I ran one of these bottle dynamos back in the early 90's. I put in a halogen bulb to make the headlight brighter for rural road use. For the most part it worked great but the halogen bulb took a while to light up when it was cold. It didn't take long to get the bulb hot though. I ended up removing the whole thing when I discovered that the dynamo wore out my back tire side wall. That caused me to take a fall in the middle of a major road while doing a left turn onto a side street. The bottle dynamo's back then didn't have rubber on the dynamo drive wheel. It was metal that was rubbing against your tire side wall.
I had bought a folding bike and right on the first test drive my 2-pole dynamo cap broke off. During the ride, after that I had to buy a new dynamo, which was only a 1 pole and I didn't know how to wire it, thanks to your help, which I kept coming back Thank you mate 😀👍 finally someone who explains it correctly mashallah respect bruv
Hey, I think it should be okay, although I wonder if it would be possible to use the power from the electric bikes battery instead, using some kind of voltage regulator to bring down the voltage, you could then use dynamo powered accessories off the battery
I bought an axa 35, which is good enough for urban riding... You should still have a headlight on your helmet... Dynamo hubs seriously need a better way to waterproof connect wire!!!
To find these lights I just searched for dynamo lights on eBay, or if you only want the front light then search for dynamo front light, I don't know what make they were or anything like that, they arrived in an unbranded box
Ok, so I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm mechanically challenged and a bit desperate. I just received a dynamo light kit from Amazon with no instructions. On the fat end of the "engine" part, there's ONE metal part with a hole in it, with a groove on EACH side, where it looks like you could feed a wire through on each side. There is only one wire coming from each light. My question is, can I insert a wire from each light, one on each side of that connection, and have them both connecting at the same point on the back of the "engine" part of the dynamo? It seems to me, that each light would pull however much electricity it needs from the engine part and it should be fine, but I also don't want to wreck it with my ignorance and lack instructions. I'd be grateful for any advice you may offer.
Hi there, yes if the dynamo only has one connection point then it's perfectly fine to connect both wires to it 😊👍🏻, that's how my dynamo was as well, I only run two wires so I didn't have to rely on the bike frame to work as a ground connection.
I did a dodgy led conversion on a dynamo set. The user cooked it, probably hitting 4o down muswell hill. The gubbins from a garden solar light could be played with .
I was considering doing an led conversion to one of my bikes, I bought some cheap led bulbs and a AC to DC converter, but the bulbs were too big for lights I tried them in, I'll give it a go on these because they might have more space, or I'll look for some smaller bulbs. I also bought some other parts as well to experiment with, the plan was to have a 6v battery that charges off the dynamo which can then power the lights, a usb charger and maybe even a horn one day lol, if it works I'll probably make a video for it. But I might just settle on battery powered lights that are charged by the dynamo. The idea of using solar lights sounds interesting, I did buy a small solar panel for my crazy idea as well but it's output is very weak and most of its power didn't make it through the solar charge controller I bought
I've fitted a dynamo to my bike ... the front light works but not the rear ? Also is there any nice neater way of contacting both wires to dyamo please?
Hey there, with the rear light all I can suggest is to check the wiring and the bulb, the bulb might be faulty, or the wires my have a brake in them. It's hard for me to make any suggestions for neater wiring without seeing what you have, but sometimes it is difficult to make wiring look tidy, I hope you find a solution to both problems
I wouldn't say it's water proof, but it survived being out in the rain, as for a link, I bought mine off eBay years ago, just hunt around online wherever you like to shop, I'm sure you'll find plenty of them 👍🏻
I'm not aware of any rechargeable battery system you can buy that would work, but I was thinking about trying to make one, I was going to use an AC to DC converter, a 6v solar charger and a 6v SLA battery, then I was thinking of swapping to led bulbs and having a switch on the handlebar to turn them on and off. But unfortunately I never got round to trying it, I have seen some dynamo lights that have a capacitor built in which keeps the light on for a short time after you stop, which is a nice feature.
Hi, There: A quick question. (I just bought the same lights on Aliexpress.) Why do you connect one cable to the bike frame (ground connection), is that necessary? can you explain the theory of connecting double wire? Thank you.
Hey, in order for the lights to work you need to make a complete electrical circuit, this means that one wire needs to carry the power from the dynamo to the lights, then the bike frame is used to carry the power back to the dynamo to complete the circuit. Hopefully that answers your question 😊👍🏻
Hey mate, thanks for the suggestion, I think you're right but unfortunately I don't have the bike any more, if I get a chance to fit these to another bike I'll film it 👍🏻
I never tried it in the wet, the first thing I'd try is repositioning the bracket so the dynamo is pushing harder onto the tyre with it's internal spring, but if you've done this and when you pull the dynamo away from the tyre to turn off the lights it barely clears the tyre, then you could get one from a brand like union, I got one from them before that had rubber on the part that touches the tyre, admittedly I never tried that in the wet either, but I think rubber will grip better then the plastic these cheaper dynamos use, and on top of that it was quieter in use. Good luck 😊👍🏻
