Velogical rim dynamo vs hub dynamo?
 

Anybody have experience with a Velogical rim dynamo? I saw two on bikes at PBP and wonder how they compare to a Shimano or SON dynamo hub, especially on bumpy or gravel roads and single track, rain, mud, etc. They are super compact and lightweight and one was on the Alex Singer bike for the Concours de Machines so I figure that says a lot, but I'm curious to hear from people with first hand experience.

Not a user, but people seem really happy with them. And they are zero drag when the lights aren't on.

Interesting. I wonder how it works in the rain.

I have never seen one. But I researched them a bit a couple years ago before I decided to buy another dynohub. At that time the Velological was 1.5 watts or something like that, but for charging batteries for bike touring I wanted the full 3 watts. I do not know what their current (pun not intended) status is, but if they are still only1.5 watts, would that be enough for lighting?

1.5 watts is fine for front and rear lights. 3 watts is needed for halogens.

Looks like it would be possible to set up the lighting and brackets on more than one bike and just move the dynamo. How long have these been around?

they certainly have been around long enough for people to hate on them if they had problems. It did take a while for them to catch on though.

I'm adding this to my christmas list for myself.

From the data on my hard drive when I researched them in early 2015, I suspect they have been around for at least five years. I have heard over the years that people experimented with making alternators out of stepper motors, so the concept is not new.

I think it is easier to swap wheels with dynohubs than it would be to swap a velological unit.

Bought my first dynohub in spring 2013 for a 26 inch wheel and the second one in 2017 for a 700c wheel, both were SP.

That first one was occasionally swapped to three different forks, all had rim brakes. Thus, I bought some spare connectors to plug into the hub and I zip tied some wire to all three of those forks, used some quick connects at the fork crown to make moving lights and USB chargers easily movable from one bike to another. But the wire that was zip tied to each fork stays on that fork.

On my dynohub wheels I usually use a bolt on skewer instead of a quick release. My thinking is that a potential thief is an opportunist and is unlikely to have the 5mm allen wrench that they need to remove the wheel. So, using a wrench to move a dynohub wheel from one fork to another was pretty much the hard part of moving it from one bike to another. The velological I suspect takes more time and effort to move it. That said, all my bikes use rim brakes on the front, if it was a mix of disc and rim brakes then the compatibility of course collapses.


Since those first four years when I was swapping one dynohub wheel across three forks, I have since accumulated a few more wheels with Shimano dynohubs that a manufacturer had donated to a bike charity that sold them at a clearance price. Fortunately SP and Shimano connectors are interchangeable.

While it is really easy to swap wheels, several of my bikes have different sized wheels or disk hubs that make swapping impractical in my case. I have been running the B&M Ixon IQ/IQ premium since they came out on my non-dyno bikes. They are great lights while they are working, but I have just had my 4th one fail, and I'm getting a little tired of replacing them every other season. I can imagine putting the Velogical mounting posts on 3-4 of my bikes, and just pop on the dynamo and a headlight when I need them instead of the battery lights I have been using on those bikes.

I thought about putting a Velogical on my fatbike. It was the only bike without a dynohub. Then I gave in and bought a dynohub for it.

With SP hubs under $100, you could build a single wheel for quite a bit less that the cost of the Velogical dynamo ($225 shipped), and a wheel with a Schmidt hub would be only slightly more if you sourced the parts carefully. So for one normal bike the dyno-hub will win any cost/benefit comparison unless weight/daytime drag are by far the most important criteria.

I think the use cases are extreme weight conciousness and/or multiple bikes.

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I would find it hard to justify buying a complete new wheel or buying a hub plus spokes plus wheel build fee, plus the cost of a headlamp if I wanted to upgrade a bike that already had a perfectly serviceable front wheel. That is the cost that most bicyclists would face to upgrade a bike to dynohub lighting.

Exception would be some commuters would find that cost well worth it if they ride a lot in the dark, or ride enough in the dark that they forgot to charge or buy batteries a few too many times.

I build my own wheels, so no wheel build fee. And in my case, the additional cost for the wheel is only buying a dynohub minus the cost of a regular hub when I build up a new wheel for a new bike. I built up two touring bikes without dynohubs in 2004 and 2010. I did not see dyno powered lighting to be worth the cost for a touring bike.

But by 2013 I owned some electronics that were charged by USB so in that year when I built up another touring bike I put a dynohub on it, and same when I built up another bike in 2017. The ability to charge batteries on a bike tour while rolling made the cost worth while.

For both of you that often ride all night long for consecutive nights on longer brevets, I can't imagine why anyone would not pay the price for reliable lighting. But you are clearly the exception.

