Why are dynamo front lights so expensive?

[Mick F]

As per the title.

I've been looking at front dynamo lights and want something with a good beam for dark roads which is bright and and simple. I don't want a "senso" light or one that works as a DRL. Just a good light with an on/off switch.

This one looks good, but more facilities than I need.
https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s197p34 ... ULLER-IQ-X

Why so expensive?

[tim-b]

Hi
I don't know the answer to your question, however I know where they're 42% below RRP https://www.bike24.com/p2144837.html
Hopefully the p+p, etc won't add too much

EDIT: You can save a few quid at Amazon too
Regards
tim-b

[tatanab]

https://www.athleteshop.co.uk/spanninga ... -light-led
Spanninga bought and remodelled the Philips products a year ago. I've been using the original Philips version of this light for the last 5 or 6 years. It is very good and rates well for beam shape etc in http://swhs.home.xs4all.nl/fiets/tests/ ... ex_en.html (search that site and it has comment on the Spanninga). The xdas version gets you a standlight which is all you have asked for. xdo is without, and xe is a version for ebikes.

Cheap (in a sale) good for 30mph in pitch black lanes if you know where they go.

[honesty]

The iqx is currently the most powerful shaped beam dynamo light (supernova and exposure do more powerful ones but they’re not shaped) followed closely behind by the edelux 2, the supernova pro 2 and the luxus U. I’ve had the luxus U and the edelux 2. Both good lights, the luxus gives you usb charging but has really odd artefacts and lines in the beam. The edelux is brilliant though.

As for price, the lights aren’t more expensive than equivalent battery powered lights from the same manufacturers, the only thing with battery is there are a lot of companies making them and lots of cheap ones. As dynamos are a niche market there are only a few manufacturers and they don’t have to discount to sell.

You used to be able to get them cheap from Germany but Brexit saw an end to that

[Brucey]

good dynamo front lights are still a niche product that have not been endlessly copied so in many cases attract the usual manufacturer's + wholesaler's + retailer's mark up. The folk that make the light can make less out of it than the others in the chain. Big retailers can sometimes buy direct and they can offer the lights at a better price but others don't have that option.

You can buy a cheap light with ~30 lux for about ten or fifteen quid if you shop around. But if you want the brightest light with the best beam pattern you will have to pay more. B&M models that make 60 lux and 80 lux are now relatively affordable because they are no longer 'the best' but the beam patterns also vary and this can be as or more significant than the headline brightness figure.

BTW this might sound mad but a light that is measurably half as bright doesn't seem like it is half as bright. Lights that seem about half as bright are actually quite likely to measured closer to 1/10th as bright.

Also apologies if this is bloomin' obvious but the shape of the beam pattern can affect the best place to mount the light on the bike. A lot of the latest designs have intentionally bright nearfield illumination. IMHO such lamps are not really suitable for mounting very low on the bike; you may find that the nearfield illumination is brighter than intended and this makes the main part of the beam seem dim by comparison. Such lamps are presumably intended to mount above the wheel on a 700C wheeled machine, and work best on other bikes if mounted at about that height. If you have a lamp that has just a narrow beam then it matters less which height it is mounted at.

cheers

[Mick F]

So .............. as in all things maybe?
The price of things isn't in their value or cost, but what the market will pay.
Sticks in my craw though.

Thanks for the heads up on the Athlete Shop link tatanab.
I shall look into this one.

[fossala]

I was looking at dynamo hubs and found bike-discount.de the cheapest for an IQ-X. €5 cheaper than bike24
https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/bus ... ver-526396

[axel_knutt]

Because they don't have the economy of scale that battery lights have.

[mercalia]

Well they are not. In the UK sellers add a premium to prices to every thing - compare in Germany eg the Axa Pico30 can be got for about £12 there , here more like £16.

[old_windbag]

I know the OP doesn't want DRL or sensing systems but in all honesty I don't feel the light below is badly priced considering it's excellent beam pattern.

https://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/b--m-lumotec-iq-cyo-premium-t--senso-plus-front-headlamp/aid:709237

The rotary switch on the back goes OFF-SENSO-ON, so missing the senso out simply off or on. £45 is reasonable value. If we were a more advanced nation we'd be designing and manufacturing everything ourselves but we threw most of that out of the window years ago and after the brexit related currency crash are being hit by higher priced items that aren't home produced. At least the germans still make bikes, tyres, lights, panniers......

[Grarea]

I am thinking that these are also a reasonable bet secondhand.
Less to go wrong than their battery counterparts.

[meic]

The rotary switch on the back goes OFF-SENSO-ON, so missing the senso out simply off or on.

Not on the T versions (like this one). Or at least not in that exact way.

Positions are daylight-senso-off with senso automatically switching between daylight LEDs and full LEDs.
So on these you would switch from senso to off and in fog you could not turn your main beam on!

[AdamS]

What is the price of a comparable battery light? You can buy very bright lights for next to nothing, but very few have a proper road specific beam. Once you look at StVZO battery lights you are looking at a very similar price for a similar output. If you must look at the latest and highest output light in the range that will always carry a price premium. As Brucey says the previous generation of top of the range lights such as the 80 lux Cyo Premium are now much mroe affordable

[Mick F]

That's the problem with auto-lights, especially that you can't have main beam on in poor viz.

Our car has auto lights, and they are actually great, but you can override the auto and have headlights on by manually turning the switch!

[AdamS]

Positions are daylight-senso-off with senso automatically switching between daylight LEDs and full LEDs.
So on these you would switch from senso to off and in fog you could not turn your main beam on!

What a stupid backward step. My (older, AXA) ones aren't like that! I've learned to love the automatic lighting, but I would always want an overide. Perhaps it might make some sense on a bottle dynamo light where they could remove the switch entirely.