Lighting Systems
 

 

Lighting Systems

What makes a good bicycle headlight?

Beam patterns of some dynamo and battery powered headlights.

Schmidt SON hub dynamos.

Panasonic hub dynamos.

Headlights for hub dynamos including Schmidt Edelux headlights, Lumotec headlights and taillights.

Busch & Müller headlights for hub and tire driven dynamos.

Busch & Müller Dymotec bottle (tire driven) dynamos, Lumotec lights

Supernova dynamo powered LED headlights and taillights.

Busch & Müller battery powered LED headlights and LED taillights.

Spanninga & Hella battery and dynamo powered headlights, fender mounted battery taillight, bar plug lights and head band light.

water torture

Why is Peter watering his headlight? To make it grow brighter? Well, no.

It was a new headlight, and he wanted to see how well it worked when wet. It wasn't raining, so...

I sell several types of lighting systems; battery powered systems by Supernova, Busch & Müller, hub dynamo systems from Schmidt, and Panasonic . Some products we also distribute to bicycle shops. Our dynamo powered lighting systems are environmentally friendly, since there are no batteries to pile up in land fills. You produce the power for the lights while you ride. The drag from these dynamos is extremely low, so you won't feel it when you ride. Our SON hub dynamos are the most efficient dynamo hubs available anywhere, and work in all weather, including snowstorms. See our studded tire page for how to ride a bike in the snow.

If you do a search on the internet for bicycle dynamo lighting systems, you will undoubtedly come across warnings about lights blowing out if you ride your bike too fast. This is true of systems designed back in the 1920s, and used on bikes such as Raleigh three speeds up through the early 1980s. These were very crude systems by today's standards. While you can still buy cheaply made dynamo lights that will blow bulbs on a downhill run, none of the systems I sell are so poorly made that you have to concern yourself with this. Without exception, every headlight I sell for use with either a hub dynamo or sidewall dynamo incorporates circuitry to prevent the overvoltage of the headlight. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.

For road riding, the Schmidt system offers light weight, extremely low drag, and always available light; with no need to worry about charging or replacing batteries. The Schmidt Edelux headlight available with the Schmidt hub dynamo provides a beautifully focused beam of light jflooding the road for safe road riding in all conditions. The light can be mounted at the fork crown, or on the handlebar for easiest access to the switch. A taillight is wired to the headlight and controlled by the headlight's on/off switch Click here to find out about the Schmidt SON Dynohub. Yes, we distribute these to bicycle shops!

Busch & Müller makes many headlights for the Schmidt and Panasonic hubs, and also several terrific battery powered lights. Yes, we distribute these to bicycle shops!

Spanninga makes a variety of lights for both night riding and daytime riding. Yes, we distribute these to bicycle shops!

Supernova. makes great headlights and taillights. Yes, we distribute these to bicycle shops!

Panasonic makes very good, and rather inexpensive hub dynamos. Yes, we distribute these to bicycle shops!

This page was last updated: Friday, February 9, 2018