Best lights for Brompton

[TheDoctor]

I think Kell is concerned about being seen, rather than seeing.

 

[srw]

I think Kell is concerned about being seen, rather than seeing.

In London, which is the OP's use case, street lighting does that for you. In practice it's not a problem anyway given light leakage.

 

[ukoldschool]

I've just fitted the Brompton specific cataye rear mini which attaches to the underneath of the seat. Its tiny, but very very bright... only £20 posted from brilliant bikes, came the next day too...

https://brilliantbikes.co.uk/brompt...rompton-cateye-saddle-mounted-rear-light.html

Am still searching for a reasonably priced front solution, I think the brompton branded front cateye 400 is well overpriced at £50, and I am inspired to try and find a DIY solution using this blog as a guide, it uses the bracket that the standard reflector comes on:

https://handsonbike.blogspot.com/2017/10/brompton-m6r-cateye-volt-400-front.html

The only problem seems to be the volt 400 isnt very common, UK shops seem to stock the 400XC, which has a handlebar mount rather than the clip type on the standard 400...

 

[Kell]

It's not the lighting of the road I have a problem with, it's the being seen by your lights by other road users (cars, pedestrians, other cyclists).

Being so low down on the bike means they're hidden from direct view by pedestrians crossing between cars, or by the driver of a car you're following if you're closer than.. well, I don't know the answer to this - but I suspect it's a long way back.

And while you say you didn't notice the drag, I definitely did. It was noticeable from when they were switched off to when they were switched on on the hire bike I had for a month.

 

[berlinonaut]

And while you say you didn't notice the drag, I definitely did. It was noticeable from when they were switched off to when they were switched on on the hire bike I had for a month.

Which dynamo did this bike have? Being a hire bike I'd assume it was the (now discontiued Shimano). With this drag ist noticable, at least to sensitive persons. And then psychology comes into play: If you assume you'll notice somthing chances are that you will... However: With the SON you won't notice any drag, but it is no factory option any more and was heavily overpriced when buying it from Brompton. The new SP8 should be far better than the Shimano and worse than the SON regarding drag. I own both, a SON and a Shimano, on my Bromptons and clearly would avoid the Shimano and always buy the SON again (still available via the Schmitt dealer network far cheaper then what Brompton charged). I've a SP9 on an 20" bike - it is according to tests lighter and better than the SP8 but the SP8 should be a fair compromise: Much cheaper than the SON, possibly not as long-lasting and a bit worse in terms of drag.

Judging from the experience with one single dynamo model that you would always feel the drag is the same as judging from the experience with an el-cheapo folder that all folding bikes would be crap...

 

[Kell]

Maybe I'm just very sensitive then...

All I can say is that I hired the bike for a month to check which things I thought would and wouldn't be useful. This was around three years ago and it was one of the bikes from the Brompton Docks. No idea what was fitted, other than it was enough to put me off paying the money to get one fitted on my factory bike.

Nowhere near as bad as the last dynamo I tried which would have been way back in the 70's...but still, IMHOOC, overpriced for something which I also didn't think would end up being that useful.

 

[chriscross1966]

Modern decent dynamo lights are brilliant, the only reason I replaced the Shimano +B+M Cyo iQ on Henrietta when I did all the upgrades is because I could afford to have the SON custom built and colour-matched and the Luxos was a bit brighter....

 

[cougie uk]

+1 for the cateye light under the saddle.
Just make aurs you're not wearing a long coat that goes over it .I've seen that before...

And I wrap a couple of turns of an elastic band around the clamp after mine had slid out.

For the front you can get very flat but bright lezyne zecto lights. I have to mount mine on the left so it folds ok but it's only a matter of a few inches. The strobe light is very bright and lasts hours before needing a charge.

 

[the_mikey]

I've used Knog blinder (the square 4 led) lights successfully on the brompton, although I have added a cateye TL630 (rapid 3) to the seatpost for additional rear illumination, it works for me but then I never really go for long rides, mostly 30 mins each way either between home and the post office or home and work.

