dynamos?

Also, it seem my dynamo is sinlge wire. I am not sure how the "earth" wire would work given, there is a thick layer of paint. But again, my Dynamo cost me $17. No biggie if it doesnt work. I will use this for PoC. If it works well, I will upgrade.

Ineresting. I wasn't aware the designers would implement a "serial" circuitry. It's such a poor design.

Also, do LED lamps blow out? I had no idea it did. The LEDs do not seem to have a "filament". But I agree, LED lamps are brighter and more efficient.

Thanks once again for your feedback.

Regards.

Interesting, i was looking at this item. Seems like what I am looking for.

https://www.amazon.com/GSI-Super-Qual...hu-rd_add_1_dp


is there any unit dedicated for Hub Dynamos?

I wrote a blog post about it.

On my LHT:
Headlight: B&M IQ CYO N Plus
Tail light: Toplight Flat S Plus
Hub: Schmidt's Original Nabendynamo (SON28)

My daughter's bike has the same lights, but the hub is an old Shimano that was given to me.

You can find out more about these lights on Peter White's site.

I had my LBS order everything (some from Peter White) and build a wheel and assembly it all. You're looking at a total of around $500 with a SON hub.

With this setup, it's plenty bright for night riding. A secondary battery light is useful for redundancy, but not needed for brightness.

The tail light is powered from the headlight. Both use the standlight feature of the headlight. With LED lights, nothing will burn out. I leave mine on during the day too. I wouldn't want to do that with a halogen bulb for fear of burning it out quicker.

Thank you, dcrowell. The blog seems very informative. I am reviewing it now. I had no idea that bulbs could burn out at high speeds. That's not good at all, especially if it happens during downhill rides. The hub dynamo would eventually be the way to go.

Also, are there any gizmos to charge up any USB devices? (phone/cams/etc).

I was looking at this item, sound to good to be true...

https://www.amazon.com/Coleman-StormB...=3DR3SJ56PRVPX

30 minutes of light for 1 minute of winding

See Peter White's (google should bring it up) website for all you want to know about dynamos and dynamo lights.

I use the SON hub with the Supernova E3. My touring bike is also my commuting bike, so I need reliable lights.

Paul

Good info on dynamo lights and hubs here: www.peterwhitecycles.com/lightingsystems.htm

I am starting to think about a dynamo hub for my next front wheel as well as and a Busch and Muller Lumotec IQ Cyo R Senso Plus headlight... Christmas is in how many months???

I'm not sure if the wire from front LED to rear lamp is in series or parallel. I just assumed series.
Many B&M LEDclamps come with a standlight, a small capacitor to store a few minutes of power.
Dynamo lamp optics are generally bike-specific and superior to the generic beams of more powerful lamps. The effect is more useful light from a dynamo lamp.
Rubber rotors wear out, you can get replacements, though its best to stock up with a couple when you buy the dynamo.
Shimano dynamo hubs are hard to service but they are well sealed. My local LBS is very good but don't like to mess with them. Bad LBS may not know the potential damage. There are some commuter-bike specialists who can do it, generally in the big bike-friendly cities.

If your dynamo pivots on a vertical axis, the the tyre can push the rotor inwards towards the tyre or outwards away from the tyre. Mounting on the rear edge of the stay, with the tyre rotating towards the rotor is more reliable.

In my experience there are some low end CatEye lights, so perhaps that is what you are using for comparison? At any rate, it is all relative to your expectations/needs. I used a CatEye LED light for a while around town. It worked fine for that, but when I tried to get home on the bike/ped paths, under the cover of trees and away from city lights, I was almost blind. I almost hit someone walking their dog. Then I abandoned the paths until I got my NiteRyder (rechargeable, bottle-cage battery), which was so bright my friends always thought a car was coming when I turned it on. Now I have my Spanninga dynamo light (sold in the US by Velo Orange-they don't have my model anymore, but I imagine it's comparable), and I love it for it always being there and never needing recharged, but, while brighter than my CatEye, it isn't nearly as bright as my NiteRyder. There are much brighter dynamo lights available. I just haven't splurged on one yet. See Peter White for some comparisons.

