Cpn_Crank

what wire routing did you choose to go with? Pix please?

Tourist in MSN

I think you will conclude that there really is no way to make the wiring on a dyno powered lighting system look good when the wire is external to the frame. I just accept that and do not fret about it.

Most of my bikes with dynohubs, if I have a dyno powered taillight I consider that taillight temporary because I might remove a rack or make some change like that. And that wiring is not very photogenic as it is just wrapped around a brake cable or something like that. All my bikes, the wiring from the hub to the headlamp is a pair of wires twisted together and zip tied to the fork blade. (My errand bike is an exception, that uses the fork as one conductor.)

Here is an example, my rando bike has a taillight that gets removed if I remove the rear rack, the photo does not show the taillight wiring very well, that wire is wrapped around the brake cable wire that runs along the top tube. And I have a Sinewave Revolution temporarily attached that complicates the wiring. And unrelated to the light, there also are the wires for my wired computer to complete the bowl of spaghetti.



The Sinewave Revolution is used for touring for USB power, but when i am not touring I put it on my rando bike instead of just storing it. It is the white box on the handlebar bag bracket.




Some bikes, I have not used a dyno powered taillight, then I simply run a wire from my hub to the headlight. This is an example, I am not sure the gauge but I would guess 22 gauge.



My Lynskey has a permanently attached taillight, for that I run a twisted pair of wires under the downtube to the bottom bracket area, three zip ties. Aft of the bottom bracket, the wiring is glued inside the fender, the light is attached to the fender.



In this photo, the rack mounted light is battery powered, the fender mounted light wiring is glued inside the fender.



If this last bike was a bit confusing, yes it has a V brake on the front and disc brake on the rear, I built it up that way.

***

Side note: I consider my dyno powered taillights, if I have them on a bike to be secondary. I often run a flashing battery powered taillight on a bike, thus I consider my battery taillights to be my primary taillights.

When touring, mostly my dynohub is used for USB power, not for lighting.

My five week tour last summer, I used my S&S coupled bike (photo below) so I had to assemble my bike when i arrived at my destination and I chose not to install the headlight. Instead I brought a battery powered headlight that I could use if I needed it, it was stored in my handlebar bag. 100 percent of the dynohub power went into my SInewave (attached to head tube) and that power went into my powerbank in the handlebar bag. I had two battery powered taillights that you can't see in the photo.

Cpn_Crank

Not fretting at all! Actually this is perfect. I don’t mind it being routed outside, at all. It looks like there is no way around using zip ties to couple the wire to tubing. This is something that I don’t mind living with.

for some reason in my mind, I was trying to think up a way to fit some kind of low profile attachment to route the wire, or some kind of housing for the wire. If I think of something of the sort (most likely I will engineer it myself), I’ll let you know. But it seems like the way you’ve done it will do perfectly fine for me. Have the zip ties contributed to any sort of wear to the finish of the frame?

thanks for the examples.

Tourist in MSN

None that I noticed.

One thing that I did not elaborate on, I used hardware store wire, not the much lighter B&M wire that comes with the lights. A number of light manufacturers appear to use 2.8mm spade connectors. I bought extra connectors so where I might want to plug or unplug a wire later, I use those same connectors. But many on this forum appear to prefer other types of connectors. You can see in my photos that I used lots of those connectors.

DropBarFan

I read that some folks route dyno wire thru cable (or hydro) housing, maybe it gives a more uniform look.

Cpn_Crank

hydro housing! That may be wide enough (internal) to route the wire! Very creative thought. I bet it would mount nicely to the cable stays on the downtube.

DropBarFan

One poster used compressed air to blow (or suck?) the wire thru (cable IIRC) housing. & then there's internal routing for the truly obsessive--some folks drill holes in existing frame/fork & some custom frame builders offer the option. Actually I'm surprised to read how popular internal brake/derailleur routing is on road & MTB's. Yeah, looks slick but seems like a maintenance nightmare.

fietsbob

Schmidt provided Co Ax .. + wire in the center - wire wrapped around its inner insulation, then its insulated over all , ...

The B&M Eyc, I put on my Brompton uses their twin , side by side conductor wire..

I use heat shrink tubing over it in places in addition to over soldered & crimped connections .. on both..