Rick

I spent the last 13 months of military service in Germany. When I went into bicycle shops and hardware stores all but racing bicycles were sold with lights, or the frames were already wired for the customer to choose which light and generator. Replacement bottle generators and head and tail lights were on shelves in the stores. I had an early version of a stand light which consisted of a silver box with 4 D cell batteries and an analog circuit board. When you stopped at a light or stop sign your lights would go out for a second than there was a loud clacking noise and wow you had lights while stopped amazing. This was 1980 and several years earlier the US bicycling manufacturing association had already fought down attempts to make them produce bicycles sold with lights on them. Bicycle lights are a specialty item in the US. It is no surprise to me and should not be to you that there are few bicycle shops that have experience with non battery lighting. I ordered a custom bicycle a few years ago and because I specified the Son SL hub the bicycle shop was told to source all the components instead of the manufacture installing everything. The shop mechanic informed me that he did not know how to do my lights. I had to contact Peter White Cycles and purchase the spade connector for the SL hub and the crimp tool heat shrink etc. Peter White Cycles has allot of useful how to type info on wiring up the lights on his site.

steelbikeguy

Peter was the first to carry the Schmidt hub dynamo when it came on the market around 1999. I'm still using the one that I bought back then, although I bought another SON for a second bike around 2008. Great products, although they certainly aren't cheap. I've been very happy with them.

The lights themselves have improved greatly since the days of incandescent Lumotec dynamo headlights. I think it is hard to appreciate just how much better modern lights are if you never used dynamo lights from 20 years ago... it's very close to being a true "night and day" comparison!

Steve in Peoria

VegasTriker

Germany has some of the most stringent regulations in the developed world involving bike lighting including specific requirements for beam pattern. They are outlined in the regulation: "Street Traffic Restriction Rules” (StVZO) The reason you saw bikes already set up for lighting in the bike shop is that one of the requirements is for all new bikes to be sold with lights attached. " Lighting: Non-blinking front headlamp to illuminate the road of white or pale yellow color. A red rear taillight that stays lit when stationary." Bikes used exclusively for racing are exempt from the requirement to have lights already installed.

We don't have any requirements on the federal level but most states require you to have a white light visible 300 feet from the front of the bike and a red reflector for the rear in order to ride legally at night. I'm not surprised that the bike shop does not know how to install a dynamo light with all of the very fine LED lights available and many are far cheaper than a dynamo setup. There are a bunch of dynamo aficionados here but I haven't seen a single bike equipped with a dynamo light where I live yet.

2_i 

When I visited the best local store in the US, looking for better lighting than at a supermarket, at the time of bottle dynamos and of incandescent bulbs, they were willing to give me all their dynamo stock for pennies. They wanted to phase out the dynamo lighting, as it apparently cost them more to carry it than any profit they could make on it. Later on they never carried any dynamo lighting. Differences between the offerings in the markets seem to be tied to the way in which people use bikes in different markets and critical demand level. There is no point for shops to carry products that people do not want to buy. Regulations, their enforcement and the level of obeying the regulations also likely matter. The fact is that in Germany a good fraction of cyclists, presumably 1/4-1/3, also ride at night without functioning lights, just as in the US, but mostly because their lights broke rather than they were never there. Jaywalking is far less common in Germany than in the US, hinting to differences in obeying regulations.

fietsbob

Yes ,, In (US?) shops wheels can be bought , built, with dynamo hubs , but they're going to be Shimano, but the cost is low..

NB : SL* is a clever design , where the hub axle is also the power contacts, and so fork tip inside face is insulated from rest of fork tip, and has a wire connected to it..


* https://nabendynamo.de/en/products/sl/