Dynamo hubs

I did a lot of reading into it.

My sinewave has been faultless in over 15,000 miles now. Charges fast.

I prefer it being just a box I can hide away. Rather than the stem mount rubbish.

That page on strada's wesbite is not a view on the archetype rim I recognise. i have used hundreds and only found 1 rim that was not up to scratch.

The R460 rim is good and cheaper. That is the reason to use it.

The stem mount looks handy and means no dangling wires.

I'm more concerned with best in terms of voltage/current they can generate. Mount location is secondary.

Be good if that bloke in the youtube video went nuts and tested lots of USB options.

Also need to choose a light setup. Revo or something German?

Jesse's comments about it worried me and I'm sure I read about it failing in heavy rain somewhere else:
"Sinewave Reactor for charging via USB from dynamo hub (died in the heat earlier on. Jesse needed to revert to using wall chargers)"

That's the stem mount version, not the one skinny has which seem to be properly sealed.

Will speak to LBS next week and see if they have an opinion on the Plug/Sinewave box, how many failures etc. Lot of their customers for that sort of stuff are either off-road racers or go touring through Himalayas/South America for months at a time...

@hippy. Get a Luxos.

And a spare Luxos.

Looks like I've killed the bearings on the SP PD-8 I've was running on my 29er. Laced up in and in a truing stand it wouldn't even manage 1 1/2 rotations.

Dynamo hubs in general have quite a lots of resistant, I'll have a look at mine.

They have slightly more resistant than my SON hubs.

I know... I checked it side-by-side in a truing stand with a newly built PD-8 on a similar rim for comparison. The bearings in mine were definitely a lot worse for wear.

If I'm not drawing power from my SON. It spins for ages.
When drawing power, it barley does a rotation.

So you're barley getting a grain of power oat of it?

Connect devices in parallel, not cereal.

Cheers, I'd appreciate that. There's so much choice out there, I'd hate to plump for something shit.

Don't they have issues with their USB ports or something? I was reading good things about some other German lights that use the B&M mirror, um, Schmidt Edelux II I think they were. They look better than the B&M lights too :)

Nothing better then cheap and cheery as chips fork mounted Luxos.

http://www.darkerside.org/2013/11/luxos-iq2-u-dynamo-headlight-review/

"[Edit, April 2014: the new Luxos IQ2 model has a permanently connected wire, which removes the risk of water ingress, but also prevents you using a cable extension if you’ve got a longer-than-normal-bike length from mount to handlebar."

Review of the updated version..
http://www.darkerside.org/2014/04/review-update-monkii-luxos-iq2/

"Instead of attaching via a plug and socket arrangement for the remote switch/USB charger, the latest IQ2s now have a permanent connection with a (short) fixed-length wire. This is grand if you only use the IQ2 on a conventional bike, but on recumbents or cargo bikes you now can’t stick an extension cable between the lamp and switch. So you can’t have the switch on your handlebars."

One dead, one external power Garmin and a light switch.

1 Attachment

Is that yours?

Would the 800 have crashed on me after Loudeac because I try to see how much miles it can drink?

Yes.

http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m2b0s170p3041

This seems like a good deal, has anyone got it?

The cable to the switch is quite long, I have the light mounted on the standard brake hole and the cable is wrapped around my steerer twice to take up the slack.
One thing worth noting is that you can't charge if you're powering the light, so night riding (something I'd imagine you'll do a lot of on endurance races) will have to be prepared for with day-time charging. Not particularly difficult to arrange, but worth bearing in mind.

Cheers, yeah, charge gadgets or battery during the day, run lights at night while gadgets powered by external battery.

Had a chat with them last night...

They sell a lot of Plug IIIs and it's also their go-to device on their own bikes (used for on and offroad tours of Iceland, Scottish Highlands, Wales, Morocco etc.). There were issues with the previous versions not being completely sealed but that seems to be resolved with the current version and haven't had any returns. They've had issues with the Cinq powerpack battery thing and believe it's not sufficiently sealed.

They had good things to say about the Sinewave Revolution and their mechanic used one for the Kiwi Brevet and 3 months touring round New Zealand, no problems to report there. They knew a few people with the Sinewave Reactor but weren't keen to recommend it after some issues with the weatherproofing (or lack of...).

The Plug has the advantage of being easily attached to the bike and they liked the fact you can see when it's charging (little green LED), whereas the Sinewave Revolution was a bit of a pain to mount to the bike (depending on set up) and usually ended up being stuffed in a top tube bag, so you don't see if the cable's popped out or something until it's too late and your battery/phone/other device isn't charged.

I'm undecided which to go for at the moment, the plug is neater but the revolution might be more practical as it's easier to switch between bikes (although there's a slight chance of it ending up being dropped/lost or pinched...)