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Old December 7th 17, 03:47 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
SMS
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Posts: 9,477
Default New B&M 100lux headlight.

On 12/6/2017 11:40 PM, wrote:
On Thursday, December 7, 2017 at 4:00:54 AM UTC+1, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Wed, 6 Dec 2017 06:46:01 -0800, sms
wrote:
Yes. The trade-off needs to be made. I'm sure we'd all run out and buy
a dynamo light if it was possible to build one that was adequate for
the riding conditions we experience. Unfortunately it isn't yet
possible to build such a dynamo light.


Good grief, Steven. What bull**** you spout. There are people around
the world riding pefectly contentedly all night long on bikes with
dynamo lights- and have been for decades, even before the advancements
of LEDs and computer designed mirrors and lenses.

Now, for some reason *you* don't find those satisfactory. That's fine.
But that's about you and your preferences, not about the lights
themselves.

I have several dynamo-equipped bicycles, and even the one with a
top-of-the-line dynamo light requires a battery powered light as well
for many situations.


"Top of the line" being what, specifically?

My bikes have:

(A) a B&M 3w halogen lamp powered by a Sanyo BB generator. This is the
lamp I rode across rural and urban Minnesota and France with. Worked
fine. Better in the countryside than in town, where it gets washed out
a bit by streetlights, headlights, etc. I still use it frequently on my
commuter bike, for which it works well enough in urban Minnesota. I'd
like it to be a smidge brighter. Hence:

(B) a Schmidt eDelux powered by a Schmidt SON 28. I bought this a few
years ago. Works great. The beam could be, as you and some other
critics have noted, a bit wider. It's never inconvenienced me in terms
of running into problems, just feels a little claustrophobic at 20+ mph.
Hence:

(C) a forthcoming eDelux II (if it ever gets here, for Pete's sake
shipping is slow this time of year), to be powered by a Velological
generator. Looking forward to checking this out.

Prior to A, B and C I had built a 12v headlamp using an MR16, like many
tinkerers do. It put out a lot of bright light, much of which went to
waste. Visibility was not as good as with A and definitely worse than
B. The circular beam resulted in inadequate performance. As with the
improvements with automobile headlights, bike headlights have come a
very long way from the glorified flashlights many espouse.


Tim I use a SON Delux dyno with a EdeluxII headlamp for my winter nightrides on roads. I can't understand why people consider this combination as not sufficient for road riding (off road is a different story) but I don't have the illusion that I can convince Mr Scharf as he can't convince me of using a battery powered light that I have to charge after every 2 hr ride.


For commuting, two hours is sufficient for most riders. Prior to the era
where everyone plugs in their devices at night, it might have been seen
as unrealistic to expect anyone to charge a bicycle light every couple
of days, but at least in my house, and in many houses around here, you
get home, you plug in your car, your cell phone, your tablet, and adding
a bicycle light to that mix is not unreasonable.

I do have dynamo wheels on three of my bicycles, and it's nice to have
them for short rides around town where I know the route and where there
is some infrastructure. But they aren't sufficient for a lot of
infrastructure which is mostly unlit, twisting, and with a lot of ups
and downs as it goes over and under roads, railroad tracks, and creeks.
I wish you could see the "Google Bike Expressway" on nights after DST ends.

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