Further Adventures in Dynoland

On 10/30/2014 7:08 PM, jbeattie wrote:
O.K., I went over to Clever Cycles last weekend and talked to the dyno-light guy who prescribed a B + M Lumotec IQ2 Luxos B senso plus. http://clevercycles.com/b-m-luxos-b-dynamo-headlight Don't worry about the price. He gave me a smok'n deal.

Anyway, he seemed like a smart guy, so I went with the flow and did what he told me to do. He didn't try to up-sell me to the Edelux II for many of the same reasons Andre mentioned. He thought the Cyo beam was too narrow for my purposes.

I put the light on last week and have ridden it for five nights. My initial impressions:

The good: it lights up well at low speed and has a more robust stand light than the SuperNova E3 triple. It puts more light on the road and has an really wide beam spread. It produces more light at lower speeds. The capacitor really holds a charge. If I shut the light off before it discharges, it lights right up when I return to the rack 10 hours later.

Sounds pretty good.


the bad: the beam cut-off is disturbing when I transition from a steep downhill on to trail.
This is a shot looking in the reverse direction of my travel:
http://tinyurl.com/kwnwffh
It's hard to tell, but the paved downhill is really steep, and in the
dark, with the cut off,
I can't see the bollards when I transition from the road to the trail.

It was also hard to see a pedestrian (wearing all black) and a runner when I was going up the
goat road towards the trail. Again, that is a beam cut off issue, and
it may have to do with
the positioning of the light, which is still a work in progress. Andre
mentioned that the Fly
has click stops, which would really be good for this light.

I've toyed around with the tilt (i.e. pitch) of my headlights to get
them where I think they're best. I don't think I'd have any trouble
spotting those bollards. But more practically, if I knew they were
there, I'd certainly be looking for them, and that would make a
tremendous difference.

Where do you have the headlamp mounted? Can you do trial-and-error tilt
adjustment while riding?

BTW, today I had occasion to look at my new Mazda's headlight beams,
projected against a white garage door. Yes, it has a very sharp beam
cutoff on low beams; and the high beams keep most of that beam shaping,
adding two roughly oval blobs of light aimed a bit higher.

The light does not keep up when I'm going fast downhill. It's just
not bright enough. The throw is pretty long, but it just lacks the
power of good battery light.

How fast do you descend?

My first night, I nearly got hooked about three times riding out of town.
No kidding. I thought I must be invisible. It might have been bad luck,
but just in case, I am now running my flea watt blinkie as well.
(and I admit, I miss the ability to punish inattentive motorists with my
uber-blinky on the Seca)

Do you mean right hooks? Seems to me those are affected much more by
lane position than by headlight beam. Surely, a passing motorist sees
you mostly from behind before he passes...

I can live with this light...

Well, that part's certainly good. What's happening with the Supernova?
Are you selling it? (Not that I'm interested.)

although I will have to go on a light diet. If I do any serious,
high speed descending, I'm pulling out the battery light (and riding
a different bike as well, so no big deal). I think my reaction is
about the same as anyone who has been using a high lumen battery light.
Dynos are a step backward in terms of sheer light output, and their
benefit has to be found elsewhere -- no batteries to throw away,
no recharging, etc.

Again, the main thing for me is that I just don't think about lights on
the bike, except to turn them on. They just work, in much the same way
my car lights just work. That counts for a lot in my book.

But as always, YMMV.


--
- Frank Krygowski

Frank Krygowski writes:

On 10/30/2014 7:08 PM, jbeattie wrote:
O.K., I went over to Clever Cycles last weekend and talked to the dyno-light guy who prescribed a B + M Lumotec IQ2 Luxos B senso plus. http://clevercycles.com/b-m-luxos-b-dynamo-headlight Don't worry about the price. He gave me a smok'n deal.

Anyway, he seemed like a smart guy, so I went with the flow and did what he told me to do. He didn't try to up-sell me to the Edelux II for many of the same reasons Andre mentioned. He thought the Cyo beam was too narrow for my purposes.

I put the light on last week and have ridden it for five nights. My initial impressions:

The good: it lights up well at low speed and has a more robust stand light than the SuperNova E3 triple. It puts more light on the road and has an really wide beam spread. It produces more light at lower speeds. The capacitor really holds a charge. If I shut the light off before it discharges, it lights right up when I return to the rack 10 hours later.

