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There are also dynamo powered LED lights which only provide light while riding the bike, and about a minute afterwards (I assume from an internal capacitor). They are not detachable but why would that be necessary? From what I can tell they also don't require regular replacement.
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A reliable dynamo hub setup can be very cool for the right situation, but the up front investment to rebuild your wheel around a dynamo hub is expensive. The power output is also on the low side compared to the light output you can get from the battery units.

Not having to charge anything or worry about batteries running out in the dark is a real benefit.

It's all on the very opposite end of the cost spectrum than the cheap bike light in this post though

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The old-school dynamos cost 10-20 bucks: https://axabikesecurity.com/product/axa-8201-right/

They're just generic AC motors held against the rim, as simple and cheap as it gets. Nowadays I'd add a basic voltage regulation circuitry to get a stable 5V DC out of it.

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That's why I said "reliable" in my post.

You'll spend more time futzing with one of or dealing with weather-related failures that you would have saved more time charging a pile of batteries before every ride.

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That overstates their unreliability. Such dynamos used to be universal before modern rechargeable batteries and worked well enough, I don't recall ever having to replace or maintain one. For dirt roads where mud gets everywhere, non-mechanical options are of course better, but simple dynamos perfectly are fine on regular city streets, country roads and dry paths. They're especially good for kids who can't be bothered to keep batteries charged.
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I don't remember a period of my life where bottle dynamos have not been unreliable when it rains, and it rains a lot here (or it used to, anyway).

I have rigged all kinds of rubber contraptions to make them work better, I have made my own dynamos from old electric motors as a kid, and yet I have never in all those decades found a way to be sure they would work when I need them, never.

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After 15 years of dynamo hub, I’m about to switch to a power bank connected to usb light. Dynamo hubs are quite fragile and not easily maintained. Cheap front hubs are found everywhere and they less drag. I have a few Deore hubs that I found on the street on abandoned bicycles.
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Depends which one you buy! I bought a SON about 10 years ago, have done around 20k miles in all weathers, and have had zero issues at all with it.
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Shimano hubs are a bit heavy but quite reliable. No maintenance required, survive frost, rain, heat, any weather.
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These are fine for bike commuters, and I’ve had them before. But they are in general not fine for recreational bicyclists; these people would gladly pay a hundred dollars for a new tire to shave off three watts and are not about to add any unnecessary human-powered accessories.
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An exception is bikepackers, who may prize reliability and runtime over brightness and weight. But then the dynamo we're talking about is $200-$400 and that's not including the light.
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Though you can get Shimano Dynohubs pretty cheaply:

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/hubs-front/shimano-nexus-dhc3000...

Dynohub history rabbit hole for those interested:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/dynohubs.html

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> An exception is bikepackers, who may prize reliability and runtime over brightness and weight. But then the dynamo we're talking about is $200-$400 and that's not including the light.

No, it's about a tenth of that, light included.

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Amazon has the Shimano dynohub for $125. Then you have to build a wheel. You might be able to re-use your rim if it's got 36 holes.

I explored dynohubs in the past, but LEDs and LiPo batteries have really narrowed the gap. In my garage, I've got a super long USB cable that we all use for charging our lights. I've used cheap lights from AliExpress, and they are actually quite durable.

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Nonsense. At $20 you'll be very hard-pressed to get even a cheap dynohub alone, and that's before the wheelbuild and the light. And bikepackers aren't going to be satisfied with ultra-low-end wheels, anyway.
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> And bikepackers aren't going to be satisfied with ultra-low-end wheels, anyway.

bikepackers aren't an homogeneous population. Some are more instagrammers than bikepackers and are using expensive bikes and equipment, others bikepack on a shoestring budget with stuff from the thrift stores and you could mistake them for homeless. And finally some are actually homeless. And you get any kind of budget and requirement/vanity level inbetween these 2 extremes.

This summer while I was cycling I came accross an ukranian guy who was bikepacking accross europe with an old mtb from the 90's, using an old kids trailer to carry his gear and water supply. He was stranded in a climb in the middle of nowhere with a broken wheel, 3 or 4 spokes had given up the ghost, and the tire was flat you could see the casing instead of the tread on both wheels. We could only communicate using google translate on my phone but he told me straight nomoney. His tent, which he had setup on the side of the road to have a bit of shade could have come from a dumpster judging by its state and discoloration, that tent was 20 to 30y old. Since my daughter has a folding bike with 20" wheels and I was 20 minutes from home I convinced him to give me his wheel, filled his empty water bottle with my own, gave him some snacks and went back home to check if spokes length matched any of my daughter's bike wheel and relaced quickly his wheel using 4 spokes from my daughter's. Then I climbed back that climb with the repaired wheel, 2 tires from my daughter's bike, a veggie sandwich and 4L of water (having myself a bike that is bikepack ready made it easier) so he could eat something and set off. He paid me with what he had available: a big hug and proposed to help me with my back (I understood he was some kind of chiropractor) which I declined.

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