new B&M front dyno light

jedster

Just upgraded my B&M IQ cyo front light to their latest IQ2 Luxos. Wow.

Now I thought the IQ cyo was really good but this new one just floods the road with light. The beam is shaped like a dipped car headlight (LED fires upward to a shaped mirror that spreads the light over the road rather than up in the air. It is actually a bit less dipped than a car headlight - fires further down the road while still lighting just on front of your wheel but doesnt dazzle oncoming traffic. It has several low power LEDS round the top rim which do point directly ad oncoming traffic (to get you seen early). A sensor puts more power thrugh these in day light and more through the main beam in darkness - genius. Oh and a small amount of the light is fired out at 90 degrees to get you noticed from side roads.

There are loads of more powerful (battery) lamps out there which will carve images on people's retina and fire a big searchlight spot down the road but in terms of practically useful illumination for cycling on roads, this will be tough to beat. And pretty reasonable at £80 http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k1004/ ... light.html.
Oh there is a version which can charge gadgets via an USB and has a remote handlebar switch but its £50 more.

jeepie

Thanks for sharing this jedster. I'd like to use these on my bikes.

So I've got a noob question(s) on this:

If I want to migrate to a dyno light do I need to take my front wheel in to the bike shop and have it rebuilt and a hub put in to power it? Is this fairly simple? Is this expensive do you know?

If you stop pedalling does the light turn off!

Enjoy using it as it sounds great.

DrLex

Looks good; if one is looking for a USB-charging lamp, this axa one seems to be a good price, although fugly.

jedster

Jeepie,

Generally it will be cheaper to buy a new wheel than rebuild your existing one. If you look around on the web (especially continental web sites - dyno lighting is more common in germany, benelux, etc) you should be able to get a wheel built on a good shimano dyno hub for between £50-100. Like most bike related things you can spend a lot more but all my dyno wheels have been in that range and have been fine.

Modern dyno lights (except the very cheapest) have some kind of capacitative storage that means that the lights will stay on for a few minutes when you are stopped at traffic lights etc. Some have a battery back up that will last longer than that but its less common.

UndercoverElephant

Quick question, Jedster: Have they sorted out the god-awful switch on the original Cyo? The first one I had rattled itself to bits, then I got a replacement from B&M which more often than not takes a few attempts to turn on.

But because the light is so fantastic, I'd still probably buy a new one.

jedster

yes - totally different its a rubber/waterproof toggle switch - push for on, push for off. Little led glows when it is on
BTW, the new light is physically bigger and looks more solid. Physically bigger is the only real drawback

UndercoverElephant

Bugger. Now I'm really, really tempted.

jeepie

Thanks Jedster!