Sounds pretty good.


the bad: the beam cut-off is disturbing when I transition from a steep downhill on to trail.
This is a shot looking in the reverse direction of my travel:
http://tinyurl.com/kwnwffh
It's hard to tell, but the paved downhill is really steep, and in the
dark, with the cut off,
I can't see the bollards when I transition from the road to the trail.

It was also hard to see a pedestrian (wearing all black) and a runner when I was going up the
goat road towards the trail. Again, that is a beam cut off issue, and
it may have to do with
the positioning of the light, which is still a work in progress.
Andre mentioned that the Fly
has click stops, which would really be good for this light.

I've toyed around with the tilt (i.e. pitch) of my headlights to get
them where I think they're best. I don't think I'd have any trouble
spotting those bollards. But more practically, if I knew they were
there, I'd certainly be looking for them, and that would make a
tremendous difference.

A commute I did for a few years had similar bollards at the bottom of a
hill, though the hill was only about 4% and maybe a quarter mile, so
speed wasn't huge but fast enough. Occasionally the bollards would be
moved. One time they were replaced with a cable between one set. This
was invariably done during the day, so would be quite the surprise while
riding back from work, in the dark.

--
Joe Riel

On 10/30/2014 8:41 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, October 30, 2014 4:44:45 PM UTC-7, James wrote:


Hooked as in a right turner that just passed you? How is that the
headlight's fault?

If there is a connection, I think it is because a low-watt light with a beam
cut off is clearly a bicycle light and not a car head light. I think
drivers
assume that a bicycle is travelling slowly and that they can "beat" a
bicyclist
off a stop or through a turn. With a bright battery light, there is more
question as to whether the light source is a bike, motorcycle or car.

That bit about the bright battery light doesn't seem to make sense, in
the case where a motorist just passed a bicyclist. He wouldn't be
expecting that you'd somehow morphed into a car. In fact, if he was
close to right hooking you, he might not seen your headlight at all,
only your taillight and your side view as he passed.

I think prominent lane position is the best defense against right hooks.
And left crosses, for that matter.

I think motorists are more cautious when confronted with a bright light,
and of course, a bright light is more conspicuous.

This conclusion is no so much related to the near-hooks as it is to
two other cars that just pulled out in front of me for no reason.
Again, I think it is because they thought they could beat me off
the stop and in to traffic. Sure, this could all be coincidence,
but I still feel better having my fairly benign, low watt blinky as back-up.

Again, I consistently have motorists wait far longer in darkness than in
daylight. They sit and sit as I approach, instead of pulling out from
stop signs or making left turns. I'm very surprised your experiences
are so different.

--
- Frank Krygowski

On Thursday, October 30, 2014 11:08:44 PM UTC, jbeattie wrote:
O.K., I went over to Clever Cycles last weekend and talked to the dyno-light guy who prescribed a B + M Lumotec IQ2 Luxos B senso plus. http://clevercycles.com/b-m-luxos-b-dynamo-headlight Don't worry about the price. He gave me a smok'n deal.

He would need to. Whoever imports BUMM lamps to the States casts greedy eyes on your billfold!

Anyway, he seemed like a smart guy, so I went with the flow and did what he told me to do. He didn't try to up-sell me to the Edelux II for many of the same reasons Andre mentioned. He thought the Cyo beam was too narrow for my purposes.

I put the light on last week and have ridden it for five nights. My initial impressions:

The good: it lights up well at low speed and has a more robust stand light than the SuperNova E3 triple. It puts more light on the road and has an really wide beam spread. It produces more light at lower speeds. The capacitor really holds a charge. If I shut the light off before it discharges, it lights right up when I return to the rack 10 hours later.

I didn't want to say so earlier because I was waiting for the happier outcome, but, while it is perfectly satisfactory to buy an obsolete hub dynamo because essentially all hub dynamos are still stuck in the Sanyo era by the pure physics of their gibbons, with some just better built and thus more efficient, in LED lamps the advance is so fast that one of the reasons many of us put up with BUMM's **** (and you can manure a whole industrial farm with what those guys have pulled in recent years) is that at least they they stay on the cutting edge of LED lamps, or as close to it as a large industrial organization hampered on all sides by legislation can manage.

the bad: the beam cut-off is disturbing when I transition from a steep downhill on to trail. This is a shot looking in the reverse direction of my travel: http://tinyurl.com/kwnwffh It's hard to tell, but the paved downhill is really steep, and in the dark, with the cut off, I can't see the bollards when I transition from the road to the trail.

