Audax rides

When the snow hit, I used home as a control with 2 different 'loops', meant I wasn't more than 50km from home, and it was all on gritted/cleared roads.

Not the best start, half way here and realised I forgot my shoes.

That's the first Audax done then, solo first 100k with 30 of it into a brutal headwind along the coast (not sure i saw over 15kph on that section), then joined another group for final 80k.
Stupidly only took day lights as I thought I'd well be done before dark (first error), then rear light failed riding through Kent lanes in pitch black, was lucky I joined others otherwise I'd have been in real trouble!
Lessons learned if there's to be more of these done

Well done.

Dynamo and spare battery lights ftw.

I used to do the lights thing all the time... "yeah I'll only have a couple of beers so I'll be back before dark... oops" so now I just carry the biggest, baddest lights I can find all the time.

I've got dynamos on three bikes now. Life's too short for charging shit.

Yeah, if I didn't have so many wheels already I'd have more dyno hubs. I love not having to think about lights.

Same happened to me last Sunday! Went and panic purchased this two days later!

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/LIMSMJ902B/magicshine-mj902b-1600-lumen-led-bicycle-light

I'm a dick, I had spares in the car and bundles of space in my frame bag to carry them!

....heads over to the Dynamo thread

This.

Wowzers, Dynamo hubs/lights aren't cheap are they.

Looks like I'm going to be charging by USB for a while!

Depends. There's cheap battery lights and there's cheap dynamo lights. If you've killed a light or killed a wheel then that's a good time to think about going the dynamo route. It's a pain if you want to swap out a perfectly functional wheel and light combo with dynamo stuff.

Actually can some bored nerd do the maths on how many miles you'd need to ride with dynamo lights to offset the electricity used to charge battery lights? I'm guess a lot.

Depends what you want, I've got one set up which is on my main Audax bike which was a bit more spendy, but I can charge stuff etc

On my fixed I got a cheap shimano wheel from Spa Cycles (circa £120) and a low cost B&M light (£30) which is good enough for night riding on roads etc

Yeah to be honest if I am going to start spending I'd want it to recharge Garmin/Phone aswell. I usually carry a battery pack with me, I guess it would just take away the need for that on a multi day tour (not that i get to do many of them anyway)

Cant be long before my fat arse kills a wheel

That said, I mainly use an Anker battery pack for charging as its way quicker than the dynamo.

Charge the battery pack off the dynamo during the day, lights at night, use the battery pack to charge phone/gps when needed.

Actually can some bored nerd do the maths on how many miles you'd need to ride with dynamo lights to offset the electricity used to charge battery lights? I'm guess a lot.

OK.

On the TCR I was typically using about half of a 10Ah battery per day for my lights. That was basically for a slow 300km ride each day.

A bit of googling tells me that it takes about .25kWh to recharge a 5Ah batttery (actual leccy needed taking into account losses, not theoretical 100% efficiency).

Electricity costs about 12p per kWh, depending on your tariff (obviously if you do it in a hotel it is free to you), or 3p for a day's lighting.

Dynamos cost lots of money. SJS says a Son Delux hub costs £180.

Assume your lights cost the same whether they are battery or dynamo (mine are actually really cheap but ignore that). Also ignore the cost of all the wire and other bits of crap that you need for a dyanmo setup. And value all the time that it takes you to faff around setting it up, and solder it and all that, at £0 per hour.

In that case, to recoup the cost of your dynamo hub, you would need to do 33.33 x 180 rides of 300km.

That is 6,000 rides or 16.4 years, riding 300km every day - or 1.8 million km in total.

Do dynamo hubs last that long?

Nice.

Whats better when they both die and you cant use either of them anymore.

Can you re-use certain parts of each again for something else? or do they both go in the ground?

You would also consider any events that resulted in lack of lights costing you money. For instance, one train journey of £13.20 might save your 1 year of riding.

Unfortunately you didn't answer the question. I just wanted to know if a battery requires 0.5kwH or whatever to charge from your home supply and that costs 2p or whatever, how far you'd need to ride to generate the same money's worth of electricity. Nothing to do with cost of either device - clearly the Li-Ions have leaked into your food supply :P

The convenience of my dynamo power is worth far more to me than £s. For that, you'd have to ask "how expensive would a dynamo setup need to be before I wouldn't use one?".

And for me 'how many lights which are not attached to my bike have I lost, broken or had stolen, prior to getting a dynamo. '

And what about the Insta points?

I’d love a dynamo, but battery pack and lights are much more in my budget. May weigh a bit more or about the same but tbh I’m by far the heaviest thing on the bike.

you'd have to ask "how expensive would a dynamo setup need to be before I wouldn't use one?

I don't know, but I reckon that if you keep riding all day every day until 2035 you can save 3p!
:)

I’d love a dynamo, but battery pack and lights are much more in my budget

This thread absolutely warps perception of how accessible dynamo lighting is. SON hubs are great, I'm sure, but they're the best. Shimano are fine and are cheap and they work - I even rode a season with a rode club on my tourer with one. B&M lights are similarly reasonable to get hold of, while edelux or whatever lights are £££

The minor, one time faff of setting up is the only reason I can think of not to dive in.

£145 SP Dynamo (- whatever normal hub costs)
£140 for Supernova Triple f&r lights

Which is a bit less than what I paid for my Exposure Six Pack Mk2.