Dynamo Lights

Insane pricey but custom colour options and usb post built in... so £125 edelux2 + £120 sinewave + integration

Used mine a bunch off road in the dark and it was fine. Did plenty of overnight rides, winter evening laps at the local trails, couple of Bearbones events etc. Good or bad conditions, never found myself wanting more light.

As with battery lights, pair dyno light with a helmet mounted light for anything fast/technical/lots of low branches (so you can point light where you want to go) or you're trying to open farm gates/negotiate styles etc.

You are probably right. Have a decent battery powered light, but finally got round to building up a spare dyno wheelset I had, just wondered if anything reasonable for use off road. Either use it or might just sell them.

I've had discussion with a dynamo light maker about fabricating a cache battery into their light. Large enough to last 2h. To deal with technical slow off road climbs.

That said, off road climbs you want a head mounted light anyway. As Andy said.

The revo is good, I like that you can swap it between bikes and also fit a battery light into the same mount.

If you have a Sinewave Beacon you can hook up the usb out to a battery and then the usb our from the battery back into the light for slow off road riding.

Current generation shimano dyno hubs, all seem to be 1.5w (alfine S701) apart from the XT and older alfine S501.
Seems mad that they are dropping the cheaper 3w hubs, and only keeping the top tiered ones at 3w.
Had the idea of putting a dyno hub on commuter bike, build it half way between commuter and mtb lite so can use the same wheel for both. But only really worth it for 3w output, as 1.5w can't see anything with that! Or have Shimano just shifted previously 3w rated hubs down to 1.5w for some obscure reason?

1.5w can't see anything with that!

Is that true though? I thought 1.5w was only a problem if you want to charge.

Yes, I had seen that. It looks good, however I do want the battery inbuilt, so I don't have to faff about.

I could buy one to try. But Exposure have been kind enough to give me lights, and if we can worth together to develop something that would be nice.

Basically this.

I've got 1.5v and 3v on different bikes, not much difference between them in terms of vision, just can't charge off the 1.5v. Recently I don't even bother doing that off the 3v anyway unless doing 600k+ rides, anything else a big Anker battery is quicker to charge and lasts long enough.

Might be nice to have it modular, run direct into light or into battery into light.
Becomes a replaceable part or an upgrade option.
Don't know how possible that would be. And another thing to mount somewhere.

But only really worth it for 3w output, as 1.5w can't see anything
with that!

The power electronics in the headlight will dictate how much light you get out. Some will reach full brightness before you get above what a 1.5 Watt hub can output, some won't.

It all depends on which light you have and how fast you're going and all sorts of other fun things.

First ride with IQ X last night. Rather amazing output for a dynamo light. Beam pattern has a nice cut off but some hot spots and shadows.

Axa Bluelines are very nice. I have had both the 30 lux and 50 lux versions - but make sure to get one with standlight!

Thanks!
Prob just get a b+m eye or something fairly basic, just to be seen and have some notice of death holes in road, rear light one of the son look a like rack mounted types.

Considered an Axa as I had a Pico for a while previously and was impressed with the illumination but in the end I grabbed a B&M Lumotec IQ Myc N Plus as they were very reasonably priced in Rose. Didn’t realise it was going to be so compact. Looking forward to getting it wired up. Not looking forward to trying to keep the wiring tidy.

Do you have a picture of it mounted?
It looks like a good little light for sure.

At some point I'd quite like a IQ-X for the commuter though, those things are BRIGHT.

Just used mine for the first time the other night. Pretty epic for a dynamo light.

Not yet but might shortly.

Nice.. I am looking forward to seeing the result of you latest painting project also!

Any front lights on the more budget side with a symmetrical lens, good for mild offgroad?

Can anyone recommend small switch for toggling between lights and USB charger? I currently have the Kemo M-172N and it works fine but is very large and unsightly.

What is your current setup? I've looked into this and never found an elegent solution for a 3 way switch. I'm guessing your front light doesn't have an on off switch?

Got my light mounted, no idea how well it works or if it’s even aimed right as all my riding is currently getting done during daylight hours. Maybe finding somewhere dark can be a mission for my next time out.

Also made myself a wee rear light mount out of stainless tubing. And treated myself to a new B&M Toplight as I’d cracked the edge of one of the
Mounting holes on my last one.

4 Attachments

Yes is does but I wanted switching before the lights

Lights: SP PL-8X > Kemo M-172N (Switch)> Son Edelux II Front and Son Post Mount Rear
or
USB: SP PL-8X > Kemo M-172N (Switch)> > cache battery > USB Device

It works well it's just that the Kemo switch is massive

I’ve just used a standard 3 way toggle switch I got from Maplin (RIP) that was designed for small electronics projects. Wired up to lights and charger and currently attached to a small battery bag under my top tube. This goes to a usb hub rather than cache battery however.

I’ve also seen variations of this method mounted into a bar end, which looked really neat. Can’t find a photo now however, but I’m sure you get the idea.