Yeah, so it's about bikes again...

[damerell]

I've been vaguely thinking about hub dynamos for some time; and this desire was crystallised by an admittedly implausible failure that took out _both_ my battery headlights; so I shelled rather too much money for a Schmidt hub dynamo, Bisy headlight, and B&M taillight to go with it.

Gosh.

Dynamos have come a long way since the flaky bottle jobs of my childhood, to put it mildly. The new kit causes barely perceptible drag, and simultaneously outdoes both the halogen "seeing" light and the LED "being seen" light I mount (I did replace the battery lights, since I don't believe in single-point-of-failure lighting), all from one headlamp with a nominally lesser capability than the incandescent battery light.

Building a wheel with all-new components for once was a pleasant experience - on every previous occasion at least one of hub, spokes or rim have been old and covered in road-filth - although I must get it dirty quickly to reduce the chance of some lowlife making off with it.

I've stuck up a Web page full of dull dynamo facts - who I bought it from, what I've got, what alternatives there are, and how it all gets wired up, since the latter is not really written down anywhere Google knows about.

Last but not least, Suntour's self-energising rear cantilevers are marvellous too - no doubt why they are not made anymore. It's a rare experience to buy a bunch of bike kit all of which works amazingly well...

Comments

[reddragdiva]

j00r l1nk 1s b0rk3n.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Not anymore... would you believe I've never stuck a link in LJ before?

Brompton lights

[fanf]

I chickened out when I last took the B to a shop. I was pondering the acquisition of better lighting, in particular a better dynamo since the standard one is crap. But the price! I was thinking of getting a lightspin bottle dynamo, but it's very chunky and bottles are rather ugly. Maybe I should do the SON thing too, though the B goes in for special narrow components (drop-out width 90mm instead of 110mm).

Re: Brompton lights

[damerell.livejournal.com]

I think I said this on IRC; but Schmidt have a prototype BromSON, but don't hold your breath. OTOH there are good cheap bottles out there - as good as bottles get, anyway.