Pedaling Power Plant

I started using a generator hub in 2003, when I bought my Rivendell Atlantis touring bike from Peter White Cycles of Hillsborough, New Hampshire. This model, the original Schmidt Dynamo front hub or SON (Schmidt's Original Nabendynamo) is extremely reliable and has virtually no drag. Works much better in the rain and snow than a bottle generator, which presses against the sidewall of your tire and can be subject to interference from the elements. Made by Wilfried Schmidt Maschinenbau in Tübingen, Germany, it's supposed give at least 50,000 kilometers (31,068 miles) of trouble-free riding before it has to be overhauled. I'm almost there, but I think it has at least one more tour in it. And these hubs are built to last as long as your bike—a lifetime—so don't worry about the $300 price tag.

The hub powers this amazing Supernova E3 LED headlight. This light is bright and will guide your way no matter how dark it is. The only exception to this, I've found, is in former railroad tunnels through hills and mountains. If the tunnel is longer than say 1,000 feet, it's hard to cut through the blackness with anything. I bought the Supernova around 2010 as a replacement for my halogen bulbed E6 headlight from Schmidt. 

Schmidt E6 halogen. Wonderful light but susceptible to getting whacked, protruding as it did off the front of my rack.

The Supernova tucks nicely under the front rack, right behind the tab where the old, vulnerable Schmidt halogen was attached.

The Supernova taillight, also generator-powered, is tiny but mighty.

Up until this year, I also had this Pedal Power dynamo converter which converts the electrical charge from the generator hub into usable DC current. It included a 1000mA cache battery alongside the AC to DC converter (rectifier) so you could wait until camp to charge up your devices. You can supposedly charge any USB 5v device with this charger. It did work with my old flip phone, but when I got sucked into buying an iPhone, I found it wouldn't charge at all. Apparently, the new version, called the Universal iCable, has fixed this issue.  But now, with all the distracted drivers and petulant crazy Trump supporters roaming the roads, I keep my lights on day and night. That drain keeps even the storage battery from charging, at least to where it can be used for anything requiring much power. So, this piece of kit was retired in favor of the new storage batteries on the market. No more charging things directly from my hub, no matter how cool the concept.

Top: my old Pedal Power Vi4  storage battery, 6700mAh of power, and very expensive when I bought it half a dozen years ago. Derided as "somewhat ‘agricultural’ in aesthetic," according to this reviewer, yet it would charge an iPhone 4 times before having to be recharged itself. Now, I use it in my handlebar bag for on-the-fly charging of my phone. For camping, I use this newly-purchased RAVPower Ace 22,000mAh battery pack. A quarter of the price of my old battery, and more than thrice the juice. 

My electrical needs include my camp light, a bluetooth speaker, and my phone. Sometimes I also travel with my iPad, and that, too, can be charged with this bad boy. Let me close by stating this: that we even "need" electronics on a camping trip says something pretty damning about the current state of our culture.