Author Topic: Running dynamo wire under mudguards  (Read 4081 times)

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« on: 05 May, 2020, 10:17:21 am »
What's the best way to fasten it?  Does duck tape work permanently?
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LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #1 on: 05 May, 2020, 10:26:27 am »
The French lift the rolled valence of their aluminium mudguards a little, run the wire and fold it back. That is permanent.

I taped the wire on the outside of the mudguard. Good tape on the inside will last quite a while but I doubt it is permanent, given that mud occasionally stops the wheel from turning on bridleways.
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zigzag

  • unfuckwithable
Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #2 on: 05 May, 2020, 10:59:24 am »
i think hot glue could work pretty well, if done correctly. or silicone sealant.

Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #3 on: 05 May, 2020, 11:06:42 am »
I found hot glue failed after a while, but maybe with better prep.

The main problem though is if you ever ride through sticky mud that clogs up the guard it makes a total mess and ends up applying a lot of force to the wire. I’d think liberally applied duct tape could work ok.

zigzag

  • unfuckwithable
Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #4 on: 05 May, 2020, 11:31:10 am »
who would be daft enough to ride in thick mud with full mudguards? ;D

(some may have found themselves in such situation and learnt the lesson)

Paul Smith SRCC

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Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #5 on: 05 May, 2020, 11:39:23 am »
What's the best way to fasten it?  Does duck tape work permanently?
Assume running the wire along one of the stays is not viable?

Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #6 on: 05 May, 2020, 11:46:47 am »
I wouldn't do it.
Leave aside the issue of mud (frequently a problem for me on country roads) and consider what happens if your tyre picks up a stone. It might well (depending on clearance) scrape the mudguard. If you have a wire there, the stone is going to damage the wire.
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Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #7 on: 05 May, 2020, 11:50:21 am »
who would be daft enough to ride in thick mud with full mudguards? ;D

(some may have found themselves in such situation and learnt the lesson)

It’s a hazard inherent to sharing an island with chuffing Sustrans.

bludger

  • Randonneur and bargain hunter
Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #8 on: 05 May, 2020, 11:56:36 am »
Could one feasibly run a dynamo through an outer brake cable? Never looked into these sorts of things being a battery bunny personally.
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Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #9 on: 05 May, 2020, 12:15:02 pm »
Run the cable up the mudguard stay. You can put it on the inside so you can’t see it.


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Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #10 on: 05 May, 2020, 12:19:16 pm »
SKS used to make a kit to do this - a plastic tube with small plastic clips to attach it under the mudguard edge.  No idea if it's still available in the UK or at all.

I've never really found a realistic satisfactory solution to the rear light problem.  I want dynamo rear lights and I don't want wiring so I remain eternally conflicted. The internal cabling route through fork, brass ring in headtube and through frame is only available via an expensive custom frame and rear hub dynamos only exist in a historical SA world.

Kim

  • Timelord
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Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #11 on: 05 May, 2020, 12:31:47 pm »
i think hot glue could work pretty well, if done correctly. or silicone sealant.

Hot glue doesn't usually like being wet for prolonged periods, though the hair guard I molished for the Red Baron out of Correx and Techbond 261 seems to have survived a couple of years of (mostly) fair weather cycling.

Kim

  • Timelord
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Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #12 on: 05 May, 2020, 12:37:36 pm »
SKS used to make a kit to do this - a plastic tube with small plastic clips to attach it under the mudguard edge.  No idea if it's still available in the UK or at all.

Hm, wonder if you could use some car door edge trim (as commonly used on hardshell seats) to hold a wire along the edge of a mudguard?


Quote
I've never really found a realistic satisfactory solution to the rear light problem.

I think it's called luggage racks.


Quote
I want dynamo rear lights and I don't want wiring so I remain eternally conflicted. The internal cabling route through fork, brass ring in headtube and through frame is only available via an expensive custom frame and rear hub dynamos only exist in a historical SA world.

I don't really see why electrical wiring is aesthetically worse that bowden cables or hydraulic hose.  Using a nice-looking flexible round profile cable (none of that stripey bell-wire B&M supply) certainly helps.  YMMV.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #13 on: 05 May, 2020, 12:56:43 pm »
Mine runs from the bottom bracket over the outside of the mudguard, then down the seat stay and up a mudguard stay, thus amalgamating the various routes already mentioned in order to annoy everyone equally.  ;)

Ideally it would run along the top tube if I were starting it now – probably – but for historical reasons it doesn't.

Quote
I've never really found a realistic satisfactory solution to the rear light problem.

I think it's called luggage racks.
But a luggage rack is simply a useful place to attach a rear light. It doesn't actually provide a route for the wiring from the front hub, apart from the last couple of dozen cms; the same choices of (assuming a gnuprite) top v down, straight v curled, stays v guards, etc, still apply.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #14 on: 05 May, 2020, 02:24:06 pm »
Mine runs from the bottom bracket over the outside of the mudguard, then down the seat stay and up a mudguard stay, thus amalgamating the various routes already mentioned in order to annoy everyone equally.  ;)

Ideally it would run along the top tube if I were starting it now – probably – but for historical reasons it doesn't.

