dynamo lights?

[Yellow Fang]

Interesting, I thought Andrew Ritchie wouldn't deal with Shimano.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

hi all,

i will be at salford school of nursing and midwifery starting march 2010. i asked the question on the nursing forum and was told that humping the brommie from class to class was a no no. i do sometimes hump it around at burnley campus at the moment but it is easier to fold and stick a kryptonite thru the package. the cycle stands are outside but inside a secure carpark with security guards.

the reason i am thinking of dynamo's is 2 fold.

1. sick of taking lights on / off and carrying them around.
2. like yesterday, the hope light was switched on by accident inside the bag and flattened the battery. no big deal as i'm only commuting 10 miles at moment so wife picked me up. it would be a big deal from salford at rush hour.

another point, i use the hope led as it's the only light i have but i commute thru country roads and like to see all. BUT the hope has li-on batteriies which only have so many charge cycles and the battery pack are not cheap. brompton do do dynamoes for the brommies but i've heard that they are not brilliant

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

major,

the hope is quick release, but the battery pack have a velcro strap which is a pain. don't get me wrong it doesn't take that long but it's just another fiddlly bit to mess with.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

hey red,
long time no speak!! uuummm, i think i'll leave it thanks, looks awful and from your review sounds awful.
what did you replace the dead lights with?

 

[Jonathan M]

hi all,

i will be at salford school of nursing and midwifery starting march 2010. i asked the question on the nursing forum and was told that humping the brommie from class to class was a no no. i do sometimes hump it around at burnley campus at the moment but it is easier to fold and stick a kryptonite thru the package. the cycle stands are outside but inside a secure carpark with security guards.

the reason i am thinking of dynamo's is 2 fold.

1. sick of taking lights on / off and carrying them around.
2. like yesterday, the hope light was switched on by accident inside the bag and flattened the battery. no big deal as i'm only commuting 10 miles at moment so wife picked me up. it would be a big deal from salford at rush hour.

another point, i use the hope led as it's the only light i have but i commute thru country roads and like to see all. BUT the hope has li-on batteriies which only have so many charge cycles and the battery pack are not cheap. brompton do do dynamoes for the brommies but i've heard that they are not brilliant

I'd wonder who is going to enforce this though? The tutors should be more arsed getting you through your placements & assignments. You might have some jobsworth guy on the front desk ("Ere! You can't bring that in 'ere!!") but equally some of it depends on the size of the facility. The nurse education centre at Aintree Hospitals has no-one on site other than nurse tutors, and when I completed my independent prescribing course there a couple of years ago I'm certain that none of the tutors could have given toss if I'd parked a Brompton in the corner of a room. Equally the bigger venues are just that - bigger. Don't forget in a common foundation you could be in an intake of maybe 50+ students, so the rooms will be roomy enough to accomodate such numbers.

 

[Duck]

I've got a shimano hub dynamo on my commuter. It's done nearly 2000 miles now in all weathers and never missed a beat. You can't really feel any extra drag either. If you can get a hub unit you won't regret it.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

I had the Brompton tyre dynamo and had endless grief with it. I was finally starting to make peace with it even though I really did notice the 'drag' with it on, when it went and ate itself.

I would not recommend it at all. The light isn't particularly bright, you lose quite a bit of the beam against the mudguard, I had issues with it either kicking in by itself or 'falling off' (the arm it's mounted on would work its way horizontal, which means it was no longer on the tyre). (I suspect bad fitting here, but that's another story entirely). I had three different ones (same make) fitted in under four months. The last one seemed to be OK, no kicking in or falling off...

Then it didn't work twice when I needed it to (riding home after a train trip late at night) - first time seems just to have been a loose connection, the second time the little rubber wheel on the dynamo 'ate itself'. I can only fathom that the dynamo rotation must have jammed and then the little rubber thing got worn away by the tyre, but for less than four months of summer usage this was clearly not on.

I gave up and bought Ayups! Now I just need to figure out where to mount them as it's proving a bit tricky.
(you can mount them on your helmet, apparently, which would solve your problem of removing lights from the bike so long as you then carry your helmet around...?)

 

[wafflycat]

i asked the question on the nursing forum and was told that humping the brommie from class to class was a no no.

If it's folded in a bag, who is to know it's any different from a.n.other bag carried by a student?

Edit: I can understand that you wouldn't want to be taking it round wards... but in a classroom?

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

no it's not a rule that has been set by the uni (well i don't think so) it was by a few students that are doing the course say it would be too difficult as the classes are all over the place

 

[RedBike]

hey red,
long time no speak!! uuummm, i think i'll leave it thanks, looks awful and from your review sounds awful.
what did you replace the dead lights with?

I havent replaced the dead light yet. I'm probably going for either

the Exposure race maxx
second hand Enduro maxx
or splash out on the ayups MTB kit.

 

[palinurus]

hi all,

i will be at salford school of nursing and midwifery starting march 2010. i asked the question on the nursing forum and was told that humping the brommie from class to class was a no no. i do sometimes hump it around at burnley campus at the moment but it is easier to fold and stick a kryptonite thru the package. the cycle stands are outside but inside a secure carpark with security guards.

the reason i am thinking of dynamo's is 2 fold.

1. sick of taking lights on / off and carrying them around.
2. like yesterday, the hope light was switched on by accident inside the bag and flattened the battery. no big deal as i'm only commuting 10 miles at moment so wife picked me up. it would be a big deal from salford at rush hour.

another point, i use the hope led as it's the only light i have but i commute thru country roads and like to see all. BUT the hope has li-on batteriies which only have so many charge cycles and the battery pack are not cheap. brompton do do dynamoes for the brommies but i've heard that they are not brilliant

The parking arrangements sound more secure than the usual thing, I think if I was comfortable with the arrangements I might leave it outside- I sometimes used to lock my Brompton unfolded at work but the security on site is good. Anywhere else I went I'd take it with me.

For the type of commuting you are doing a dynamo setup would probably work well. I use a hub dynamo on my (non-folding) commute bike and it is very good to free of the limitations of battery runtimes and charging, which sometimes dictated my cycle useage. It means I can take the bike out again in the evening if required without hunting around for alternative lighting if my batteries are charging.

I use rechargeables on other bikes but for the daily ride I'm pleased to have the dynamo.

 

[brokenbetty]

I just ordered a Magtenlight set: http://www.magtenlight.com/

Can't find any actual user reviews on the web so it's a bit of a pig in a poke, but I figured someone has to be first.

I'll post a review up when I get it.