Someone on another forum selling his 2 yr old N72 dynamo wheel (36 spoke) with a rear and a Phillips Safelight for ~£150 (plus postage?) Looks like a nice deal if you wanted a dynamo setup to go! I'd get it but I'm not that flush this month, and a 2nd dynamo and light is a little extravagant for myself so close to christmas!
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Stuff
Winter Lights
(111 posts)-
Posted 11 years ago #
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Hmm, and with a dynamo hub you can enjoy a lovely dynamo tail light too. And avoid one of my pet peeves: blinding tail lights make you less safe...
Posted 11 years ago # -
I've also got a toplight plus on the back of the Brompton, superb rear light with a very effective standlight.
In slightly related news, I just took delivery of my twin "c and b seen" front (offroad) lights, woe betide the next badly adjusted/can't be bothered to dip HiD headlamp car muppet I meet (mwahahaha)(Note, I normally only use these lights off road and when no other track users are in front of me!)
Posted 11 years ago # -
I should correct my post above. The seller has two wheels (1 dynamo) and one light. Sounds a reasonable deal to me, shame I'm skint atm.
Posted 11 years ago # -
There are some great deals on fleaBay just now for new Shimano dynamo hubs built into wheels. From basic solid axle hubs to sportier N72s and N80s. Seller is a German bike shop, not one I've heard of before: Taylor Wheels. Can't beat those prices, I'd suggest! Well worth searching for 'hub dynamo' on fleaBay...
Posted 11 years ago # -
Starbike finally have the B&M Luxos 179 U in stock as of today, if anyone's interested.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Nice but pricey. I'd like the U if I didn't have the IQ cyo already.
Posted 11 years ago # -
A handy prod to finally get my review of the U out of the door
http://www.darkerside.org/2013/11/luxos-iq2-u-dynamo-headlight-review/
Excuse the dire photos :p
Posted 11 years ago # -
Good review there. The Luxos with USB is a chunky bit of kit and the first foray from Busch & Müller into a product that moves away from 'simple' dynamo lights with capicitors.
LB has fitted two of the USB ones - both for LEL. Also fitted the Luxos B which shares the same shell but with no USB charging or handlebar control. Like all B+M lights the idea is to control both front and rear lights from the headlight.Rob fitted the USB extension cable (also from Starbike) on his to get the control (with USB socket) onto his bars. Upright bikers will find there is enough cable with standard lead.
Like all B+M lights the side visibility is great - plus a beam pattern that works well. Plenty of people will find the Cyo or IQ Fly perfectly adequate. In fact even the budget B+M Lyt is not bad at all!
I'm currently using a 2nd hand SON Edelux on my recliner. Great but no side visibility as flat lens glass in a 'camera' style.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I plumped for the Fly on the grounds that SJS had knocked £35 off the price. That's getting powered by a Dave-copying Sturmey dynodrum hub and will hopefully be on the road before my front rim collapses under me. It's now on the indicator line, but not as deep into it as the back one was.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Does B&M make a 'glow ring' for the Edelux, like Lumicycle did for its halogen lights?
Posted 11 years ago # -
My C&B Seen clone arrived today and I've fitted the C&B Seen diffuser so I'll hope to give it a test tonight. Slightly worrying was it arrived with the battery fully charged, all the way from China!
It just came in an anonymous box
Lamp, battery in pouch and 2 o-rings
Head/helmet mount and charger
Battery (with £1 coin for scale)
I'll be covering the battery pack in an section of MTB inner tube for weather-proofing, and for safety's sake I'll store the battery pack in a tin away from the house, just in case.
Delivery time wasn't too bad in the end. Ordered Oct 26th and left China on Nov 5th.
Here it is on Amazon. My seller was Lerway Tech.
(sorry for oversized images from #2 onwards, I can't seem to get the resized images to save here)
Posted 11 years ago # -
While I peruse The Entire Internet for a 12V auxilliary tail light for the torpedo, I discovered that Amazon is selling this:
Ultrasport Automatic LED Safety Bike Rear Light
I know this light as the ostensibly discontinued, German-made, Infini Apollo (mentioned in the Rack lights - going continental thread) and mine has lived on my Brompton for two years now and was on my Speedmachine for two before that. It has been completely reliable and is the only AA-powered rack light I would use.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@Focus: You've taken quite a risk going for the straight Chinese import option. You might get years of trouble free use or it might pack in next month and then you're usually out of luck. For £15 they have to have cut so many corners compared to C+B Seen at £35-50.