Quote
I've never really found a realistic satisfactory solution to the rear light problem.

I think it's called luggage racks.
But a luggage rack is simply a useful place to attach a rear light. It doesn't actually provide a route for the wiring from the front hub, apart from the last couple of dozen cms; the same choices of (assuming a gnuprite) top v down, straight v curled, stays v guards, etc, still apply.


Yes, my least worst rear wiring solution (and I think I've tried them all) is wound round the fork leg to the front light, a wound coil to get to the down tube flexibly, down the down tube, under the BB, along the chain stay and up a mg stay to the rack or mg (covered in that spiral plastic.  It's not the aesthetics that bothers me much it's the clutter and the fragility.

Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #15 on: 05 May, 2020, 02:43:17 pm »
The French lift the rolled valence of their aluminium mudguards a little, run the wire and fold it back. That is permanent.


That's what that well-known Frenchman, Richard Hallett, did for me on the Black Hallett tourer. 

On the other bikes, with plastic mudguards, it runs under shrink-tubing along a stay.

Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #16 on: 05 May, 2020, 02:50:47 pm »
clutter and fragility...  it is forever  the same conflict whenever there is anything added to a bike.

FWIW  with dynamo wiring I think  it is often neatness - which favours hidden wiring-  vs repairability, which doesn't.

On a  bike with a rear disc brake (hose or full outer) the dynamo cable can be routed alongside the brake stuff, as far as the rear hub.  One neat method of securing the dynamo cable to a mudguard stay is to use electrical heat shrink insulation.  Black mudguard stays, anyone...?  I have also considered making one mudguard stay from a thin-walled tube and routing the wire up that instead, but thus far it has been 'one faff beyond' and I have not pursued it.

On a bike without a rear carrier fitted, with rim brakes, mounting the dynamo light high up on the seat stays allows the cable to be run alongside the brake cable, leaving very little exposed wire to worry about.

[edit; I see that others use the heat shrink approach too.]

cheers

Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #17 on: 05 May, 2020, 02:56:00 pm »
Heat shrink on mudguard stays! That’s utterly brilliant. But you’ve given me a project now. Grrrr.


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rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #18 on: 05 May, 2020, 03:02:28 pm »
This is only going as far as the seatstay bridge.  No rack.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #19 on: 05 May, 2020, 09:51:20 pm »
Mine run beneath the BB, zip-tied along the LH stay, twisted casually round the mudguard stay straight to the light.  Been trouble-free for years.

Recently bought a Brightside helmet-mounted USB charging light as back-up.  New tech.  The mount is a bit fiddly but it's very bright
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Zed43

  • prefers UK hills over Dutch mountains
Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #20 on: 06 May, 2020, 02:21:27 pm »
On one bike I have a battery operated version of the B+M Secula mounted on the mudguard, the batteries (2 AA) seems to last forever even if B+M only claims 20 hours. On another bike I have the dynamo powered Secula, running the wire through the down tube and right chainstay and then along the mudguard stay; this last bit entirely inside a piece of black heat shrink material. Nice and tidy.

Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #21 on: 06 May, 2020, 05:56:21 pm »
who would be daft enough to ride in thick mud with full mudguards? ;D

(some may have found themselves in such situation and learnt the lesson)

I’ve had wheels brakes by the ‘mud’ collected on the inside of ‘guards whilst riding some of Yorkshire’s finest ‘roads’

WOT

Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #22 on: 06 May, 2020, 07:59:48 pm »
SKS make a version with a conduit built in for routing this wire. Have not tried it myself.

Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #23 on: 06 May, 2020, 08:32:03 pm »
SKS make a version with a conduit built in for routing this wire. Have not tried it myself.

not heard of that before. The magic words are 'Bluemels cable tunnel' in SKS-ese;  45mm and 53mm widths are made

https://www.sks-germany.com/en/products/bluemels-cable-tunnel-28-45-black-set/

However the instructions don't mention the cable tunnel.
http://ru.sks-germany.com/doc/11187-manual.pdf

Whatever it is like, it has got to be an improvement over the corrosion experiment that was the previous offering, whereby the rear light was (briefly, IME) connected via the aluminium strip in the rear mudguard.

cheers

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Running dynamo wire under mudguards
« Reply #24 on: 06 May, 2020, 08:42:41 pm »
Whatever it is like, it has got to be an improvement over the corrosion experiment that was the previous offering, whereby the rear light was (briefly, IME) connected via the aluminium strip in the rear mudguard.

I've seen off-the-shelf e-bikes (so DC powered lights) using that and wondered...   :hand: