Dynamo hubs?

xerxes

xerxes

Old School Grand Master
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I wasn't sure where to put this, so I'll put it in the general section.

I'm planning a trip to Amsterdam this summer and was thinking about getting a wheel with a dynamo hub to charge the phone and wondered if anyone had any experience with dynamo hubs, or the bottle type that run on the tyre for that matter.

I was looking at these fairly low cost wheels: https://www.taylor-wheels.com/bike-whee ... ack-silver. Has anyone ever tried Taylor Wheels?
 
I'd be wary of bicycle dynamos to charge an expensive phone - they are primarily designed to power light bulbs so regulation is not necessarily good - doesn't need to be for bulbs. My advice is if you are going to use one, is to charge a usb battery pack that can then be used to charge the phone - less likelihood of damage.
 
Re:

USB needs 5v DC and a dynamo puts out 6v AC, so I've already bought the bits to make one of these little doohikeys: http://www.14degrees.org/diy-bicycle-dy ... ery-packs/. You can buy them, but they are expensive for what they are and I'm a cheapskate and I have a soldering iron. :D

I was thinking of getting a battery bank too, maybe 10,000 or 15,000mah, that would charge the phone several times anyway and I would then keep that topped up while riding during the day.
 
A battery pack is probably the safest option unless your dynamo has a voltage regulator the hub dynamos generally put out 6v and the bottle ones 12v. I chose a hub dynamo for my tourer as it created fewer problems when mounting the front rack and looks better too.
 
Re:

Many years ago I used to use bottle dynamos and the sort that fit under the bottom bracket for evening winter training runs. I was never that impressed with the tyre operated dynamos; they made a annoying whining noise and you could feel the drag, but they were cheaper to run than the battery lights available at the time with dim incandescent bulbs that would only last a couple of hours.

How do modern hub dynamos compare and are the cheaper Shimano one's OK? I'm sure they're very nice but I can't really justify £200+ for a Schmidt.
 
Re:

I thought about a solar charger, but we can't guarantee sunshine, whereas we will definitely be cycling, even if it's raining.

If I were doing a long distance adventure through remote areas, lasting several weeks or months, I suppose the ideal set-up would be a power pack with a dynamo and a solar panel combined, so that the solar panel would continue to top up the power pack whilst stopped.

We will be staying in a hotel for a couple of nights during the trip, camping on the others, so I might have think about how they are spaced out. It may be that a power pack alone will be sufficient provided we charge everything on the nights we are in a hotel.
 
Popular misconception is you need sunshine for solar paneks to work.

No, just need light but obviously the more light falling on the panel, the more juice that comes out.

So unless you are cycling in the night, youll still get some benefit.

Solat backpacks fron £35 upwards.

Tbh the optimum way is to buy a heap of alkalinr batteries from pound land
 
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