Identify this mystery accessory. Solved

[David9694]

It’s from a commuter hack, (a British Eagle Crusader since you ask) I’ve bought - clamped to the chainstays in the space behind the b/b. the hole was on the near side.

I removed it as I thought it was the remains of a broken kickstand or something.

[mattsccm]

Think it might be what's left of a dynamo. Only because I had a old frame with some thing similar and the remains of said lighting system. It all went in the bin without a second thought.

[Brucey]

it is built in to a 'dynamo-esque' standard (not chunky enough for a stand, surely?) but if so, which dynamo? Not a sanyo. is it a soubitez like this?



IIRC the brackets did vary somewhat on the soubitez dynamos, but all had a bolt hole on the left side



cheers

[David9694]

The clamp I’ve retrieved looks very like the one peeping out in Brucey’s picture.

[peetee]

Did these BB-fit dynamos have a useful lifespan? I can't think of a worse place on a bike for getting wet and muddy!

[Vorpal]

Did these BB-fit dynamos have a useful lifespan? I can't think of a worse place on a bike for getting wet and muddy!

Apparently the mounting brackets did!

[Mick F]

it is built in to a 'dynamo-esque' standard (not chunky enough for a stand, surely?) but if so, which dynamo? Not a sanyo. is it a soubitez like this?

That was mine!
Sold on the forum.

Yes, I recognised the clamp straight away. BB dynamo mounting clamp.

My Soubitez was brilliant. Used it winter after winter commuting to Devonport and back. Perfect and powerful.

[AMMoffat]

Did these BB-fit dynamos have a useful lifespan? I can't think of a worse place on a bike for getting wet and muddy!

IME they were much less prone to slippage (though not immune) than side-wall dynamos. My husband still has a system on one of his bikes and my one may well be in a box somewhere having been replaced long ago with a hub dynamo.

[Mick F]

Yep.
Perfect.

Mine never slipped or was any problem whatsoever on Mercian. The unit cleaned itself in the rain. I never went off-road with it, but it's not designed for that and neither is/was Mercian.

I had no more use for it, so sold it. I now have a hub dynamo, which is better. Not that the BB dynamo system is a poor relation though.
I liked being able to bend down when riding and flip the lever to switch the dynamo on. Switching off wasn't so easy as I had to get off and flip it away from the tyre.

In the lighter periods, I removed it completely. Less clutter maybe.

[TrevA]

:P

Did these BB-fit dynamos have a useful lifespan? I can't think of a worse place on a bike for getting wet and muddy!

IME they were much less prone to slippage (though not immune) than side-wall dynamos. My husband still has a system on one of his bikes and my one may well be in a box somewhere having been replaced long ago with a hub dynamo.

I had a BB mounted Dynamo (a Sanyo) and found it more prone to slipping! Especially, if the road and consequently the tyre, were at all wet.

[Mick F]

You had a Sanyo.

I remember reading about their issues some years after buying my Soubitez and couldn't understand the different comments. I still can't, but from what I read nowadays, the Sanyo was rubbish and the Suubitez was wonderful.

Why, I still don't know. I only know I was lucky in buying the Soubitez, as if I'd bought a Sanyo I'd be rather disparaging about all BB dynamos.

[Brucey]

IIRC the sanyo had plain bearings, supported on one side by a plastic housing. Mine blew up and smashed the plastic housing. I made an aluminium housing instead. After one winter's use the wheel wore out so it slipped. I made 'tyres' out of old inner tube and this helped with grip but they wore out after a few hundred miles or so.

One of my chums had a soubitez; IIRC there were three versions, the best of which had ball-bearings. He wore his out in one winter so that it slipped. His fix was to mix sand and epoxy resin and coat the roller with that. It lasted about a month or so. By this time the ball bearings were getting a bit sloppy (no seals and no means of lubrication) so in the bin it went.

The sanyo was an experiment, to see if I might be better off with something modern and powerful. In truth the Sanyo was used a few times on a tandem at speed of about 40mph and it continued to make more power with speed so the light was 'very bright' at that speed but in danger of making the bulb blow in just a few minutes. I think the tandem use finished off the plastic bearing housing. However through all this palaver my SA dynohub on my main training bike just carried on working without any dramas. OK, the light it made was feeble, but at least it always worked!

After giving these dynamos a shot I never felt tempted to try them again; more trouble than they were worth.

I think whether the roller wears out quickly or not is dependant on how many miles you do and how clean the roads are. No-one local to me got more than two winter's use out of a roller-type dynamo; the rollers wore out and they soon started to slip. On cleaner roads I think this wouldn't have happened so quickly.

cheers