There are dynamo-based charging solutions out there. Do some reading before you go that route. While some people find them very handy, most seem to agree that they are mainly useful if you're going to spend days at a time away from a power source. I looked into it for myself and decided that for the foreseeable future I will be better served by a portable battery that can recharge my electronics for a couple of days at a time and be refreshed from a wall outlet. If you want to recharge devices with dynamo, definitely look at a hub. The bottle dynamos have significantly more drag when in use (but then have zero drag when not in use). At this point, hub dynamos have such little drag that the only advantage of using a bottle dynamo is price. Even if you go that route, I would look for a quality bottle dynamo. There are some cheap ones out there, and I've had mixed success with them, but I've heard that there are some quality ones as well: more reliable with less drag and still cheaper than a hub dynamo.

Only older lights had this issue. Newer ones are current-regulated.

They exist, but I've never used one. https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/ewerk.asp

Wow. Peter White seems to have everything related to Dynamo powered gadgets. Awesome site. I need to check it out. Thanks for the link.

Yep. My CatEye cost me $30 bucks, which also included a tail-light. Not a bad deal, considering i rarely use during summer time. I did check out some NiteRyder lights, and few of the model seems to be very expensive. I am not sure how long the Li-Ion battery pack lasts (before it expires or no longer holds charge). Either ways, the Pro NiteRyder series cost almost half as much as my Surly bike :-)

https://www.amazon.com/NiteRider-1400...626353&sr=8-10



Yes, i am still researching for some quality bottle dynamos. There may be times when I wont have access to any power outlets when touring. My Blackberry dies within 24 hrs, if i dont charge it overnight. I will probably keep my BB turned off most of the times, but ya know, you have to and try and stay connected when you are out touring and all alone.. A USB charger for my blackberry would be great, but not as critical as having good headlights, so for now, I will focus on some good power source to power the headlights. (However, in future I would like to be able to enhance the Dynamo system to allow me to charge optional gadgets during day time).

Thank you.

I run several different types of dynamos. The oldest being a 1950's Sturmey Archer Dyno hub that puts out 1.6watts. The newest being a Sturmey Archer that puts out a solid 3 watts. I also have sidewall drive dynamos as well as bottom bracket mount. Lights range from 1980's halogen to the newest generation of LED lamps from Busch and Muller.(website is in German, not sure why the English part isn't working). On bikes that get ridden occasionally I use the bottom bracket generator or the sidewall generator. On bikes that are going to be ridden at night on a regular basis I use the hub generators, with LED lights. I do use a battery powered flasher mounted on the seat post as a back up for the regular tail light. All of my LED lights have the stand light which gives you some light when stopped for up to 5 minutes.

Dyno hubs don't have to be super expensive, especially if you build your own wheels. One of the best deals I have seen is a Sanyo dyno hub, I have one on a city bike that my sister has been using, so far it has about 3,000 miles on it with no issues.

They do make a universal charger that works with the dyno hubs B&M Ewerks. Dahon has a similar unit available. I don't have one...yet, but may get one for touring in another year or so.

Aaron

Thank you, Aaron. The universal charger sounds like a great option. I will definitely take a look into it.

Looks like i need to take some time and do research. Fun times ahead

Regards,
Sonnet

A quick question, what are the pros and cons of 6V dynamo vs 12V dynamo?


As for the LED or Bulb, are there any significant differences in between a 3 watt and 6 watt light bulb?

Is 6w necessarily brighter than a 3w?


I think it's time, i polish up on my high school physics...

12V dynamo systems are mostly obsolete. I've not seen a 12V hub dynamo, and the one 12V bottle dynamo I've seen for sale was over $300. Lighting choices are limited also.

Stick with 6V, 3W systems. They are the cheapest, most common, and can provide plenty of light with a modern LED light.

I will second the recommendation to stay with the 6v 3w dynos. There is only one decent 12v system on the market and it is brutally expensive. There are some cheap 12v systems coming in from China but I wouldn't waste any money or time on those. If you go with decent quality LED you will be way ahead of the game.

Aaron