Dynamo hubs

I was emailing John from SPA cycles about dynamos a while back and he had this to say, FWIW;

“Shimano dynohubs were proven to be good in the past, with few failures. What failures we had were due to the cones wearing out. Only one side was replaceable, despite the hubs being serviceable which SON and SP are not. Can't comment on the durability of current Shimano dynohubs since we've only sold a small anount in comparason to SP and SON. I would say we've had a 1% failure rate with SP, but some of these have been after the 2 year warranty, but we have nevertheless underwrote the warranty.

SP hubs should last for 20,000km+ and guaranteed for 2 years. SON for 50.000km plus and guaranteed 5yrs.

For what it's worth, I've got a Kinlin XR26T built into a XT 785 (1.5w) centrelock on my bike, because I think it rolls much easier than any other dynohub 9noticed and commented on by the wheelbuilders), except possibly the SON Deluxe. I could've had either, but like the idea that the XT is servicable and I only use headlights.”