Bicycles are road vehicles.  Why most don’t come standard with a lighting system boggles the mind. Would you buy a car, truck, motorcycle, scooter, electric scooter, etc. that required the purchase of aftermarket lighting? And what if 99% of those aftermarket lighting systems required batteries that had to be frequently charged?

We admit to a near evangelical zeal for dynohub powered lighting systems. If you stop by the shop, we have dynohub demo wheels in a variety of sizes as well as lights that you can borrow to test before purchase. Dynamos allow you to have very bright lights anytime your bicycle is moving. Actually, they do more than that, because all of the lights we sell to go with our dynohubs have standlight capacitors, so even when you’re stopped your light will stay on. With a dynamo powered lighting system there’s no worry about forgetting to charge the batteries, wondering if you’ll have enough juice to make it home, or carrying spares just in case. Just hop on your bicycle and pedal, you provide the power for your lights, and your lights are always ready.

Battery Powered Lights

None of that is to say there isn’t a place for battery powered lights. In a perfect world, all bicycles except those used for daytime racing would come standard with a dynamo lighting system. A perfect world it isn’t. There are a few good reasons to own battery powered lights.

• Backup or auxiliary lighting.
• Cost.  I have used battery lights on folding bicycles or other that I used infrequently enough that they didn’t warrant the investment of a dynamo system
• Wattage limitations.  A dynamo system can power up to 6 watts of lighting.  For most road uses, this is plenty.  However, there are two cases where more power is necessary.  When riding with fast traffic I use the Dinotte 3 watt tailight for extra visibility day or night (its that bright).  Night-time trail riding is a use that requires an extremely bright headlight with a much broader beam than is needed on the road, and it isn’t practical to power these lights with a dynamo.