On 2011-10-24, terryc (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
thefathippy wrote:

hehe - I went with batteries (and making my own lightsets) after being
done faffing about with dynamos!

To be fair, it was a long time ago, and I'm sure they're better now,
but I was getting less light than a burnt match going uphills,
BTDT

and blowing bulbs going downhills.

Zener diodes.
Some of the better lights actually had them built in.

Which was what partly sucked about older dynamos. The reason they
sucked so much kinetic energy out of the system was because the faster
you went, the more the zener had to sink. Mind you, it eventually
blows too.

I'm sure the new ones would be switchmode current supplies.

--
TimC
Some of us here are sysadmins, and network admins, and even Windows
admins. Clubbing baby harp seals would a socially acceptable step
*up*. -- butting on ARK