Non Hub Dynamos

[Tommyp27]

Right now I dont know if I can realisticly afford a hub dynamo. What do people think of the magnetic and friction versions out there?

[rogerzilla]

What's your budget?  Old model Shimano 3N72 hubs can be very cheap and are as good as anything.

https://www.taylor-wheels.com/shimano-bicycle-sport-hub-dynamo-dh-3n72al-36-hole-black-quick-release-hub?sPartner=goo?utm_source=web&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google&number=68181132&sPartner=GoogleCPC

[Kim]

Had a bottle dynamo on barakta's trike before it went electric.  Works fine with modern lighting, but a tyre with a dynamo track is needed to prevent slippage when things get wet and muddy.  The noise is mildly irksome (probably more so on the front of an upright than the back of a recumbent).

[LittleWheelsandBig]

What do you want the dynamo to do and what sort of bike do you want to fit it to?

[quixoticgeek]

If you're just looking to be legal, then the REE lights from Denmark are brilliant.

https://onelesscar.life/collections/lights

J

[Tommyp27]

What do you want the dynamo to do and what sort of bike do you want to fit it to?

Be safe enough getting to and from 200s, poss for doing 300s in the darker months of the calender and for commuting on at 0530 in the morning.

It'd be going on what's currently my only bike- a Roberts Clubman (Audax model, but with cantis), but maybe swappable to my fixed when that's running.

Eventually intending to run a custom 650b, which will have a proper hub dynamo. 

[Lightning Phil]

What's your budget?  Old model Shimano 3N72 hubs can be very cheap and are as good as anything.

https://www.taylor-wheels.com/shimano-bicycle-sport-hub-dynamo-dh-3n72al-36-hole-black-quick-release-hub?sPartner=goo?utm_source=web&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google&number=68181132&sPartner=GoogleCPC

That is excellent value. I run a Shimano Dynamo hub on my recumbent with a B&M CYO premium. I’ve been able to service the bearings both sides (carefully) after I rode through a deeper than I thought flood. This past winter.

Used on dark lanes overnight on a few audaxes and does the job.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Most tyre-driven dynamos aren't up for that sort of mileage and most of the ones that are, aren't cheap.

The magnetic-driven ones are good 'to be seen' but not otherwise.

I would build up a cheap dynohub with a decent dyno headlight in your circumstances. If I wasn't regularly commuting in the dark, I would probably go with a decent battery light for brevets.

[drossall]

I used decent-quality tyre-driven dynamos - Nordlicht 2000 - for commuting for years. Only stopped because I stopped commuting to that place. I found them very reliable. The point of course was never having to think about lights being ready.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

The Nordlicht doesn’t exist any more.

[Tim Hall]

Had a bottle dynamo on barakta's trike before it went electric.  Works fine with modern lighting, but a tyre with a dynamo track is needed to prevent slippage when things get wet and muddy.  The noise is mildly irksome (probably more so on the front of an upright than the back of a recumbent).

(thread drift)
Ooh, does it? That's good to know. Last night for the first tine in ages, I used the bottle dynamo and incandescent front lamp on the pino. Underwhelming at best. I'll have a poke around for a not too expensive LED option.

[Kim]

Had a bottle dynamo on barakta's trike before it went electric.  Works fine with modern lighting, but a tyre with a dynamo track is needed to prevent slippage when things get wet and muddy.  The noise is mildly irksome (probably more so on the front of an upright than the back of a recumbent).

(thread drift)
Ooh, does it? That's good to know. Last night for the first tine in ages, I used the bottle dynamo and incandescent front lamp on the pino. Underwhelming at best. I'll have a poke around for a not too expensive LED option.

It's a B&M dynamo driving an original Cyo and a pair of Spanninga Pixeos.  Seems fine.

[grams]

I have a proper vintage Soubitez bottle dynamo driving LED lights. Due to LED lights being designed to electrically emulate their incandescent ancestors it all works fine. I'm using the frame for the return and all.

The whine gets annoying after an hour or two though.

[Von Broad]

I used a B&M bottle dynamo to run a front light on 2015 PBP qualifiers and the main ride [ mainly because I couldn't be bothered to build a new dedicated 406 wheel and discard the rather nice Hope disc hub I've been using on the recumbent for some time].

Slippage can be an issue sometimes, as mentioned, especially when wet - so I tried something a bit different. I filed a shallow groove round the wheel of the B&M, pulled a rubber grommet [the ones that sparkey's use to protect cables in a flush box], over to wheel to sit in that channel and ran the dynamo on the actual metal rim [which I'd roughed up with some sandpaper to facilitate a bit of friction against the rubber grommet].

I worked real good - effective and quiet. The rubber grommets are obviously sacrificial - but I'd get round a night ride on a new one without a problem.

