Subject: Lumotec/Schmidt review Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 17:17:59 +0000 From: Myra Van Inwegen Message-Id: I've had a Schmidt hub dynamo up and running on my commuter bike (tourer) for a few months now. It is the first dynamo I've ever owned. Until I learned about hub dynamos (and the Schmidt in particular), they didn't appeal to me. They were noisy and slowed you down too much. But after hearing many good stories about the Schmidt, and seeing how much my boyfriend liked his Shimano hub dynamo, I decided to go whole hog and get the Schmidt. The hub comes in at least 32 and 36 hole versions. You can get it from the CTC in Britain (http://www.ctc.org.uk/ctc.html, £130) and Peter White Cycles (http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/lightingsystems.htm, $172) in the US. Installing the hub, once you've got it made into a wheel, is easy. The hub has two prongs sticking up out of it near the fork end. The Lumotec lamp that comes with it has a wire attached that ends in two metal sleeves that fit over the prongs. Thus it isn't grounded through the frame. If you use the dynamo to power only the front light, then no further wiring is required, just replace the 2.4W bulb (included) with a 3W bulb. The Lumotec has a standard (for dynamo lamps) socket for attaching a bracket. The most common way to mount it is to get a bracket that puts it above the front wheel. My first impression, when I got it on the bike was: so what? I have a dynamo. After all, dynamos really aren't very exciting. But as I got used to using it, I began to appreciate many things about it. First, I never have to worry about having lights. I can't forget them at home, and I don't have to take them off when I park the bike outside. I don't have to worry about batteries (about buying new ones or about recharging them). I do have a spare bulb on board at all times, taped under the saddle, so no worries about spares either. It doesn't make any noise when I use it, and I don't notice the drag when it's on. If I'm riding it and switch it on or off, I think I can feel a difference, but it's little enough that I wonder if it's my imagination. Last week I took it out for a serious lights test. My setup has the Schmidt hub dynamo powering the Lumotec front light (loaded with a 3W bulb); I use LED lights for the rear. I compared this against quite a few other lights. Before describing the results, I must say that it wasn't an ideal night for testing lights, as the moon was out and full, and there were plenty of clouds reflecting the nearby lights. So it wasn't a very dark night. First, was my boyfriend's Shimano hub dynamo powering a Soubitez front light. He normally uses a 2.4W bulb in the front light, as he has a dynamo-powered rear light. For the test we removed the bulb from his rear light and put one of my spare 3W bulbs in his front lamp. The resulting light was less useful than what I have, but I think that this is mainly a comparison between the Lumotec and Soubitez lamps: I couldn't say for sure that one setup produced more light in total than the other. The light from the Soubitez produced a beam that spread out quite a bit more (in the horizontal direction) than the Lumotec, and there were lots of vertical stripes along the sides of the main beam. The Lumotec produced a tightly concentrated beam, with very little striping above, below, or to the sides of the main beam. The Lumotec beam was more useful for illuminating the road surface, although perhaps the Soubitez beam would be better for making autos aware of your presence. Second was a Cateye Micro Halogen (Cateye HL500 II) with new batteries. This give out a wider and taller beam than the Lumotec/Schmidt setup, but much dimmer. I got the impression that there was less total light as well. It looked like it wouldn't be as useful in picking out road irregularities. I like this little light (the Cateye) a great deal, and I was surprised that it didn't measure up better against my setup. Third was a VistaLite 400 loaded with a 6W 6V bulb. This put out much more light than the Lumotec, but even when it was focussed as tightly as I could get it, it was less bright at the center than my Lumotec/Schmidt setup. With the VL400, the dimmer region away from the bright area was somewhat useful in picking out road features, and would clearly help in being seen by motorists. However, the rings in the beam made for a less pleasing beam pattern. I'm not really sure which I would prefer for general night riding on unlit roads... Fourth was a VistaLite 500 lighting head with a 10W MR-11 bulb. This was better than the Lumotec/Schmidt setup in all respects. The central area was brighter, the dimmer area off to the sides was useful in seeing what was going on at the sides of the road, and the beam was smoother and whiter than my Lumotec/Schmidt setup. -Myra VanInwegen Myra.VanInwegen@cl.cam.ac.uk http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/mvi20/bike/ GoFar MTB mag (issue 0.9 now available) http://www.gofar.demon.co.uk/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: KURT_STEVEN_J@cat.com Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 12:23:37 -0600 Message-Id: Subject: Re: Lumotec/Schmidt review > Steve Kurt asked: > > Myra, how are you handling the loss of light when stopped? > > First, my rear lights are battery-powered LEDs, so I'm visible at all > times from the rear. I don't worry about the front because I only stop > in two situations. One, at well-lit intersections, where I'm plenty > safe because the cars that are coming at me from the front are on the > other side of the road from me. Two, on unlit country roads, and I > pull off the road so no problem. > > Hmmm, I can imagine a case where I could be stopped in the middle of > the road on an unlit country road: turning right when there is a > stream of oncoming cars preventing me from turning immediately. This > hasn't happened yet (I must be honest and admit that I usually use > battery-powered lights when I go for longer rides at night), but I > hope that my neon yellow jacket with lots of Scotchlite, lots of > reflective stuff on my bike, and the reflector around the edge of the > Lumotec light, will make me visible... > > -Myra > Stopping to turn across traffic also strikes me as the worst case scenario. Waiting to cross an intersection is also a bit dicey, since the headlights of cross traffic isn't striking you. I've also noticed that I sometimes go slowly around turns when there is loose gravel in the intersection, and the light dims. This is unfortunate, because I really need to see the gravel. For these sorts of reasons, I've become fond of "standlights", or any means of providing light while stopped (or nearly stopped). I've put together a battery system that powers the light when my FER generator is stopped, and am working on an improved version to work with the Schmidt. The Lumotec Plus lamp is a simpler method of providing a bit of light while stopped (although it produces far less light in this mode). It's sort of a shame to complicate the beautiful simplicity of a generator light, but a standlight eliminates the only significant shortcoming of generator systems. by the way, why wasn't there a "Wow!" in your review? ;-) Steve Kurt