I feel for you. I have a footbridge at the bottom of a nice incline but the Cyo and the Fly just don't pick up the end-pillars and I kept losing my mirrors. (Mind you, I lost mirrors in daylight too, but in daylight I was going twice the speed, and had a success rate around 80% while at half the speed at night my success rate was under 20%. That got a bit expensive in Zefal mirrors.)

It was also hard to see a pedestrian (wearing all black) and a runner when I was going up the goat road towards the trail. Again, that is a beam cut off issue, and it may have to do with the positioning of the light, which is still a work in progress. Andre mentioned that the Fly has click stops, which would really be good for this light.

Those click stops aren't a reason to buy the Fly if you don't like the other upmarket BUMM lamps. For a start, the proper place to mount any of the European dyno lamps is the fork crown, so you're a long way from the lamp. On a busy road or a challenging surface, it may in fact be dangerous to fiddle with the lamp when you should be paying attention to the traffic or the road. I set up the proper height of the lamp for the circumstances of the ride before I leave home. A few times I've clicked the Fly in narrow lanes when a driver was coming too fast, but generally I just tilt the bike a bit to run the lamp momentarily above the door of his car as a warning that next it's right through his eyes. Most don't need a second warning; they're not malicious, they're just ignorant or careless.

The light does not keep up when I'm going fast downhill. It's just not bright enough. The throw is pretty long, but it just lacks the power of good battery light.

I'm with James here. My Cyo, even the commuter one, and the Fly, are good for fast riding on bad lanes if you don't intend to go to near the ditch or the thorny hedge. Not near bollards, either. It may be that James and I, having lived in places where there is some assumption of law*** about bicycle lamps, have different expectations from yours.

***(I'm not at all certain there are laws here, or that the police would enforce them if there were; we just arrived at a vague concord that if it has a CE mark, it is very likely legal.)

My first night, I nearly got hooked about three times riding out of town. No kidding. I thought I must be invisible. It might have been bad luck, but just in case, I am now running my flea watt blinkie as well. (and I admit, I miss the ability to punish inattentive motorists with my uber-blinky on the Seca)

I used to have a very daylight blinkie by SUNN on the bike, turned downwards at night to light me by the reflection from the road, but don't use it any more, the bike-tilting apparently working better. I also had a Catyee TL-LD1100 blinkie on the back, widely agreed to be the best of its type for many recent years, but now totally overtaken by the non-blinking BUMM Line and Philips Saferide rear lamps for brightness and attention.

I don't mind the bulk of the light (which was a problem for some people) or the fact that it is plastic. It has a good warranty, and in fact, the guy at Clever said I could bring it back if I didn't like it. I like it well enough not to want to take it back.

That's an advance. Do yourself a favour and study the ingress of cables into the lamp closely. You may want to apply a spot of tape or bathroom silicone so that you don't need to call on that warranty in the rainy season. I don't bother, but I use P65 mudguards, and rarely ride in more than a light shower by choice, a choice a commuter in Portland may not have.

I can live with this light, although I will have to go on a light diet. If I do any serious, high speed descending, I'm pulling out the battery light (and riding a different bike as well, so no big deal). I think my reaction is about the same as anyone who has been using a high lumen battery light. Dynos are a step backward in terms of sheer light output, and their benefit has to be found elsewhere -- no batteries to throw away, no recharging, etc.

Don't even whisper to the faithful that those benefits are mostly wistful thinking, the result of being fashion victims in ecology as in bicycle components. The one great benefit of a dynamo lamp, given that you can put up with its genetic shortcomings, is the convenience that it is always ready to ride, no time out for charging. But I think that is a huge, underrated benefit, mainly because most cyclists, and roadies in particular, think that anyone who isn't inconvenienced to the point of suffering by cycling isn't trying hard enough. I found a guy who hurt himself riding in from the airport on the corner by the library and brought him home to fix his bike and find him a place to stay for the night. He showed me his SON and his BUMM. He apologized for them; this was a guy with striking touring credentials, who despite being hurt intended to complete a tour of Ireland, north and south in four days... I said he needn't apologize; I was a cyclist too and wouldn't dream of owning a bike without a dynamo and a dyno lamp.

Glad to hear there was a happy ending.

