Dyanmo headlight?

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 09:44:45 -0000, Dave Larrington <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Seeking to equip the forthcoming coming trike with serious lights inna-Audax-stylee, which is to
say powered by those "dynamo" jobbies, I ask the panel for recommendations for lights to go on the
front thereof. Thoughts so far include:

Busch & Müller Lumotec

This one is circular with a reflector ringing the lamp area.

Quoted message said:

Busch & Müller Lumotec Oval (!)

This one is oval with a reflector above the lamp area.

Quoted message said:

whatever the difference between them should happen to be, and, er, well, that's about it. Any
other thoughts welcome.

I'm sure there must be more to it than that. You can also get both in a 'plus' version which have
LED standlights, more useful for commuting than Audax perhaps. I believe they may also come in
switched versions but you can put a switch somewhere more convenient of course.

Colin
--

Dave Larrington said:

Seeking to equip the forthcoming coming trike with serious lights inna-Audax-stylee, which is to
say powered by those "dynamo" jobbies, I ask the panel for recommendations for lights to go on the
front thereof. Thoughts so far include:

Busch & Müller Lumotec Busch & Müller Lumotec Oval (!)

i've had the oval version with standlight and auto on/off (iirc, it was marketed as 'oval plus'😉 and
powered by son dynohub.

it was a fantastic light and when it died i replaced it with same.

i don't know why it died beyond the fact that the electronic jiggery-pokery contolling auto on/off
etc gave up the ghost. failure may have been related to the fact that the unit appeared to have zero
waterproofing.

howver, gave sterliong service for 18 mths, through all weathers.

Quoted message said:

whatever the difference between them should happen to be, and, er, well, that's about it. Any other
thoughts welcome.

Dave Larrington said:

Seeking to equip the forthcoming coming trike with serious lights inna-Audax-stylee, which is to
say powered by those "dynamo" jobbies, I ask the panel for recommendations for lights to go on the
front thereof. Thoughts so far include:

Busch & Müller Lumotec Busch & Müller Lumotec Oval (!)

Also consider the Bisy FL, or the Schmidt E6os if you're feeling particulary rich 😉

--
Marten

In message <[email hidden]>, Dave Larrington
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Seeking to equip the forthcoming coming trike with serious lights inna-Audax-stylee, which is to
say powered by those "dynamo" jobbies, I ask the panel for recommendations for lights to go on the
front thereof. Thoughts so far include:

Busch & Müller Lumotec Busch & Müller Lumotec Oval (!)

I like the Hella Micro lamp. In part because of it's small size.

Beam pattern is pretty good, but TBH, where I usually ride the bike I don't need it so much for
seeing as being seen.

But I think I will get a Bisy for the tourer soon which needs a new headlight. Guy rates them, and
the beam patterns here look good.:

<http://www.fa-technik.adfc.de/Komponenten/Scheinwerfer/vergleich.htm>

The SON-E6 looks nice but is expensive.
--
Chris French, Leeds

And there was some discussion on this a couple of months back:

<google.co.ukgroupsOpen ↗
k3qYX%24HW%24Mwxo%40chrisfrench.org&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dbisy%2Bgrou
p:uk.rec.cycling%2Bauthor:chris%2Bauthor:french%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3D UTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-
8%26selm%3D%2524hEk3qYX%2524HW%2524Mwxo%2540chrisfrench. org%26rnum%3D1>
--
Chris French, Leeds

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 09:44:45 -0000 someone who may be "Dave
Larrington" <[email hidden]> wrote this:-

Quoted message said:

Busch & Müller Lumotec Busch & Müller Lumotec Oval (!)

whatever the difference between them should happen to be, and, er, well, that's about it. Any other
thoughts welcome.

You can see for yourself at bumm.debumm.deOpen ↗.

--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E I will always explain revoked
keys, unless the UK government prevents me using the RIP Act 2000.

Dave Larrington said:

Seeking to equip the forthcoming coming trike with serious lights inna-Audax-stylee, which is to
say powered by those "dynamo" jobbies, I ask the panel for recommendations for lights to go on the
front thereof. Thoughts so far include:

Busch & Müller Lumotec Busch & Müller Lumotec Oval (!)

whatever the difference between them should happen to be, and, er, well, that's about it. Any
other thoughts welcome.

I've never seen an oval in the flesh, but the round one might just concievably possibly hit the
chainrings if you're mounting it on the end of the boom / bottom bracket. It's not a problem on my
slow person's bike (triple chainset, 1cm clearance); but just maybe if you're fitting a double...

I can't believe this is the real reason they make an oval version...

