The Chainlink

Dynohubs. What maintenance do they require?

I am thinking of building a wheel with a dynohub. It looks like all of them (including the Schmidt dynohub) have ball bearings. What kind of maintenance do they require?

  • Do they have to be overhauled every year or so, like a conventional front hub? Is the overhaul just as straightforward as a regular hub? Or do I need an experienced bike mechanic to do this?

  • Do they require any other kind of maintenance besides overhauling the bearings? Can I do this myself?

  • The Schmidt info says you should expect 50,000 km (30,000 miles) between servicing. Given my mileage that would mean it would take e decade or more between servicing. Is that realistic?

Sorry for the many questions in one thread. Appreciate any feedback.

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on October 30, 2012 at 7:32am

If they have sealed cartridge bearings they should last a good long time before they need service.

Permalink Reply by Mike Bullis 5.5-6.5 miles on October 30, 2012 at 8:00am

What Doug said.

Permalink Reply by Duppie on October 30, 2012 at 10:54am

Thanks. That's exactly why I was looking for a dynohub with sealed bearings. But it didn't look like any of them had sealed bearings. Then I went back to Peter White's website and reread it. Turns out the Schmidt hubs are sealed bearings and need no servicing that I can do myself.

Peter White may be a great guy, but why does he need to write 6100(!) words before he mentions the types of bearings. He should have been a novelist instead of selling bikey stuff.

notoriousDUG said:

If they have sealed cartridge bearings they should last a good long time before they need service.

Permalink Reply by Daniel on October 30, 2012 at 2:00pm
The latest issue of Bicycle Quarterly has a pretty indepth review of dynamo hubs. You might want to look at that before making your choice (although Schmidt is tops). I'm planning to pick up a dynamo hub soon and have my eye on a Sanyo or Shimano to save some bread (to spend on the LED light) and so I can have the easier connector.
Permalink Reply by Duppie on October 30, 2012 at 2:12pm

Thanks for that pointer Daniel.

Does anyone know a bookstore or bike shop that might carry this magazine? Their website stated On-The-Route as a shop that carried it, but a call made clear that they don't.

Daniel said:

The latest issue of Bicycle Quarterly has a pretty indepth review of dynamo hubs. You might want to look at that before making your choice (although Schmidt is tops). I'm planning to pick up a dynamo hub soon and have my eye on a Sanyo or Shimano to save some bread (to spend on the LED light) and so I can have the easier connector.
Permalink Reply by David P. on October 30, 2012 at 3:15pm
Boulevard bikes carries BQ.
Permalink Reply by Kevin Mulcky on October 30, 2012 at 3:29pm

David beat me to it. Blvd also has plenty of BQ back issues and lot of dynamo experience.

Also Duppie, check out the new SP dynamo hubs: sealed bearings, schmidt-like efficiency, shimano-like prices.

Permalink Reply by prof.gfr on October 30, 2012 at 4:15pm

Who carries the SP Dyno hubs in the US? And were they reviewed in the BQ issue?  Has anyone ridden them?

I'm curious as I've never heard of them before this posting.  I was thinking of going SON, but I'm curious about the SP now.  

Permalink Reply by Duppie on October 30, 2012 at 8:25pm

I picked up the issue of BQ at Boulevard Bikes. The second generation SP dynohub is reviewed in there. It got good ratings on the resistance, but there is some concern about their build quality. They entered the market in 2010 and Velo Orange carried the previous generation for a while as an exclusive, but stopped carrying it after too many hubs failed inspection.

Here are a bunch of SP-8's for sale:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SP-PV-8-32h-dynamo-hub-lightest-and-most-ef...

prof.gfr said:

Who carries the SP Dyno hubs in the US? And were they reviewed in the BQ issue?  Has anyone ridden them?

I'm curious as I've never heard of them before this posting.  I was thinking of going SON, but I'm curious about the SP now.  

Permalink Reply by mike w. on October 30, 2012 at 8:49pm

i have both a SON 28 and a Sram e-light hub/wheel. The sram looks a lot like the Shimano and/or Sanyo. i like them both. The sram was 'way cheaper, but here's the tradeoff: the SON is smoother in operation with less vibration (almost none detectable, really) when the light's on. The sram had a tad more resistance but not enough to hinder and the vibration is just noticable but not bothersome. i like the SON's connections better and find the sram's to be a bit of a nuisance to disconnect, so i just ran the wires from the connector block to a spade disconnect setup to ease wheel removal. The sram/shimano/sanyo connector block is difficult to disengage and i'd hate to try doing it under roadside conditions (such as changing a tyre.)

 i've had to adjust the sram's cones once or twice and i'm kind of dreading a time when the bearings will need service, but it mightn't be a big deal. The SON's been maintenance-free (frei?) so far. Both have several thousand kilometers on them and about three and a half years' service each.

Of course, YMMV.

Permalink Reply by Jerry Lee on October 30, 2012 at 11:33pm

Niagra cycles carry some dynamo hubs, mainly shimano

 

http://www.niagaracycle.com/index.php?cPath=9_92_9203

Permalink Reply by David P. on October 31, 2012 at 7:44am

I've got, I dunno, a few thousand miles or so on a dynohub (I have two, but one bike gets ridden a lot more than the other) and neither have required any maintenance. Both were bought as part of lightly-used built-up wheels, and both are Shimano hubs, one a -71 and the other a -72. One of them, however (the one that gets ridden a lot) was distinctly tighter than the other and has taken some fiddling with the cone locknuts to get it to spin as freely as the other one.

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