On 2/7/2018 10:22 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, February 6, 2018 at 7:16:12 PM UTC-8, John B. wrote:
On Tue, 6 Feb 2018 21:56:16 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 2/6/2018 1:52 PM, sms wrote:
My wife's Lezyne Deca 1500XXL stopped taking a charge, at all. Taking it
apart, I saw that the batteries were made in July 2015. Not too good for
it to stop working that soon.

Some of my bikes have dynamos that are 30 years old. They just keep
going and going and going...

And I doubt that your generators cost $150 ($180 with a box) either
:-)

My generator and light cost almost five times the price of my little L&M Urban 800 all-in-one, which produces more light. Hub was $110 on sale at Western Bikeworks (SP PD8), and the Luxos B was around $120 OTC from Clever Cycles in Portland. Throw in time for building front wheel. I got the all in one on sale for around $45.

Hub dynos can be a significant expense, but they are not the only
choice. One does not always need their advantages.

My touring bike and our tandem have bottle dynos with good B&M
headlights. Those bottle dynos were free, decades ago. The one on my
touring bike is occasionally starting to rattle a bit (I think a bearing
is going) but it's usually perfect. When I get annoyed enough, I'll
replace it with another free one from my junk box.

My wife's touring bike and two of our folding bikes have roller dynos.
They work especially well for folders because they are compact and well
protected. I bought one of those roller units brand new in about 1979. I
think another was bought used, and I know one was given to me. So
overall, my dyno expenses are minimal.

Granted, bottle dynos might slip in heavy rain if not well adjusted.
Rollers will slip in mud. But those shortcomings are unimportant to most
cyclists.

Jay, I think your riding conditions are at the far right of some bell
curve. You do fast sport riding over long distances, you commute almost
every day in all weather, you commute over tough hills and dirt paths,
you ride in dense traffic, you maintain a stable of bikes...

Very few cyclists do all those things. Very few really need the high
efficiency and extreme reliability of a hub dyno. Very few need
multi-hundred-lumen headlights. I think almost all cyclists would do
fine with an old-tech dyno and a good (not top-of-the-line) B&M
headlight. It wouldn't cost them an arm and a leg.

And it wouldn't require hacker-style electronic repair in three years.


--
- Frank Krygowski