Can you fit a hub dynamo on the average trike?

Kit

Dave Larrington said:

Thoughts so far include: Busch & Müller Lumotec Busch & Müller Lumotec Oval (!) whatever the
difference between them should happen to be, and, er, well, that's about it. Any other
thoughts welcome.

The round Lumotec is Not Terribly Good - optically OK and works fine but after a while it starts
cutting out for no reason, which usually causes your dynamo to shut down until you stop and restart.
The inner workings are a bit flimsy.

The oval Lumotec is somewhat better, and the standlight is better as well. It will still fail, but
after a much longer time and when you fix it it stays fixed for a reasonable period.

Both give a good beam, well focused.

The Bisy has the same optics as the SON E6 (which is twice the price) and gives a much more sharply
focused beam inna letterbox stylee, which I find Most Excellent. Only problem is that they cast a
bit of light backwards due to the ring around the lamp, which gets illuminated. This is highly
visible to other road users, though.

The Bisy / SON E6 is a much better light than the Lumotec IMO, its only weakness is lack of a
standlight.

My Stinger currently has a SON-powered 12V setup with a SON E6 lamp and a round Lumotec which has
reached the pain-in-the-[censored] stage so is due to be supplanted by an oval one.

Bisy lamps can be had from www.m-gineering.nl I think.

Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
chapmancentral.demon.co.ukchapmancentral.demon.co.ukOpen ↗

In message <[email hidden]>, M-Gineering import & framebouw <"kijk maar op m-gineering.nl
als je het echt wil"@wet.en> writes

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Also consider the Bisy FL, or the Schmidt E6os if you're feeling particulary rich 😉

I take it Marten you are of the M-Gineering website and company?

I see from the site you don't accept Credit Cards now. Id there an easy way (and cheap) for someone
in the UK to purchase form you? I'm interested in Bisy lamp and they don't seem to be available at
all in the UK.
--
Chris French, Leeds

Colin Blackburn said:

I'm sure there must be more to it than that. You can also get both in a 'plus' version which have
LED standlights, more useful for commuting than Audax perhaps.

I have the round ones on the 8 and Brom, the Oval on the 'bent. The oval has a white standlight,
the round ones have an amber standlight. There is more reflector area on the round ones IIRC, but
the oval fits into some places the round won't manage so well. Both are good. The oval one looks
cooler! ;-)

Quoted message said:

I believe they may also come in switched versions but you can put a switch somewhere more
convenient of course.

Yes, or the oval (at least) comes with the sensor option, where a photocell passes a light threshold
and turns on the lights automagically. The Streetmachine has these, and though my immediate reaction
was "what a waste of technology!" I actually really like it now. There's a manual override to either
off or on on the lamp unit.

HP Vel have SON + Oval sensor plus as their top lighting setup for touring, I've not had any
arguments with that choice.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email hidden]
dundee.ac.uk~pjclinchOpen ↗

Just zis Guy said:

The round Lumotec is Not Terribly Good - optically OK and works fine but after a while it starts
cutting out for no reason, which usually causes your dynamo to shut down until you stop and
restart. The inner workings are a bit flimsy.

There is nothing in the Lumotec i can think of which would cause these symtoms, and in any case a
dynamo will not shut off. However older Lumotecs can suffer from a bad contact as the contactlip can
disengage when you adjust the angle with the mounting bolt clamped hard.

The diameter is 72mm, which is only 4 mm more than the width of a standard bracketshell. But with
wobbly feet you could hit the light on a recumbent I suppose. Whatever, don't mount any light upside
down as it destroys the beampattern

--
Marten

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 19:06:30 +0000, Just zis Guy, you know?:

Quoted message said:

The round Lumotec is Not Terribly Good - optically OK and works fine but after a while it starts
cutting out for no reason, which usually causes your dynamo to shut down until you stop and
restart. The inner workings are a bit flimsy.

Let me try to explain with my rusty school english: The problem is the contact spring, which
contacts the back of the bulb. It is clamped at the hollow rivet (where the headlamp is mounted to a
metal bracket). When you adjust the beam angle from time to time while the mounting screw is
relative tight, the rivet connection works loose and the contact spring starts to move inside the
headlamp when you turn the lamp up or down. When you turn it up, the spring gets pressed against the
back of the bulb and loosens part of its force. When you turn it back down again, the force (and
travel) of the spring might not be enough to ensure good contact.

To solve the problem: Turn the headlamp down, then loose the mounting screw, turn the headlamp to
shine up into the sky, tighten the screw again. Open the headlamp and pull the central contact
spring some millimeters to the front. Close the lamp again and adjust it to the right beam angle
coming from "too high". Try to find the perfect adjustment and don't change it any more...

