aka Tom Reingold
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: New York, NY, and High Falls, NY, USA
Posts: 40,503
Bikes: 1962 Rudge Sports, 1971 Raleigh Super Course, 1971 Raleigh Pro Track, 1974 Raleigh International, 1975 Viscount Fixie, 1982 McLean, 1996 Lemond (Ti), 2002 Burley Zydeco tandem
Mentioned: 511 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 7348 Post(s)
I think saving money on a dynamo hub is fine. Then again, one day, I might try a fancy one and decide I wasted my time with the cheap ones, but ...
Spend as much as you can on the headlight. This is where it makes a difference.
Taillights don't make much difference, because frankly, they're all kind of crappy because of German regulations. German regulations have an influence on the whole dynamo bike light industry, and there is a low maximum light. Another factor is that the dynamo doesn't make much power so it's only fair. I think battery powered tail lights are better because they're brighter and they blink. On my bikes that have dynamos, I use a dynamo powered taillight (because why not) and a battery powered blinking taillight. Having two can't hurt, and if you argue that blinking makes it hard to judge distance, I'm fine, because I have a steady taillight as well.