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I've got a shimano XT dynamo hub sat on my desk and a new novatec track hub. And the commuter needs a new wheelset anyway (actually, it doesn't but I fancy trying it with a fixed gear and it currently only has a single sided rear SS hub).
Option A:
B+M front and rear light and USB charging £115-£130 (IQ2 luxos U, or IQ-X and kemo charger, plus rear light)
Option B:
Exposure Sirius + TraceR bundle + kemo, charge them during daylight if I do go out for a few days ~£160
Option C:
Sell the hub, just use existing lights which last 30 hours anway, and accept the weight penalty of carrying an extra powerbank for the phone/gps. Actually about £50 'profit'.
After looking at the options, other than getting a StVZO beam of marginal benefit to commuting is there actually much point? The exposures solve the problem of being able to switch between bikes, but I've got plenty of other battery lights for that anyway. So for the £££ the benefits seems a lot less than I'd thought.
For lights, yes, totally worth it. Total freedom from chargers, battery anxiety and deciding when to switch things on and off: if you’re rolling you’re lit.
For charging, no, not unless you’re touring the middle of nowhere.
My current favourite setup is the IQ-XS plus the Secula. Probably about £50 or so for the pair from ze Germans.
If you want to sell the hub drop me a PM 😉
For commuting dynamos are the business, no need to worry about whether you've charged up the batteries though I do have a small USB rechargeable LED rear light just as backup.
For touring the answer is: it depends. A lot depends on the average speed and time you are riding. Some converter units don't start charging until you reach quite high speeds, 12km/h or so whereas others will start at 8km/h. (I don't know much about the Kemo so can't comment on that)
Touring round Brittany last year I was effectively energy neutral using a dynamo, this was eight or nine hours riding a day at moderate speeds. We didn't really have access to mains power so although it wasn't the middle of nowhere it was still nice not to have to rely on anything and being "off-grid". I'd a powerbank that I charged during the day then used that to charge the Garmin Oregon and iPhone at night. If I hadn't tried to recharge the camera I'd have been fine 😰 There's obviously a loss in charging a battery then using that to charge the batteries in a device but in practice you don't really notice it.
My current favourite setup is the IQ-XS
What's 70lux in comparison to MTB lights? Are we talking Magicshine p7, Smudge lumenator, or solarstorm levels of lumens? I was looking at the X as it's got almost 50% more lux's, but I guess the XS might work better with the kemo. Although my understanding of dynamos was you can put as much kit on them as you want, they just get harder to turn and eventually might burn out.
Got one on my pinnacle commuter. As others have said - awesome for commuting as it's always there and always works. Just means no hassle and impossible to forget your light, so if ever weather crap, finish late etc etc it's never an issue.
Can't recommend highly enough
For lights, yes, totally worth it. Total freedom from chargers, battery anxiety and deciding when to switch things on and off: if you’re rolling you’re lit.
For charging, no, not unless you’re touring the middle of nowhere.
Absolutely this.
I have two dynamo wheelsets for my Amazon. An Exposure branded SP on 700c wheels and a Shimano XT 8000 on the 650s. Both are attached to an Exposure Revo light with Redeye tail light. . I have no definitive figures but the Shimano seems to deliver a better output at low revs than the SP.
Dynamo hubs great for utility/commute, reliable and proper lights readily available for road use. Heven't tried usb charging but my impression is that is not really worth the bother unless off-grid for ages.
What’s 70lux in comparison to MTB lights? Are we talking Magicshine p7, Smudge lumenator, or solarstorm levels of lumens? I was looking at the X as it’s got almost 50% more lux’s, but I guess the XS might work better with the kemo. Although my understanding of dynamos was you can put as much kit on them as you want, they just get harder to turn and eventually might burn out.
To be honest I'm not massively familiar with MTB lights (shout out to all the old gits who did most of their night rides with a Petzl Zoom) but you need to come with a different set of expectations. MTB and road have very different lighting requirements.
Firstly, MTB lights knock out a cone of light, a symmetrical beam. This means that most of the light doesn't end up on the tarmac, and the light that does isn't ideally distributed. It's a great beam for off-road, where the terrain undulates a lot and you have obstructions from trees etc, but not on road.
On the road you not only want the light sent down to the tarmac, but you need the majority of it sent further out. You're going faster, the surface is flatter, and it's black. Sending too much light to the nearfield makes for unbalanced illumination by the time it's bounced off the road at whatever distance, and it detracts from your ability to read the road further ahead.
Quick summary of lumens vs lux: the former is the total amount of light that comes out; the latter is the intensity when projected onto a certain area. So for a given number of lumens you can scatter it over a wide area for a low lox value, or focus it more tightly for more lux.
More light (lumens or lux) is generally better, but where that light goes is hugely important for a road beam. Also note that lux is non-linear, so the differences between the quoted lux values aren't as dramatic as the number makes them appear.
What you find is that the newer lights tend (whilst having slightly more lux, which you won't notice) to have a bigger area of coverage (which you will). They use the additional lumens of newer diodes to light up more of the road. The original Cyo was 60 lux with a very narrow beam, and the 70 lux beams of the Luxos, Cyo Premium and IQ-XS don't give noticeably brighter illumination at the brightest point, but they have much, much more coverage. (FWIW I have all of these, and all of those 70 lux beams are good. I've done plenty of night miles at decent speed with the original Cyo but the beam is very restricted.)
So: don't try comparing to MTB lights; don't fret about lux differences; do obsess over the beam quality.
I've heard reports that the IQ-X is a bit strong in the nearfield, but I've not used it. I have the IQ-XS a go because it was about £35, and although I've only given it a quick whirl up the road at the weekend, it looks promising: it has the best roadside illumination of the beams above (followed by the Luxos, then the Cyo Premium). All are good as far as the "dead ahead" view is concerned.
I’ve heard reports that the IQ-X is a bit strong in the nearfield, but I’ve not used it. I have the IQ-XS a go because it was about £35, and although I’ve only given it a quick whirl up the road at the weekend, it looks promising: it has the best roadside illumination of the beams above (followed by the Luxos, then the Cyo Premium). All are good as far as the “dead ahead” view is concerned.
Seems the opposite of the few reviews I've seen, they all criticise it for being much narrower than the Luxos?
Seems the opposite of the few reviews I’ve seen, they all criticise it for being much narrower than the Luxos?
Well, they're not mutually exclusive. The Luxos is certainly wide in the far field; it'd be quite easy to have a beam which puts more in the nearfield whilst also being narrower in the far field.
It is a bit of a minefield, though: the numbers on the spec sheets are virtually useless, and even photos of the beams don't really give a great representation of things.