The Lumotec Oval don't shows this problem, because the bulb contacts have no mechanical connections
to the outside. The BISY FL has the problem to a lesser degree. The Schmidt E6 is designed to solve
all problems of bad contacts, water intrusion, mechanical damages and inferior overvoltage
protection.

Andreas

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 11:43:52 +0000, Peter Clinch <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Colin Blackburn said:

I believe they may also come in switched versions but you can put a switch somewhere more
convenient of course.

Yes, or the oval (at least) comes with the sensor option, where a photocell passes a light
threshold and turns on the lights automagically. The Streetmachine has these, and though my
immediate reaction was "what a waste of technology!" I actually really like it now. There's a
manual override to either off or on on the lamp unit.

I have the plain unswitched oval (with standlight) as I run it off a Shimano Nexus dynamo. In this
case the sensor is in the switch unit that comes with the Shimano hub.

Colin
--

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 20:37:58 +0100, M-Gineering import & framebouw

kijk maar op m-gineering.nl als je het echt wil'@wet.en said:

There is nothing in the Lumotec i can think of which would cause these symtoms, and in any case a
dynamo will not shut off. However older Lumotecs can suffer from a bad contact as the contactlip
can disengage when you adjust the angle with the mounting bolt clamped hard.

I thought it was just me, but others have suffered exactly the same problem with the round Lumotec.
As they age the bayonet mount whereby the optics fit onto the body seems to become slack and the
contact problems are made much worse. Springing the contacts works in the oval, but I find that its
effect is very short-lived on the round.

I am not kicking the light. I had exactly the same problem when it was mounted on the wedgie. The
wedgie now has an oval, and the 'bent only has the round because I was experimenting with 12V and
didn't want to buy a new light until Iw as sure it worked.

I don't dispute the experience of others, but IME the oval is more reliable than the round, so if
buying a new Lumotec I would have the oval every time. But only if I couldn't have a Bisy or a
SON E6 ;-)

Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
chapmancentral.demon.co.ukchapmancentral.demon.co.ukOpen ↗

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 22:07:44 +0000, chris French:

Quoted message said:

Id there an easy way (and cheap) for someone in the UK to purchase form you? I'm interested in Bisy
lamp and they don't seem to be available at all in the UK.

There are only a few BISY FL left (production was stopped some years ago)... Maybe Saint John Street
Cycles still has some:

sjscycles.comvIndex.htmOpen ↗

Andreas

Thanks to all - Bisys now on order from SJSC...

--

Dave Larrington - legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uklegslarry.beerdrinkers.co.ukOpen ↗
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
bhpc.org.ukbhpc.org.ukOpen ↗
===========================================================

M-Gineering import & framebouw said:

Whatever, don't mount any light upside down as it destroys the beampattern

Both the round Lumotec and the BiSy FL used to be (are still?) available in a special version for
upside down mounting. This might also be the case for the new E6 by Schmidt. With the BiSy FL it is
possilbe to separate the reflector from the housing and turn it by 180 deg. Olaf Schultz gives a
short description on how to do this in his famous 'Gebetsmuehle' - 400 pages on bicycle lights -
all in german ;-) enhydralutris.deFahrradOpen ↗ It basically takes a screwdriver
to seperate reflector and housing without doing too much damage. The pieces might have to be glued
together afterwards if some of the small bits holding them in place were eventually destroyed in
the process. I once tried to do this on a round Lumotec. It turned out to be virtually impossible
as the reflector and housing are in very intimate contact and trying to separate them resulted in
major damage.

Guenther

"Andreas Oehler" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Let me try to explain with my rusty school english

You did a fine job, and thank you. I had already worked out the source of the problem, but from what
you say it occurs to me that where the metal components are riveted together, clamping them in a
bolt to mount the light will inevitably deform and loosen the "rivet" - so that woudl explain why it
gets worse even if you don't touch it (which I honestly don't).

I am also convinced that slack in the bayonet fitting of the reflector is an issue. But I could be
deluding myself ;-)

--
Guy
===

WARNING: may contain traces of irony. Contents may settle after posting.
chapmancentral.demon.co.ukchapmancentral.demon.co.ukOpen ↗

On Thu, 18 Dec 2003 15:06:35 +0100, Guenther Schwarz <[email hidden]>
wrote:

snip

Quoted message said:

Olaf Schultz gives a short description on how to do this in his famous 'Gebetsmuehle' - 400 pages
on bicycle lights - all in german ;-)

snip

wow. it's that sort of monomanical zeal that makes the internet worthwhile!