Very sensible to keep the battery away from the house. At that price they have to be using the lowest quality unprotected 18650 cells in the battery, wouldn't surprise me if they were reclaimed laptop cells. Also if you're charger is the 2 prong one shown in the Amazon photo I would advise you to be extremely careful with charging it. It likely cost literally pennies to make and there's plenty of horror stories out there about cheap batteries and chargers.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@ allebong
Yes, I know there can be a gamble buying direct from China. As I hinted in an earlier post, it wasn't till I returned to Amazon to check my account that I realised I had ordered from overseas - Amazon don't always make that very clear if there are multiple resellers and the "featured" one isn't UK-based.
The charger is 3 pin, made in China (of course) and with a CE mark, though that could obviously be faked.
I've already made the decision that if this one causes me problems I'll plump for A C&B Seen battery pack. In fact, if I want a 2nd pack down the line, that what I'd go for anyway. I'm very aware of the dangers of poor quality batteries, and not just from "no-name" companies. I used to work in photographic retail and had a Duracell lithium battery explode in a customer's camera while it was in for repair. I don't think I ever sold a Duracell again and I try to avoid buying them myself.
As far as its operation today, I had no problems at all. It has just the 3 modes, Hi Lo and flash, which isn't as irritating as I've heard from some users. I've read that holding the power switch in when turning it on can reveal another flash mode with some of these lights but not with mine it seems.
I was able to ride with my Oakley Blue/purple iridium lens (with an orange viewing cast) and see the beam illuminating my route beautifully on Hi, and respectably on Lo. I didn't encounter other riders at a suitable point to ask about the beam coming from mine but nobody, pedestrian or cyclist, looked affected so I must have dipped it enough. It grips my bars well so I was able to twist up to illuminate further ahead when required without it slipping down again.
Posted 11 years ago # -
By the way, I may have killed the thread when I posted the photos earlier! I'm guessing that trying to edit a post too often alerts the spam filter and locks the thread. The photos are all displaying properly now, so either it cleared up once the spam alert was over, or chdot fixed it. Either way, result :-)
Posted 11 years ago # -
I just de-spammed - probably caught due to multiple links (to images) rather than editing.
You must have got size sorted OK.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Ah great, thanks.
I don't know why it was such hassle to get right. I saved the images too large on Photobucket so I reduced them there. The first photo came out fine here whilst the rest stayed too large to fully display. I then deleted them from Photobucket and reduced them in Photoshop before re-uploading them. Still only the first was the right size! It's only now they are all correct.
Posted 11 years ago # -
It's my understanding that Li-ion batteries do not like being stored without charge for any length of time, so such devices are sent out topped up.
Posted 11 years ago # -
That's certainly true but I've never had any Li-ion batteries sent to me with a full charge before*, more likely somewhere in the 15-20% range. As new Li-ions tend to increase run-times upon subsequent recharges, it ought not to be a big issue to ship them with a partial charge as long as it's sufficiently high to make the trip and still have a charge in it.
* For example, I've yet to receive a mobile phone, or a spare battery for one, with a full charge from new, and that is a much lower capacity so theoretically safer.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I had a wee accident with my front light today. It fell out of the bag onto the concrete floor in the garage and the clasp broke off. I taped it up but half-way into work it started flickering and turning off. It may be just the perennial problem with contacts (known problem with Ixon IQ) or something more tricky to resolve.
Anyway this will advance my plans for replacing it. I am thinking dynamo but this is a big investment. So here are a few queries for those in the know:
- are the electric robust? (water/vibration/time)
- is the light good enough for out of town riding?
- how to choose a hub dynamo?
- will the lights readily fit on a carbon fork with dual pivot brakes & guards?Posted 11 years ago # -
Some light reading:
http://mccraw.co.uk/hub-dynamo-friction/
http://mccraw.co.uk/dynamo-hub-weight/
Unlike hub gears, they are very reliable, possibly because it's a legal requirement on the continent (I suspect that's the main reason Shimano even started making them in the first place).
Electrically all the hubs are basically identical: 500mA fixed current source so you can mix any light with any dynamo. You can't pay more for a brighter dynamo, but you can pay more for slightly less friction while producing the same power (it's already unnoticeable even on a cheap hub, so YMMV).
Wiggle do Shimano's 3N72 and that's as much as you want to spend IMO. May be able to get it cheaper from the continental mail-order places, especially if there's a group order going in.
The quality of light all depends on the light you buy. Certainly you'll be able to get one as good as or better than the Ixon IQ.