Andre Jute
Tartuffe strikes again

On Thu, 30 Oct 2014 18:13:33 -0700, sms
wrote:

On 10/30/2014 5:52 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, October 30, 2014 5:14:10 PM UTC-7, JoeRiel wrote:
jbeattie writes:

O.K., I went over to Clever Cycles last weekend and talked to the
dyno-light guy who prescribed a B + M Lumotec IQ2 Luxos B senso
plus. http://clevercycles.com/b-m-luxos-b-dynamo-headlight Don't worry
about the price. He gave me a smok'n deal.
...
Nice report. I've forgotten, what brand of dynamo do you have?

--
Joe Riel

Shutter Precision PD-8. I built it on an old MA3 rim with spokes scavenged from the Cannondale OEM front wheel (that had an awful hub and was my snow stud wheel). The PD-8 was $110 on sale, which represents the total new-money investment in the power-generating end of my light folly (minus the cost of beer imbibed while building the wheel). I pitty the foo's who pay full price for a custom built dyno wheel.

There are a lot of surplus, factory built dyno wheels, that are
available at a reasonable price. Or in the case of Dahon, the dynamo
wheel they sell, with an SP hub, is not very expensive. Usually with a

Where?

Sanyo or Shimano hub though. Not a high-end wheel or dyno but good
enough for most commute bikes.

On Friday, October 31, 2014 9:47:25 AM UTC, somebody wrote:
On Thu, 30 Oct 2014 18:13:33 -0700, sms
wrote:

There are a lot of surplus, factory built dyno wheels, that are
available at a reasonable price. Or in the case of Dahon, the dynamo
wheel they sell, with an SP hub, is not very expensive. Usually with a

Where?

German Ebay every year from midsummer onwards, when the manufacturers sell off surplus wheels ordered but not built into bikes for sale. Shimano dynamo wheels from about 40 euro, Shimano sport dynamos (Ultegra level bearings) sometimes as low as 50 euro. Everybody knows about it. Hell, in years gone by, before I got bored with the mindless xenophobia on RBT, I used to post every year about the sell-off of desirable components, including dynamo wheels and lamp sets, on German Ebay.You won't get a Shutter Precision dyno wheel like Jay's that low though; it's too new and it is anyway a premium product.

Andre Jute

you need one low fork light pointed up, one bar light pointed down.

Snot rocket science.

Batts plus dyno...a dyno's not powering 2 lamps izzit. I wudna believe so reading here...

computing the available reliable data our Univac, the sheet suggests dyno powers fork lamp

On 10/31/2014 2:47 AM, somebody wrote:

Where?

I bought several from http://www.niagaracycle.com/ though I don't see
any of the factory built wheels there now.

Here are some other sources:

http://stores.ebay.com/taylorwheelscom?_dmd=2&_nkw=dynamo
http://stores.ebay.com/Intelligent-Design-Cycles

On Thursday, October 30, 2014 9:19:32 PM UTC-7, Andre Jute wrote:
On Thursday, October 30, 2014 11:08:44 PM UTC, jbeattie wrote:

snip

Glad to hear there was a happy ending.

More or less happy . . . riding home in the rain last night, I realized I was depending entirely on ambient light because I couldn't see the light from my headlamp hitting the pavement. Although it has rained every day this week, last night was the first time it had rained on my way home. It was only when I hit the hills and the relatively dark residential streets that I could see my beam. Wet blacktop with tons of light pollution is an impossible environment for a low output light.

-- Jay Beattie.

On 10/31/2014 7:22 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, October 30, 2014 9:19:32 PM UTC-7, Andre Jute wrote:
On Thursday, October 30, 2014 11:08:44 PM UTC, jbeattie wrote:

snip

Glad to hear there was a happy ending.

More or less happy . . . riding home in the rain last night, I realized I was depending entirely on ambient light because I couldn't see the light from my headlamp hitting the pavement. Although it has rained every day this week, last night was the first time it had rained on my way home. It was only when I hit the hills and the relatively dark residential streets that I could see my beam. Wet blacktop with tons of light pollution is an impossible environment for a low output light.

The Edelux II has received less than stellar reviews. See
http://swhs.home.xs4all.nl/fiets/tests/verlichting/index_en.html#Schmidt_edelux_II

What you really need is the Exposure Revo:
http://www.competitivecyclist.com/exposure-revo-dynamo-light
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/us/en/exposure-revo-dynamo-light-only/rp-prod110884