Dynamo lighting
===============

I have been  using battery-based lights since my return  to cycling (in
2003, i think). Yes, my first  bike ever (the Czechoslovak Sobi 20) had
the dynamo. But  if was in the 1980  and I was a child  in these times.
When I got my first "real" bike the dynamos were out of fashion.

For some reason in 2021 I  have started to investigate possibilities to
replace battery lights by dynamo-powered ones.  I even got a dynamo and
the lights but did not installed them in 2021. I actually started to do
this but failed on  the fact that my dynamo was unable  to be fitted to
the selected bike.

In mid-autumn of 2021  I have bought a Velamos mountain  bike. It was a
bike from  the same  company which  made the Sobi  20s. The  bike (from
1994) have had the dynamo and working lights. I tried to use it briefly
but it was too noisy and I thought  that the lights are too dim. I have
left them on the bike but also fitted a set of battery-powered lights.

Actually, this have became my wife's  favorite bike. To be compatible I
have to find a second one. And I found an another Velamos. Not the same
model  but  a very  similar  one  (it has  the  same  gear ranges,  the
same  wheels  but a  lot  of  minor  differences).  Of course,  it  has
dynamo-powered lights. In fact, the dynamo is of an older type. I guess
that it is the  same model that I had on my Sobi  in 1980s. As a result
of experience with  the first bike I rather fitted  battery light here,
too.

But yesterday  I have had to  use this bike  at night. If was  cold and
little windy. There was also some ice on roads. The front light battery
died in the  first half of the  ride. It was somewhere in  fields so it
wasn't  possible to  continue without  lights. So  I turned  the dynamo
on... and after a few minutes (the bulds needed some time to warm up) I
was surprised how good are these old  lights! I was able to ride safely
for the rest of the trip.

I have  been curious how  good are modern dynamo  lights. Incidentally,
today arrive the  Velogical [1] dynamo with a correct  fitting set so I
have started my  dynamo project. I have been using  my upgraded Favorit
bike (an another  Czechoslovak product) as the testing  machine. At the
moment I can only  confirm that the dynamo fits the  bike and the light
are woring when I spin the wheel. I still have to route and connect all
the cables in a proper way (not  the most of cables is hanging free). I
have noticed taht spinning dynamo makes  almost as much noise as the 30
year old one. I expected some improvements.

I  am curious  if I  will be  able to  finish this  in not  too distant
future...


References:

[1] https://www.velogical-engineering.com/dynamo/produktinformationen/