If I was to do that again, I'd make a different kind of mounting system for the dynamo, with a finely tuned adjustment system built in.........somehow.

[andrew_s]

Like others, I would recommend using a dynohub wheel.
The likes of Taylor Wheels or Decathlon will sell you a perfectly adequate wheel for around £50-£55.

Tyre-driven dynamos are going the way of the dodo.
The only decent tyre dynamo that is still actually available to buy is the Axa HR (£20-£25).

Tyre dynamos need to run on actual rubber, which means that you can't use a fast tyre without some sort of bodge to either have the dynamo run on the edge of the tyre tread, or on the rim. The extra drag of a tyre with a proper dynamo track will considerably more than the lights-off drag of even a basic dynohub. If you run a tyre dynamo on the side of a lightweight skinwall tyre, there's a risk of killing the tyre.
Back in the day, I used to use a roller/BB dynamo specifically to allow the use of fast tyres, despite them only lasting a year or two, the BB area being just about the muckiest place there is on a bike. Roller dynamos have been unavailable for knocking on 10 years.

[rogerzilla]

Out of interest (this should probably be in its own thread) I compared the weight of two comparable front lighting systems for the Brompton.

SV-8 dynamo hub and B&M IQ-XS light (70 lux) is 146g heavier than a standard front wheel and a B&M Ixon IQ (80 lux, but IME not actually as bright as the IQ-XS).  The battery light had 4 x AA 2000mAh cells in it; higher capacity cells would narrow the difference in weight.

The difference is already small but, if you wire up a rear dynamo light (which I'm not doing on the Brompton), the difference is just about wiped out.  Rear dynamo lights weigh very little compared to battery ones, at least the battery ones that will last all night.

[drossall]

I may be one of the few people with a (tyre) dynamo on my Zwift bike - bit pointless because Zwift provides lights when it gets dark

(Because I'm using my old commuting machine.)

[L CC]

I may be one of the few people with a (tyre) dynamo on my Zwift bike - bit pointless because Zwift provides lights when it gets dark

(Because I'm using my old commuting machine.)

Is that more pointless than my hub dynamo and rear mudguard for a wheel-on trainer?

[rogerzilla]

I may be one of the few people with a (tyre) dynamo on my Zwift bike - bit pointless because Zwift provides lights when it gets dark

(Because I'm using my old commuting machine.)

Is that more pointless than my hub dynamo and rear mudguard for a wheel-on trainer?

Depends how dark and mucky your pain cave is.

[drossall]

Oh I've got a rear mudguard too (it's also a wheel-on trainer). And a carrier rack.

[Frank9755]

There are two modern rim dynamos.  The Velogical rim dynamo is a really interesting piece of kit that I've considered buying in the past, but never quite done so.

http://www.velogical-engineering.com/velogical-rim-dynamo---standard-bicycle-dynamo---smooth-running-lightweight-efficient

There is another one, called Pedalcell.  See here for article on them:

https://www.cyclingabout.com/rim-dynamos-can-now-generate-more-power-than-hub-dynamos/

[drossall]

Interesting that they really are rim dynamos, whereas the Nordlicht and most other previous ones were actually tyre dynamos. No-one would have thought to try to run a dynamo on the rim in earlier years, surely, owing to lack of grip?

[tatanab]

No-one would have thought to try to run a dynamo on the rim in earlier years, surely, owing to lack of grip?

Except perhaps in the USA.  In 1998, living in Seattle, I had a frame resprayed and a few brazed features added.  I asked for a dynamo mount on the fork blade, expecting a long slotted item as seen on European frames.  I got a single mounting hole to put the dynamo roller exactly on the rim.  I did not notice when I collected the frame, only when I rebuilt it.  I decided it wasn't worth the hassle of getting it corrected, and just made myself an extension plate.  Over the years since, I have read a number of articles from USA riders who believed that the rim was where the dynamo was intended to run.  At that time, late 90s, I think I was probably the only rider on club rides (Cascade Bicycle Club) using a dynamo of any sort.

Other non hub dynamos existed.  In the 90s there were some that fitted on the front axle and were driven by a prong that could be flipped between the spokes when needed.  There is a modern version called SunUp Eco which seems to generate 12W.

[rogerzilla]

Things I remember about bottle dynamos:

1. Noise
2. Slippage.  Cured by fitting a wire brush roller, then..
3. Rapid sidewall wear
4  My B&M 6 tended to turn itself on over bumps because the catch holding it off the tyre was crapola
5. General exposure to muck

I don't miss them.

[Frank9755]

Interesting that they really are rim dynamos, whereas the Nordlicht and most other previous ones were actually tyre dynamos. No-one would have thought to try to run a dynamo on the rim in earlier years, surely, owing to lack of grip?

I have an old Nordlicht which has a thin rubber ring.  I have never actually set it up but have always understood it was intended to go on the rim.