scorpion recumbent trike

Erik Sandblom wrote:

Me and my wallet have also noticed that. The extra cost amounts to a
sixth of the base price of the trike. What is it about hubs that makes
people pay silly money for them?

They work, work without fuss, without noise and without perceptible
drag, and you never have to worry about your batteries ever again. Pay
once, don't faff about with your lights much ever again[1].

Why don't they sell a cheaper hub
dynamo? I read somewhere that any dynamo makes less resistance than an
incline of 1 to 1000 or something like that. Unnoticeable.

I notice the noise and inconvenience from the bottle system on my
freight bike, whatever the drag. It just isn't as nice a system in use.
For other hubs, with a single sided support as you have on a trike's
paired wheels your options start with the SON and end, errrr, with the SON.

On my hack bike, I have Reelights and a sidewall dynamo with integrated
light. It's a cheap and reliable combination, bright enough for unlit
paths, no cables, no batteries. The Reelights are silent and require no
batteries. The drag with two magnets per wheel is unnoticeable, even
when spinning the wheels with the bike upsidedown.

If this is fine for you, don't get the SON! If you find yourself using
lights a fair bit I find it unlikely you'd ever regret it. I bought the
SON setup on the Streetmachine because asking online what were the
No-Brainer options that seemed to get most response. I was impressed
enough to retrofit my hack bike with a similar setup.

Pete.

[1] I've never had a problem from wither of my SONs (one on the 'bent
tourer, one on the Brompton folder), but I have had the odd issue with
lamp wiring etc., but you can't blame the dynamo unit for that.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Den 2007-02-19 17:07:48 skrev Peter Clinch :

Erik Sandblom wrote:

Me and my wallet have also noticed that. The extra cost amounts to a
sixth of the base price of the trike. What is it about hubs that makes
people pay silly money for them?

They work, work without fuss, without noise and without perceptible
drag, and you never have to worry about your batteries ever again. Pay
once, don't faff about with your lights much ever again[1].


Hubs are great, but why the Schmidts and Rohloffs, when an Sram or Shimano
will do?


For other hubs, with a single sided support as you have on a trike's
paired wheels your options start with the SON and end, errrr, with the
SON.


I suspected this. It's also what I told myself when I got the SON Brompton.


On my hack bike, I have Reelights and a sidewall dynamo with integrated
light. It's a cheap and reliable combination, bright enough for unlit
paths, no cables, no batteries. The Reelights are silent and require no
batteries. The drag with two magnets per wheel is unnoticeable, even
when spinning the wheels with the bike upsidedown.

If this is fine for you, don't get the SON! If you find yourself using
lights a fair bit I find it unlikely you'd ever regret it. I bought the
SON setup on the Streetmachine because asking online what were the
No-Brainer options that seemed to get most response. I was impressed
enough to retrofit my hack bike with a similar setup.


I'm afraid the Reelights wouldn't fit on the Scorpion front wheel, due to
the disc brakes. I guess I could put one on the rear and use the
integrated sidewall dynamo + light on the front. I like the Reelights, so
I might make a special effort to make it work.

They work great on Bromptons though, which I found out after getting mine:
http://todd.cleverchimp.com/blog/ronb/

Erik Sandblom
--
Oil is for sissies

Den 2007-02-19 16:28:21 skrev Clive George :

"Erik Sandblom" wrote in message
newsp.tnz4auxmzubk0m@toshiba...

On my hack bike, I have Reelights and a sidewall dynamo with integrated
light. It's a cheap and reliable combination, bright enough for unlit
paths, no cables, no batteries. The Reelights are silent and require no
batteries. The drag with two magnets per wheel is unnoticeable, even
when spinning the wheels with the bike upsidedown.

I've probably got a rather better back light than you with my wired
dynamo system - cheap (homebrew) and as reliable as the dynamo (ie very
with a hub, less so with a sidewall).


The Reelights blink, so that's good or bad depending on what you want.
What they share with dynamos is that they don't require batteries, and
just like sidewall dynamos, they can become knocked out of adjustment. On
the other hand, you could argue that they are more reliable then dynamo
lights, since there are no cables. They also have the lowest drag, and are
relatively inexpensive and light (har har).

Erik Sandblom

--
Oil is for sissies

Hubs are great, but why the Schmidts and Rohloffs, when an Sram or
Shimano will do?

If you have to ask you'll never understand shakes head

Erik Sandblom wrote:

Hubs are great, but why the Schmidts and Rohloffs, when an Sram or
Shimano will do?

Becasue they *won't* do... To fit on the Scorpion a hub dynamo
needs to be a one-sided support (you can't put it in the back, no
freewheel), and SON are the only people that make one. For the
bikes in the range that's not a problem, though you're better off
with a small wheel specific unit: SON make one, Shimano don't.

Finally, there are limits to what a small outfit can reasonably
offer. If your products are basically premium then once you're
into optional extras for a minority of shipments then the SON makes
very good sense.

For the Rohloff, the point is getting something with the same range
as the 3x9 Dualdrive or derailleurs. No other hub does :-(

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Den 2007-02-19 17:43:58 skrev Erik Sandblom :

Den 2007-02-19 17:07:48 skrev Peter Clinch :

Erik Sandblom wrote:

On my hack bike, I have Reelights and a sidewall dynamo with
integrated light. It's a cheap and reliable combination, bright enough
for unlit paths, no cables, no batteries. The Reelights are silent and
require no batteries. The drag with two magnets per wheel is
unnoticeable, even when spinning the wheels with the bike upsidedown..

If this is fine for you, don't get the SON! If you find yourself using
lights a fair bit I find it unlikely you'd ever regret it. I bought
the SON setup on the Streetmachine because asking online what were the
No-Brainer options that seemed to get most response. I was impressed
enough to retrofit my hack bike with a similar setup.

I'm afraid the Reelights wouldn't fit on the Scorpion front wheel, due
to the disc brakes.


Hm, here's something called "Extended Bracket for Rolling Brakes and Disc
Brakes". I guess that means you can put the magnets and lights outside the
circumference of the disc. I'm not sure why there's no hole at the far end
for the wheel axle though.
http://shop.reelight.com/product.asp?product=51

Erik Sandblom

--
Oil is for sissies