On 3/30/2021 9:17 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, March 30, 2021 at 7:29:29 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:

snip

It's true there aren't a lot of U.S. cyclists with dyno lights. That's
mainly because there aren't a lot of U.S. cyclists who use their bikes
as anything but toys and exercise machines. There isn't the critical
mass to form a target market for a light that's always available at the
flick of a switch plus gives far better illumination than almost all
battery lights.

That's total nonsense. Pre-pandemic, I rode with dozens or hundreds of commuters every day, probably one out of thirty had a dyno -- if even that. People prefer brighter, battery powered lights. Every time I hear your story of cohorts admiring your bright light, I think WTF? I've got SP PD8 dyno hub driving a Luxos B, and its inadequate for night riding anywhere other than lighted streets. Its nice having the dyno when all else fails, but it is not a serious primary light on the roads and in the weather I ride. And yes, I ride with a battery "flasher" -- an L&M that pulses. It differentiates my solid beam from other solid beams, vis., cars and other bikes in two way facilities.

Once again, Frank is extrapolating the region where he lives onto the
entire United States.

While the U.S. is unlikely to ever rival the Netherlands in terms of the
percentage of the population that commutes by bicycle, there are regions
of the U.S. where there is a healthy number of commuters, including
Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area; even though the percentage is
pretty low, the absolute number is pretty substantial.

The expense, the relatively low output of dynamo lights, combined with
poorer street lighting of many U.S. cities compared to European cities,
and the lack (other than one) of dynamo headlights with a DRL flash
mode, are reasons why dynamo lights are not popular in the U.S..

In my area a lot of the popular bicycle routes are unlit because they
are multi-use trails along waterways and the County often doesn't allow
lighting because it can disturb wildlife. The speeds on these trails are
often low because of a lot of twists and turns so the output of a dynamo
light, already low, is even less effective.

In Europe, a lot of bicycles come from the factory with dynamo wheels
which greatly reduces the cost to the end-user. After-market accessories
will typically cost six times as much to buy versus the extra cost of
them being standard features from the factory, but for dynamo lighting
it's even worse because a dynamo hub adds only about $10 to the cost of
a bicycle, but buying an after-market dynamo wheel costs upwards of $150.

Frank also needs to understand that when dynamo lights were more popular
in the U.S. (with the bottle generators), this was a time before
rechargeable Li-Ion batteries and before high-output LEDs.

Now personally, I have dynamo wheels on several bicycles in our fleet,
and a dynamo headlights that is usually supplemented with some sort of
battery powered headlight. It's nice to be able to jump on and just ride
without worrying about a battery being charged or how long the battery
will last, and for around town, on well-lit familiar roads, it's
adequate to use only a dynamo light.

BTW, I'm very surprised that you said one out of thirty. Around here
it's probably one out of two hundred.