Dynamo lighting. Why and how

A few years ago I wrote a post about dynamo lighting on a budget. A few things have changed, one of which is Brexit, which means that purchasing cheap ready build wheels and lights from Germany is largely no longer an options for people in the UK. So time for an updated post. 

Why run dynamo? what's wrong with battery lights

If you're someone who just nips out on a sunny afternoon, then this probably isn't for you. If you ride all year round and cycle for transport and commuting as well as longer rides then here goes.

• Dynamo lights are always available, either at the flick of a switch or via a built in light sensor that switches them when the light levels drop. This is useful when heading through bridges, tunnels or even on a ride with lots of tree coverage
• You don't need to remember to charge them or worry about batteries dying
• They are bolted to the bike, so you don't have to take them off at end of your trip.
• They generally have a more effective and focussed light spread than a lot of battery lights which just spray light everywhere.
• On longer day rides with the right extras you can charge phones and battery packs

Oh and Dyno lights have a bit of trickery inside which keeps them on for a few minutes after you stop. This is so you still have light if waiting at a junction, and is known as a standlight.

That sounds great. How do I get it?

You need three things. A wheel with a dynamo hub, a front, light, a rear light and some cable to connect them.

For hubs there's 3 options.

• Base Shimano hubs are cheap and reliable but a bit on the heavy side. £30-40 quid
• SP are good, mid range and light. £75-£100
• Son are high end but very well engineered. £250 or so.

Decathlon sometimes have basic ready built wheels. That can be a good option if there's any in stock, otherwise it will be a case of getting an online or local shop to build you a wheel or build it yourself

If you have a Brompton, then there is a dynamo lighting kit you can buy with all the bits.

I have a Shimano hub on one bike, and an SP PV-8 hub on the other. 

A SP PV-8 before building into a wheel

The same hub built into a wheel and on the bike

As for lights. Stick with Busch & Muller. It's the most widely available brand in the UK. Axa and Spanninga are also decent quality lights. Again Son Edelux are fantastic, but expensive.

Dynamo lights are usually measured in Lux which is better than lumens. 

Lumens is the amount of light a lamp produces, but just everywhere (like a house lightbulb). 

Lux though is the light output measured onto a square metre. Most dynamo lights are made to german SvTZO standards and have directed & focussed beams. It is the focussed area of the beam which is measured in Lux

<40 lux is good in urban and lit roads.

High as you can for unlit roads and paths. Mine is 80 lux and it's superb for riding along unlit roads and tracks. 

A basic front light will cost from about £25, and a 60-80 Lux will be around £50.

My front light is a B+M Cyo Senso

For rear lights, again you won't go wrong with Busch & Muller, Axa or Spanninga .

You can get lights to fit a rear rack, seatpost, or even mudguards and stays. £20 will get you a decent light.

My rear light. A Spanninga Elips

And it on the bike and illuminated

Putting it all together

It's very simple to put all this together and make it work. the front lights are pre-wired.

You'll need some 2 core speaker/auto cable & some 2.8mm male spade connectors (Halfords calls them audio connectors) and a crimping tool if you want to make your own wiring to the rear light, or you could buy a ready made cable with connectors. Crimpers & connectors are cheap though.

1. Fit a rim tape (velox cloth is best) and tyre/tube to the wheel and fit to the bike.
2. Fit the front light to the bike.
3. The hub comes with a plug in connector remove it & push the wires in from the front light into it and plug into the hub.
4. Spin the wheel & turn on the light and bingo!
5. Measure a length of cable, and crimp male spade connectors to each core at each end ( 4 in total)
6. Connect the cable to the short tails on the front light, and to the rear light, carefully making sure you keep the polarity (+ to +. - to - )
7. Spin the front wheel, and both the front and back light should light. If the rear doesn't, then carefully check to make sure you haven't crossed the connections.
8. Once it's working fit the rear light to the bike, and secure the cable with cable ties. Electrical insulating tape will do a fine job of weatherproofing the connections.

Link to the Shimano generator fitting & wiring instruction (PDF)

This is a really comprehensive guide to dyno lights with shots of the lights in action

Review: Teentok rear cycle camera and light

I'm a big advocate for onboard cycle cameras. They're useful in capturing unusual sights as well as being useful evidence in the unpleasant event of a collision. 

They can also be used to "grass" up poor and dangerous drivers if your force acts on submissions. Drivers take notice of fixed penalties and fines. They'll have to declare any on insurance for 4 to 5 years and will likely incur an extra premium as a reminder. 

I've used a £40 Aldi rear light and camera combo (a gen 1 fly 6 clone) for over three years. It is only 720p resolution and can be a bit grainy, so I replaced it with a Teentok from eBay although Amazon have them too. If you're careful you can get them for about £110 currently.

It comes with a basic mount and a usb cable (not shown). It has a decent sized camera lens above 5 very bright red leds

On the left hand edge from the top there is a mic hole. Power button, light mode button, and a photo button. You can also see the go too mount moulding on the rear.

