Best Front Brake Hub with 6 volts for your lights

[birdmannn101]

Jim (Og-whizzerdude) came up with a suggestion to get our PM to a thread when I asked him about wheels. I thought it was a great idea so here it is.

I just bought the best brake hub for my Beach Cruiser that I could find. Loquin suggested a Sturmey Archer X-FD which is 70mm and sells for $80. After researching the Archer site I found the XL-FDD for $86.40 which is a 90mm hub (better stopping power) and comes with a 6 volt 2.4 or 3.0 amp generator to hook up headlights, tailights or whatever. The 26" Huffy wheel will need shorter spokes (90mm hub) so I asked Jim who he knew that laced wheels. He suggested Guy Doss who's email address is bikeguy53@att.net

Guy has a website here.

Guy said he could do the wheel for $85 ($40 for new spokes and $45 labor).

The hub had good reviews except two "real bikers" said it weighed more than they planned. It only weighs 1350g but heck, they gripe about the weight of a jack or speedometer too...LOL

The Archer website is located here ...... Dan

 

[BigBlue]

The XL-FDD is 2.4 or 3.0 Watts.

Chris
AKA: BigBlue

 

[birdmannn101]

Mine is 3.0 watts and I ordered it from Tree Fort Bikes.

I pressed "Instant Price Match" and used Amazon's $86.40 to bring the price down from $99.99 and bought it for $86.40.

 

[Huntington]

How well does it hold up to motorized bikes?

 

[chainmaker]

Here is a link to some lights that apparently work well with the sturmeys, http://supernova-lights.com/en/products/e3pro.html

 

[Huntington]

Im thinking it would be best to use this hub to charge a battery. That way the light output is constant regardless of the rpm/current output. Then any light can be used. I like it, and as it happens I do Have a $100 amazon gift card to spend.

 

[birdmannn101]

Well my hub is costing me $90 to change out the standard hub, lace this dynamo hub into the front wheel with #12 spokes. I had larger #11 spokes which look like motorcycle spokes which I wanted to keep but they wouldn't fit ito the holes on the hub so they had to buy new spokes. The hub says that it only fits #13 an #14 spokes but I think that is too small for a front hub brake wheel. A 6 volt battery eh? Well, looking back on my old motorcycle restoration days I think you would need a tad more voltage, maybe 7 or 8 volts to charge the battery.

 

[Huntington]

Im an electronics guy, going to Cal Poly for Electrical Engineering. 6 volts will be fine, a small circuit can boost it to 12 but for charging a battery 6 will work. The trick is keep the current stable and convert it to DC. I would use a 12 or 14f dc battery.

 

[birdmannn101]

Im an electronics guy, going to Cal Poly for Electrical Engineering. 6 volts will be fine, a small circuit can boost it to 12 but for charging a battery 6 will work. The trick is keep the current stable and convert it to DC. I would use a 12 or 14f dc battery.

Huntington,

That is great having someone here who is really into electronics. Your saying "6 volts will be fine" means a 6 volt battery, right? Why would you use a 12 volt battery to supply power to 6 volt bulbs? It is hard to keep the current stable on a dynahub. I heard that 3 to 5 total watts of lighting should be used with 6 volt dynamo. Is this true? Which one of these batteries SLA, NiMh or Lithium Ion would be the best?

Dan

 

[Huntington]

Well I personally have a 14.4 v LifPo4 battery. It kicks butt but may not be the best. Charging a Lithium takes more electronics then charging a SLA or NiMh. For a motorized bike a simple SLA is fine. I like 12 volts but a 6v battery can power a lot of things. You don't need to match the voltage output of the hub to the voltage of the battery but you need to pay attention to the battery requirements. It would be more effective to use the hub as a charger. During the day you may not need to power a light, but you still ride, so why not store that power into a battery for latter use. At night when you use your light, its powered by nice clean DC voltage, at a constant current, from the battery. It sounds like magic but you can take 6Vac and turn it into 12vdc, as long as you dont require more then the 3w the hub provides, everything should be fine. **** a few high power LEDs can light the way and run off 5vdc. Just remember, the higher the voltage, the less current required. So if you use a 12 volt system, your battery should last longer and be more useable then with a 6 volt system.

I ramble.. but as to your question, If your driving the light directly from the hub, you would want to go with at least a 3watts light, if the dynahub is rated at 3w. You can go bigger on your light but not smaller. If you get less then 3w light, then when your hub is operating at maximum and producing 3watts, you will burn out your lights. A 5w light would be best, you loose some light intensity but insure you wont burn it up. However, this problem is prevented using the battery method I described earlier.