Dynamo Lights

My ebay dynohub wheel arrived.

Heavy (as expected for £30). 1600g with no tyre, so adding a 900g 35x700c Schwalbe Marathon Plus will certainly make it noticeable. But bye bye faff of battery lights (found a D'Toplight dynamo powered rear light in the bits box).

If only I'd thought about it and bought some rim tape in advance then I could actually put it all together and get it working.

@Ludd
Yes the delay of the flicker stopping may well be because of your double rear light. I am no electronics whizz mind. Could you experiment with wiring the two rears in series instead?

will probably have meddling colleagues trying to switch it off when they arrive at work.

The b&m Toplight Line have a flush button to discharge the rear capacitor. It seems a bit pointless except for on a few occasions- I think you need to be careful when arriving on your bike at train platforms because train staff can (quite rightly) be a bit funny about random red lights confusing their drivers.

The b&m Toplight Line have a flush button to discharge the rear capacitor. It seems a bit pointless except for on a few occasions- I think you need to be careful when arriving on your bike at train platforms because train staff can (quite rightly) be a bit funny about random red lights confusing their drivers.

Interesting. I'll look for one of those as the dynamo powered DToplight rear I found in the bits box doesn't have a standlight and I don't want to have to have a battery powered backup.

@greenbank I bought the Brake Plus model. Not sure if all/which of the Toplines have the button.

I now have a brake light on my bike. Rad!

Finally got my the Luxos U that I've had sitting in my bedroom since April set up with a wheel (A310/SP SV-9). Oh my god. It's amazing. The SV-9 is a very, very tiny hub. Actually difficult to believe it's powering the light. So happy with it.

Nice innit!

I've used reelight's previous products (which use magnets). I've been using a magnic light for a couple of months now instead.

There are issues with having your headlight positioned around the rim. The old reelights had a similar issue in that if they get knocked: you have to reposition them (and each time you do they losen etc).

It's promising technology though.

I feel very Arrivée nowadays.

Like a welsh train company?

More like I could be one of these dudes.

The field from the eddy current itself (effectively a current loop within the metal) falls off as the cube of the distance (assuming you're on axis - let's be generous. Reference). As the field inducing the eddy current will be coming from a permanent magnet with a (roughly) bar-like geometry it will also have a cubic dependence (reference), so you get a 1/r^6 dependence.

I believe the technical term for that is 'brutal'.

I feel very Arrivée nowadays.

You did one audax, one.

I would have Jake on my Easter arrow team to find out whether he is real or badger food.

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Arriva's owned by Deutsche Bahn.

That makes sense. The ICE out of Bruxelles to Cologne either breaks down or takes weird detours while they trash one bridge or another on the main route.

#funfact

Purely because of the light, not because of the amount of audax's I've done.

Starting RRtY this month though.

@jb You tried charging anything on your Luxos U yet? iphone is about 10% in 8 miles - though I suppose that deps on whether your phone's trying to find wifi or whatever else is switched on.

I feel very Arrivée nowadays.

I thought you meant arivée as in a bit late to the party...

Na. Not yet. Will give it a go soon though, but I've only ridden to work and back since I've had it and it is 2.5 miles from my house...

That's without a light on? Tbh, I'm less concerned about charging my iPhone on it (though I am sure I will at some point) and more concerned about charging my Garminz. I'm still gonna carry a little Anker battery with me though for emergency backup if I'm on a long ride i.e 300+.

I know I know, I jess.

The worst thing about high quality dymano light is that your old battery powered light feel like a chores.

I really did not miss charging/changing every weeks/months.

@hamrack brutal indeed

@jb yes without lights on. There may be enough to power a garmin with lights I dunno. I only use chapnav.

Daylight:

• Garmin runs on its own power
  
• Dynamo charges cache battery and, when that's full, powers/charges Garmin
  
• If at any point during the day the Garmin gets low on power then charge it from the dynamo instead of the cache battery
  
  

Night:

• Dynamo powers lights and Garmin
  
• Cache battery is a backup
  
  

The power required to keep the Garmin ticking over (not charging) is a lot less than running it and charging it.

what do you use as a rear light? I have an E3, but am concerned about whether it stands out enough in London traffic