Dynamo Wiring Ugliness?

[deliquium]

Would I be ridiculous in preferring dynamo and lamp lighting to be housed in similar diameter casing to gear and brake cables?

Faffing with very thin wires and loadsa vile zip ties upsets me no end.

Gentle flowing cable runs would surely look better than impossible to neaten, easily deformed thin things?

One obvious disadvantage - having 3 dynamo operated bikes with different coloured brake and gear outer cabling

This post is prompted by fitting a rear dynamo powered lamp earlier today - and realising it's a VERY GOOD convenient thing, if one has a front wheel hub generator and a switchable front headlamp (the excellent, if plasicky B&M Cyo). No more wondering when to stop and turn on a rear rack mounted battery operated light. I can now run front and rears all day long if I wish - especially on a grey dank day like today.

But the bike looks a mess

[pete75]

Sheathed twin core cable like this maybe http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Twin-Core-1mm ... 230c5b79c3

[mjr]

I used a red wire colour close to the secondary colour of my bike's paint job. I used red zipties to attach them to brake cable outers where possible, one band of red electrical tape around the top tube and then clear zip ties to take it along the inside of the rear rack to the back light. It doesn't look awful and I hope that the local numpties might think the visible wiring is for some sort of alarm system... but my bike's probably odd-looking enough to deter them anyway:

[Hein]

Why not use a braking cable housing? They are insulating, so you can put a bare copper wire into it - or even use the stainless or zinc plated steel wire that is often provided with a cable housing. (although you may have a hard time soldering that steel)

I personally prefer classic inside-the-frame cable routing, the best solution being the screw-in contacts on my '66 Hercules where you never need to deal with the cable that runs through the frame except when you're exchanging the bottom bracket.

[Brucey]

If you use full housing for the rear brake then you can just tape the dynamo wire to that, and it is quite neat.

It helps enormously if you have simple black cable housing. Life is too short to be worth messing about with different colours etc.

BTW you can use coaxial cable if you want to. Available in white, black and a few other colours.

cheers

[PH]

Rather than zip ties, I use clear tape, or more recently those Park instant puncture patches, a neat run under the top tube is hardly noticeable. A friend superglues the cable in place, but should he ever need to remove it I think he's likely to loose some paint.

[fossala]

I have an open run brake cable and stick it down with a clear chainstay protector.

[prm]

Have a look at Cablecraft pvc sleeving (under Protect) Available in various colours and sizes.
Thin walled and very flexible.

http://www.cablecraft.co.uk/?gclid=CJuZ ... tAodlVsAqQ

Secured with black nylon P clips, self-adhesive cycle hydraulic hose clips or self adhesive cable clips for flat areas.
Avoid placing self-adhesive types over any transfers.

http://www.tesco.com/direct/bbb-bcb-94- ... 5-8015.prd

[mercalia]

well I route the wires under the top tube and behind the other tubes so very little is seen. For the top tube I use sticky tape along the length and under the tube ( not around ) rather than ties. I use coloured ties where appropriate. This takes a bit of effort but my bike dont look untidy.

[Valbrona]

Can't understand why anyone would bother wiring a rear light up to a dynamo these days, unless that is they like making their bike look messy with wires everywhere.

[mercalia]

Can't understand why anyone would bother wiring a rear light up to a dynamo these days, unless that is they like making their bike look messy with wires everywhere.

Very easy to understand why. Batteries run out. Makes a great deal of sense especially if u have a hub dynamo & into touring, when the batteries WILL RUN OUT

[blinkered]

Can't understand why anyone would bother wiring a rear light up to a dynamo these days, unless that is they like making their bike look messy with wires everywhere.

I do it and have a small battery light on the back as well. For me that gives some additional peace of mind that if one rear light fails there should be another still running even if I don't notice for a while

[CliveyT]

Can't understand why anyone would bother wiring a rear light up to a dynamo these days, unless that is they like making their bike look messy with wires everywhere.

Very easy to understand why. Batteries run out. Makes a great deal of sense especially if u have a hub dynamo & into touring, when the batteries WILL RUN OUT

even for my run-around- leave a light on the bike it'll get nicked, take it off and I'll forget it/ leave it in the wrong place so it won't be there when I need it

[[XAP]Bob]

Can't understand why anyone would bother wiring a rear light up to a dynamo these days, unless that is they like making their bike look messy with wires everywhere.

I can't understand why anyone wouldn't wire up their rear light to the dynamo.

You have a reliable source of power, and likely a light that won't get stolen.

I have a dynamo on my left wheel, sending power to a junction box mounted to the dynamo mount on the rear chainstay. From there I have a switched power output to a rectifier (cable tied under the main frame under the seat) for my ReeCharge unit (cache battery with USB output) a cable to the front light (where there has been a switch on top of the derailleur post, although there isn't at the moment) and power to the rear light (on the rack) which can be interrupted by a 3.5mm take off for powering a light on a trailer.
The ReeCharge is sat on the crossaxle (just in front of the seat) and has a long USB cable routed to another project box on the rear of the rack (attached via the 80mm bolts) which houses a "car dvr" - when I power up the ReeCharge the camera turns on and starts recording. This DVR has a second camera, so there is another cable running the full length of the trike, I use the "rear" camera under my BB as a forward facing unit.

I don't think wires look messy though - I route them together with the brake/gear cables where appropriate, along other spars where not. Under my seat I have
- Dynamo power to control box
- Power to front light
- Rectified power to ReeCharge
- USB power from ReeCharge
- Front camera connection

Also a rear brake cable, and two rear gear cables (SA CSRK3 hub and derailleur)

[IanW]

For my dynamo light wiring I chose to use thick audio signal flex because it is:
a) flexible
b) tough
c) carries enough power for dynamo lights
d) coaxial and is thus a single round (black) casing that is about the thickness of derailleur cable outer casing
e) has 2 "wires" so there is no need for a "ground" connection through the frame

I then run this cable from front hub dynamo, up the inside of the front fork, using a mixture of small zip-ties and red
(i.e. frame-coloured) insulating tape to the fork-crown and thus to the front light which has a switch and connections for a rear light.

The same type of coaxial cable is then attached, with black insulating tape, to run alongside the (black) rear brake cable outer that then runs underneath the top-tube.

The cable then parts company with the rear brake cable outer just behind the seat tube and then continues inside a section of 6mm box-section upvc cable-trunking (painted black) that is glued and zip-tied to the underside centre-line of the (black) rack until it reaches the (black) lighting mounting plate on the back end of the rack

The cable passes through the mounting plate and onto the rear light wiring connectors

The wiring run is thus very innocuous looking, looking like a regular brake cable / gear cable outer and virtually snag-proof.

But it is still disconnectable at the hub dynamo, at the front light and at the rear light.

The only enhancement is to find some sort of reliable, waterproof, coaxial connector to allow me to disconnect the cable run to the rear light just at / behind the seat-tube to allow easy rack removal and/or being able to relocate the rear light to the seat tube.

The convenience of modern dynamo-hub + LED front and rear lights means that, after the initial set-up, you have reliable lights on your bike at all times that require no batteries and almost immeasurably little effort to power.

And with the ever escalating lighting arms-race on our roads, I tend to leave the lights switched on at all times.