Originally Posted by
SBinNYC
What's your objection to a sidewall generator? N.B. the rollers on the new ones are rubber and are replaceable. That means they won't injure the rubber on the tire sidewall. In the old days, there was the Velox rubber cap to prevent the metal roller from touching the sidewall.
I used cold press tubulars, when I rode PBP. The only sidewall protection on those were the liquid latex I'd apply. That's why I used the bottom bracket generator, which rode squarely on the tread.
I have not tried a rim generator. However, the biggest problem for an external generator is slippage during rain. I'd assume there would be more slippage on the rim than on the tire sidewall.
I used a SA dynohub on my pre-historic Rudge, way back when. I'm sure the current models are much more efficient. I did not like the additional friction penalty, when the lights were off. The extra drag on the required full fenders were bad enough, when I did PBP. I would have gladly traded a dirty vertical stripe up my back for the 1 mph lost to fender drag.
There is another objection to a hub generator that might not be obvious. There was a flash flood coming back on a century ride. I had to cross a fast moving stream that was up to my hubs. Some debris in the water broke the seal on the hub bearings. I had to send the wheel back to Phil Wood for the hub to be repaired. I used a spare front wheel, until my wheel came back. Had something happened to a dynohub on PBP, getting a replacement wheel would have been iffy. They have excellent repair and common parts at the controls. However, a wheel with a dynohub is too much to expect. A friend busted his freewheel on PBP. Contrary to Sutherland, it is possible to screw a French threaded freewheel onto an English threaded Campy hub...once.
Ok, sidewall generators work great for you. But, how many people have you actually seen use them in the past year?
I think the best vehicle I ever owned was a 1965 Ford F250, it was easy to work on, easy to fix, rarely gave me problems. When I needed to diagnose a problem with it, there were so few parts on it that it was really simple to diagnose. But I would never recommend one of that vintage to someone that was now looking for a vehicle. My F250 did not even have backup lights or windshield washers, the radio was AM only. When I drove that in the 1970s and 80s, that was still acceptable, but the world has moved on. Same with sidewall generators (alternators), the world has moved on.
A friend of mine was complaining about his dynohub not working, he knew that I had a couple of the same model hubs. Since he rarely used that bike I asked when the last time he used it was, he said it was a short trip he did with his wife. I said - is that the trip where you decided to save a mile and walked your bikes through deep water and then trashed your bottom bracket bearings? He said yeah. I said did you really submerge your dynohub when you did that? He said of course I did, it is waterproof. I then asked him if he was nuts? He chose not to answer that question.
When your sidewall generator quits working, good luck finding a quality one to replace it. And when that happens, I hope you can find one because you clearly think that is the best option.