 

[confusedcyclist]

Modern hub dynamos are fantastic. Efficiency varies between models, but the SP brand is very good in my experience. I haven't had experience with the particular brompton hub, but I run a SP-PD 8 on my main commuter. I wouldn't bother switching off my lights in daylight even with the cheap DH-3N80 hub as below. 6 watts at 30 km/h is next to nothing. I expect if you tried an experiment and asked people to tell the difference between riding with lights off, lights on and without a hub dynamo altogether most riders couldn't perceive a difference. Only when you tell them they are riding with a dynamo would they say it feels like harder work. I think it might make a difference on a 140 mile stage 4 tour and other elite racing, but for a pootle to work with regular stops, slow downs and cruising along with traffic lights, congestion and wayward pedestrians, it's a no brainer. Looking at the brompton builder, there's only £70 difference between with lights and with a dynamo. I'm opting for without either, as I have a garage full of half-used lights. I may build a hub dynamo into my setup down the road.

 

[Kell]

Would it make a difference on a 16" wheel?

I could definitely feel the difference when riding a hire Brompton. I normally ride at +/- 18 mph (which converts to 28km/h)

 

[confusedcyclist]

Would it make a difference on a 16" wheel?

I could definitely feel the difference when riding a hire Brompton. I normally ride at +/- 18 mph (which converts to 28km/h)

I guess it's possible with a DIY build using the wrong hub type. A smaller wheel diameter has a smaller circumference, so for any given speed, it does more revolutions per minute. However this can be countered by using a hub specifically designed for smaller wheels and their faster rotations. You want optimise light output at lower speeds. Drag tapers off significantly after a certain threshold, with the right hub, the drag should be similar, if not identical to a 700c setup.

 

[kais01]

have several bikes and bromptons, and fitting them with dynamo wheels is just not an option. not their added weight either. nor their fiddly connectors and cables. drag? not so bad, but hardly an advantage.

and their light. its really on the spotty and weak side. there is only so much you can do with 3-6 watts. full light and effectively charging your gps or phone, forget about it.

also having the light down by the wheel is an effective means not to be noticed. and hard to reach when you wish to adjust angle or power when on the go.

so usb battery lights and quick mounts up at the handlebars has some advantages. only mounted when needed, and easy to manage.

use for street two cateye lamps, the well focussed but wide gvolt80 set for distance without blinding, and the floody volt800 angled down for nearfield. gives a total max of about 1600 lumen, about the same as a single car headlight. very rarely do i use the combination on full.

when mountanbiking on trails i use two bt40s on the bars and two at the helmet. totals about 5600 lumen.

 

[freiston]

have several bikes and bromptons, and fitting them with dynamo wheels is just not an option. not their added weight either. nor their fiddly connectors and cables. drag? not so bad, but hardly an advantage.

and their light. its really on the spotty and weak side. there is only so much you can do with 3-6 watts. full light and effectively charging your gps or phone, forget about it.

also having the light down by the wheel is an effective means not to be noticed. and hard to reach when you wish to adjust angle or power when on the go.

so usb battery lights and quick mounts up at the handlebars has some advantages. only mounted when needed, and easy to manage.

use for street two cateye lamps, the well focussed but wide gvolt80 set for distance without blinding, and the floody volt800 angled down for nearfield. gives a total max of about 1600 lumen, about the same as a single car headlight. very rarely do i use the combination on full.

when mountanbiking on trails i use two bt40s on the bars and two at the helmet. totals about 5600 lumen.

I have dynamo lighting on my tourer and how you describe the light is nothing like my experience. On group rides in the dark, others with USB/rechargeable lights have commented on how well my front lamp lights up the road compared to theirs. My front lamp is a B+M Lumotec IQ Cyo Premium T Senso Plus and is measured at 80 lux (not lumens). I have used a 1000 lumen torch mounted on the handlebars and whilst it does flood the hedgerows with light, it isn't as useful as the extremely well-shaped beam of the B+M for road use - whether that be winding single track country lanes downhill at 25mph+ or urban/suburban roads. Because of the well-shaped beam, there is no need to adjust the angle or power (I have only ever needed to do this with torch-style lights whether they be actual torches or sold as bike lights). After faffing about with battery/rechargeable lights, trying to get good illumination and going down the four-figure lumens route (whilst trying not to dazzle anyone else), my dynamo light really was a revelation - you have to experience it to realise how much superior it is to the usual offerings. I also cannot tell the difference between on, off or no dynamo when cycling.

 

[kais01]

just as lumens can be misused and give a good numerical value for a light spreading its output all around, so can lux give a high value for a rather unusable keyhole pattern.

its nice if the light has a good and wide gradient concentrating the light further away.

the gvolt80 gives a such a light pattern, with reach and intensity comparable to your b+m. both are better with some fill-in in midrange. also for safety reasons i like the redundance of two separate front lights.

have taken away the dynamo lights (with led) on two of our brommies.