Right side has the microsd (not supplied) slot and a micro USB socket hidden under a snug fitting rubber flap

the supplied mount will fit a seatpost or other thick tube but is a little basic. On my bike the rackpack obscures a fair bit of the image so I purchased a saddle rail mount for a fiver from eBay. At 26g it's less than half the weight of the supplied mount 

Once fitted the camera nestles snuggly under the saddle. The fixing seem to be stainless steel. I'd recommend using unlock nuts and or threadlock. From a security perspective, it's an improvement over the Aldi cam which was secured.using a velcro strap. 

Operation is pretty straightforward. 

Press the power button to turn on. The camera will bleep twice and LEDs start flashing. Recording starts automatically and the unit will bleep a third time when it starts, but unlike the Aldi (which has a circulating led) there's no dedicated indicator.

Press the middle button to change led mode. If LEDs are off then the middle led will briefly flash every 3 minutes as a reminder that unit is on and recording.

Press and hold the bottom button to turn on the wireless network. The unit will bleep twice when it starts You can then connect computer to the camera to view and download videos and change settings. One nice touch is that you can change the ssid and the passphrase for the wireless network rather than it being hard coded into the camera.

I bought the camera at the end of January and at the time of writing hadn't had chance for more than a few short local trips, but I have done some run time testing

1. Runtime with steady light - 4 hrs

2. Runtime with no light - 6 hours 45

3. Charge time from flat - 3 hours

Sample video below

The app is called Ricam and is installable from the play store.

It's a little tough around the edges but it does work. Once connected to the camera's wireless network, set the app and click the big button on screen to connect to it.

Once connected there is a battery indicator and the usual settings gear for cog. Theres only one page. Date and time are synced from the app host 

you can also manage and download video and photos from the camera

I found that the camera was locking files so they could not be overwritten automatically. This seemed to be the collision detection being over sensitive. A quick email with the support contact included with camera and I received a new firmware file within 24 hours which has resolved the issue.

Since installing the updated firmware the app will occasionally report that the camera is not authorised. The only solution is to powecycle the camera whilst clearing the app data within Android. The app will also occasionally report that the camera is busy. The short term fix is to exit and reconnect.

Verdict

This camera seems to be good value for money and works well considering you can get one for nearly half the price of a Fly6.

It's neater than a lot of the go pro clones hand has a light built in.  If you don't want the light, then I'd recommend a Drift Ghost X for an extra £15 or so which has similar runtime and a more polished app. 

The app has a rough unfinished feel and some bugs, but I'll probably only use it occasionally for managing settings as if extracting video for submission, I'll copy to my file server for safe keeping. 

Make a difference in 2021

It's 2021, and we are once again forced into lockdown because of the pandemic and have to stay close to home. 

We should all make the most of this by exploring our local areas and doing what we can to make a difference in 2021.

Three easy and simple ways we can make a difference are

1. Report problems
2. Upload photos to online mapping sites
3. Update those online maps ourselves

1. Report problems.

When you venture out on your rides, keep an eye out for things like potholes, fly tipping. even overhanging bushes or incorrect or damaged signage, and report to local authority using fixmystreet.com

Fix my street allows you to easily take a photo and make a report online to the council. It is available as an app for your phone. You can even use it to see other issues reported.

It uses your location to know which authority to email, and take no time at all to do so. I've had responses back even on a weekend. I've used it to get;

• Abandoned vehicles moved
• Bushes cut back
• Glass swept up
• flytipping tackled

2. Upload photos to mapping sites

We're all now used to Google Streetview and Satellite mapping which can be great resources for route planning, but for most of us they, especially streetview are very road/vehicle oriented. 

As we all know cycle routes in UK vary enormously in quality and sometimes even have better, less obvious alternatives. 

cyclestreets.net has a very neat feature called photomap where you can upload photos and tag them which then appear on the map, and help others. You can give meaningful descriptions and some of the uses could be:

• Highlight busy junctions or crossings
• Signage and route guidance
• Path surface quality
• Cycle parking.

Again like Fixmystreet, there's an app which lets you browse and view as well as upload.

If you use the excellent routing and navigation from cyclestreets to plan a route, then in the desktop web browser, it inserts photos on the route into the directions.

3. Update those online maps ourselves

A lot of cycling sites which include mapping use OpenStreetMap as the base map. These include Cyclestreets, Komoot, Strava to name just 3 popular ones.

It is possible to edit those maps and add in new links as they are built.

Or add or correct existing links where maybe a path doesn't connect to the adjacent road which messes the navigation.

Enhance the data, by adding things like the surface type, path width and if it's lit or not. Certainly Cyclestreets can use that information to create better and safer routes to follow.

It's very easy to do. all you need is a web browser and to sign up to OpenStreetMap.

Cyclestreets produced a really great howto which is here