My last bike tour, my bike was an S&S coupled bike so I have to nearly disassemble and reassemble the bike at the start and end of the tour if I flew somewhere, dyno powered lighting is one more thing that has to be installed and removed, twice. And when bike touring, I almost never used the headlight because I ride in daytime. I often use a flashing taillight when touring, so I use battery taillights when touring. For those reasons on my last tour, I did not even set up my bike for dyno powered lighting, I only used the hub for USB power with a Sinewave Revolution. I did bring a $5 headlight that I could strap onto the handlebars, that light had no battery but could be plugged into my USB powerbank if I needed a headlight for a tunnel or if I wanted to ride at night, but I never used the light for the five week long tour.

My only point is that everybody has different needs for cycling and I can clearly see why dynohub bikes are the exception and not the rule. For riding around home, since I have dynohubs, I did invest in the lights and use the dyno powered lights.

And I got lucky a couple years ago, a local bike charity had too many wheels in storage, I got three nearly new dynohub wheels for clearance prices. If it was not for those cheaper wheels, I would still only have the two dynohub wheels that I built up new, one 26 inch and one 700c.

No. I have no experience of the Velological rim dynamo.

I have a fairly large collection of spare front wheels. It was a bit of a stretch to spend $700 on a front wheel for my fatbike, but there were a couple of winter commutes where my battery taillight died and I didn't know it. And this is the "too stupid to stop for the night fourm," so most of us in here consider a dyno to be a pretty decent investment. Not worrying about lights running out and charging batteries is well worth it in my estimation.

I can help out here!

I bought one when they first came out and I really liked it. Especially because I could use my original wheels and it had zero drag when not in use. Plenty of power for LED ligts as long as you match the unit to your expected speed. No issues in rain at all. Crazy light weight. Overall they work exactly as billed, but here are the quirks that may turn off some folks:

(1) A little noisy when in use, but if you mount on the back a lot less noticeable. I always felt like it was keeping me company at night so never minded the whirrr...
(2) A bit fickle to mount but if you are handy no problem. You have to get it mounted so it is exactly radial to the axle for lowest noise.
(3) Can get bumped out of alignment if not careful, but easy to hand position back too.
(4) Stay out of the mud!


I have switched to battery lights, but I can highly recommend these if you do not mind my drawbacks above. I found the info on their web site to be very accurate and complete for description of the device and use. I prefered it over having to rebuild a wheel for a hub dyno. No regrets for the 3 years I used mine,

Thanks for posting, there is not a lot of documented user experience so your experience I am sure will help others.

I'd have to say the thing looks nice, and probably easier to build/maintain than a wheel.

Has anybody worn out the o-ring? Is it easy to replace? Special rubber?
@dwmckee?

You get two o-rings with the unit, a thick one and a thin one for different use preferences. I mostly used the thick one. You can get replacement O rings at Home Depot (dimensions not too critical) and they will send you one in a nice little envelope if you ask them. Mine never got close to wearing out... The thing is extremely well made and is about the size of an old 35mm film can (remember those?). The noise never bothered me.

I posted on this in detail several years ago if you want to look up the old thread. These are not as elegant as a a hub dyno, but for me, that tiny bit of drag of a hub dyno over 800 miles akways bothered me and made me want to use the Velogical. That same feeling is why I eventually migrated to a battery Edelux II, no drag at all, ever...

What battery are you using?

I use a no name brand battery pack I got on ebay that has 4 18650 cells in it, I thinh it was around 8 volts. $15 or so with charger. It was pretty bare bones. You will need to use the DC version of the Edelux if that is the way you are going...

Since we have been snowed in here in Michigan, I've been riding indoors while watching a 4hr PBP video shot from a go-pro or something. I've been noticing many using dynamos and many that have none.
Ive looked into a system using a 4 pack of 18650 batteries. How long of battery life if you are using it on a lower setting?
And for those who ride PBP without a dynamo, am I safe to assume they just bring along a ton of a batteries?

The reason I've love to know more is that next year, I will attempt another overnight ride in the Michigan's thumb. I screwed myself last time by bringing a light that only lasted 2hrs, and only two other batteries. I needed at least 8-9 hours of light and had to cut by ride short since I only had enough for 6 hours.

Yeah, I'm considering either the Velological or eddy-current backup lights for the e-cargo bike we just ordered; yes, it comes with lights that run off the assist battery, and the battery is evidently smart enough to hold back some of the power for the lights and shut the assist down first, but I'm so used to dynos and not worrying about batteries that I would like to have a light that, if I forget to charge the battery, will be guaranteed to work. (This would be a be-seen light; it'd either be a case of "running late and dusk occurred" or a short local hop on well-lit urban streets.) And it's a weird wheel size + very heavily-built wheel for cargo capacity, so getting a new wheel built or the one it comes with re-built would be a pain.

there is drop bag service or some people have personal support, which is legal at the controls. Some people try to rely on being able to recharge, not sure how successful that is. I saw public outlets being used to recharge things. The roads are pretty dark, the road surface is good for the most part, so you don't need particularly bright lights. On domestic 1200k's, recharging is usually easy. But it also depends on how much night riding. Faster people have an easier time of mostly riding in daylight.