Technical > Lighting and Electronics

Dynamo lighting recommendations please

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Oldboybob:
Very detailed and useful advice.

Thank you to all, I shall make my decision and post pictures up when set up.

Thanks again!

PH:
Another thing you might consider is whether the technology has reached it's peak.  As martinf says there's little difference in output between the top rung and those a step or two down, the differences are in the build quality which is likely to improve the chances of longevity.
I've changed lights four times in the last 25 years, each time replacing working lights with better.  SON twin halogens - Supernove E3 - Edelux - Edelux II (The IQ-X was an addition rather than a replacement) Each time I've been impressed with the new light, until something better came along. I bought a Edelux II for a new build, then each time I went back to the bike with the original Edelux the difference was noticeable enough that I replaced it.
In short, I bought lights, at a premium, on the basis that they'd last a lifetime, then have only kept them on average six years!

martinf:

--- Quote from: PH on November 06, 2021, 10:06:51 am ---there's little difference in output between the top rung and those a step or two down, the differences are in the build quality which is likely to improve the chances of longevity.
--- End quote ---

Maybe. I currently have 10 Cyos in service on the various family bikes. So far (touch wood, I said something similar about Supreme tyres on Tuesday and had one fail the day after...) I haven't had one fail, and I have had some of them longer than the Edelux, which did finally fail.

In the past I have sometimes had front lamps damaged when using trains or other transport, or vandalised when leaving a utility bike parked, though not in the past 20 years or so. Which is also a reason I tend not to get the most expensive model.

mickeg:
Regarding how fast light technology is changing, above I said:


--- Quote from: mickeg on November 05, 2021, 04:42:19 pm ---...  They now rate the IQ-XS at 80 lux, mine was rated at 70 so the internals might be different now.

--- End quote ---

And I found that I had saved the light pattern from the 70 lux IQ-XS to my hard drive from their website.  First attachment.

Their website shows the light pattern for their 80 lux version, at this link:
https://www.bumm.de/files/Produkte/Lichtbild-Busch+Mueller-80-Lux.jpg

I think their 80 lux light pattern is much better than their 70 lux pattern.  I am not going to go out and buy new lights, but this does suggest that whatever you buy today, in a few years there will probably be something much nicer out there.

For my own use when it comes to personal computers, I have usually bought ones that were a year or two behind the current best ones.  While that meant my computers were usually a bit slower and a bit less memory than the latest ones out there, I did save a lot of money in the process as each upgrade was a lot cheaper.

Second attachment, how many of you remember the original D Lumotec oval light?  I have one on my errand bike.  I am not sure if this was the first LED light for dynohubs or not, but it might have been.  But I only use this one on well light residential streets, I use it more as a to-be-seen light, not so much to see with it.

Andre Jute:
+1 for the B&M Cyo and the Cateye LD1100 if you can still find it. I have had the two first Cyo models (one long range without reflector, one wide cast with reflector, the latter superior unless you're a speed merchant and have ultra-good eyes) for a dozen years or more, and a whole row of the Cateye LD1100, which can be ruined when the battery cap, which contains two of the LEDs, falls off on the road and is lost -- I now secure the cap with a tie wrap between the rows of LED lenses. The LD1100 are expensive but there is nothing as good, so I keep making the effort to find them and spending the money.

All my bikes have racks, and of the dyno taillights on these, the best from a safety perspective is without question the B&M Line Plus, which I supplement with the flashing modes of the LD1100 -- photo in action at the bottom of the page here:
http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLINGbuildingpedelec5.html
At the front I supplement the Cyo with a small German-branded Chinese torch that appears to have fallen off a truck in China, because none of the B&M lamps have flashing modes. The torch is also good in the daytime, besides making me more noticeable, when I judge some driver is closing too fast from the front on a lane I know from experience is too narrow for us to pass without accident unless both are crawling: I turn the torch on the fish mouth mount directly onto the closing car's windscreen. Never fails to slow even the most obstreperous of the immigrants in their first cars. (I wouldn't advise you to do it on tour, though; German police, for instance, take a very narrow view of flashing lamps, almost as if they want a monopoly on them.) At night I turn the fish mouth to direct the flashing white torch onto the road, from where it reflects more than enough light to draw attention not only to the bicycle signature of a flashing lamp but also to the cycle and the cyclist. The torch also has two steady modes of different intensity, one intense, the other weaker to stretch out the use of the lipo battery, so it can serve as an emergency lamp, but none of my B&M lamps have failed, nor any of my Shimano and SON dynamos. For a tenner and free delivery from Aliexpress the torch is a bargain, which none of the B&M lamps are.

Be careful in choosing your B&M lamp. Further to the warning already given above, B&M can be a bit careless with the description "IQ", which describes the reverse reflector which mounts the LED in the CYO, which fathered a whole family of IQ lamps, of which some are brilliant and have been recommended above by name, and at least one is crap, decent enough on first sight for the amount and reach of its light and its versatility (it works with electric bikes) but impossible to live with because of its migraine-inducing hotspot. See http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLINGbuildingpedelec6.html
for hotspot photos of the B&M Fly E which I'd definitely advise you to give a big miss. Some of the CYO sequential series haven't been as good as the original ones I'm enthusiastic about above (and even so I'm much more enthusiastic about the one with with the R in the name and the reflector), so check if you buy NOS stock at a big discount that you're getting the good ones.

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