I rode an audax earlier this year with a full carbon fork, standard dual pivot with the dynamo light on the stock manufacturer bracket on the brake bolt, seemed to work OK. You can get bar adapters for them if you prefer.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I'm only a recent convert to dynamo lights, but have to say I do like having them on the bike permanently, and not having to have a stream of charged up batteries. My first front light I think had a fault from the start, and then the standlight stopped working, but I contacted the German company I bought it from and they sent out a replacement no questions asked (Rose Bikes, superb).
The light on my B+M Lyt Senso+ (I think is the name, I'll have to check) isn't as bright as the Hope Vision 1 I had (which I'm increasingly thinking was taken at the same time as the bikes from the garage), and has a strange beam pattern (big rectangle of light, with dimmer areas to the side) but is perfectly fine for 30mph in the dark round the back of Arthur's Seat.
Dynamo, I'd say simply Shimano. There are a number on Rose Bikes and I just cruised them (asked DaveC a few times for recommendations) and picked out the best performance versus Price for me. They're nowhere near as expensive as I expected, the rear Hope hub I bought at the same time was a lot pricier.
Should be able to find a mounting option that works for you. The front light might fit behind your brake, but you could always fashion a mount for the bars. Mine is on the very front of the little front rack I have on the bike. I used the mount it came with, bodged in place with some spare bolts and a cheaply fashioned additional mount.
Once I've got the bike back running you're more than welcome to have a gander at what I've got in place (perhaps commute one evening round the bvack of the park at the same time?).
Posted 11 years ago # -
@Amir, can't answer the robust question as I've been using them less than a year, but the B&M light I put on the Brompton (Senso taglight 60 lumen iirc?) has *plenty* light for unlit paths/roads. I've got an unknown shimano hub dynamo on that (came built into the wheel) which seems to work fine.
Fitted to my "road" bike but not really used yet I have a deore xt dynohub and a Schmidt Edelux headlamp (in a moment of spendiness!), fitting to the fork crown was easy (carbon fork, mudguard and 105 caliper), if required I can probably send a photie, or one of those PY mornings I can bring one of the beasties to let people look see :-)
I don't think I'll be buying more dynamos, but that is because I already have adequate lights (and good wheelsets!) on my other bikes, were I starting from scratch I'd seriously consider modern dynamos on everything.Posted 11 years ago # -
- are the electric robust? (water/vibration/time)
Yep. Mine's been on for a year and has survived all pathmuck encountered. Apart from the original (stamped) mount breaking shortly after fitting the light has been fine with an angle bracket and hose clamps.
- is the light good enough for out of town riding?
Yep. Phillips Saferide on main bike definitely is, B&M Senso Plus (whose exact designation I'd have to check) has a smaller rectangular beam which I'd supplement with something wider if I regularly took the sparebike away from streets.
- how to choose a hub dynamo?
Look at Rose. Select a Shimano dynohub based on disc-ness of wheels and quick-release-ivity of axles.
- will the lights readily fit on a carbon fork with dual pivot brakes & guards?
Depends on how much space you have between the fork crown brake-hole and the head tube - my head tube overhangs my fork quite a bit so there was no way a standard light bracket would be able to be fitted there. You'd probably not want to hose clamp an angle bracket to a carbon fork either.Posted 11 years ago # -
We've got Shimano, SA and Shutter Precision hubs at home.
The SA one was the cheapest I think, and I can't tell whether it's on or off. The SP was most expensive and nominally more efficient, but since I already can't tell, I wouldn't like to claim I feel it's any faster.
You can pay more for SON but I don't think it's worth it for a day bike, ymmv
Posted 11 years ago # -
Just thought - I will also need a light for my MTB (which has the studded tyres). Doh!
That may make the case for dynamo uneconomic :(
Posted 11 years ago # -
May go for the Phillips Safetyride - battery driven. 80 lux
Posted 11 years ago # -
Broke a stator years ago. Wires need to be replaced on a Brompton because they get flexed. Next time I'll use Schmidt cables and see how they hold up.
I've got a spare Edelux in the garage so when the new SON XS comes out I'll get one of those for the brompton S6L. They will be available in black.
I do quite like hub generators because they just work. I also get a kick out of making my own electricity.
Unsuccessful trip to Aldi for Knog batteries. Did get cheese, chocolate digestives, chocolate, juice, fruit etc. Ohhh instant coffee but that's for the memsahib.
Posted 11 years ago #
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