2013-3-21: The OEM line-plus taillamp without reflector from B&M seems to be older, from 2012, at least they are shown in a distributor catalogue as coming with some models of a few brands of rear rack, such as Hebie. That reminds me, in 2011 I put some more of my ideas for a fully modular system on this page, I removed most of it as I wanted to do more with this, didn't get round to it sooner, but I will put these on a new page soon as part of an expanded section on what direction bicycle lighting should and/or could go to.
2013-3-17: The section Vibrations caused by dynamo hubs has been expanded with a summary of how to choose a hub in this respect and what you might be able to do to mitigate this problem somewhat if you already have a dynamohub that you can feel the vibrations of.
2013-2-26: Something curious: Long ago I mentioned a modular system such as splitting the taillamp into reflector and emitting part (see further on on this page) and on 23-2-2013 I saw a new taillamp on a bike that's probably OEM-only where B&M do exactly this. Here are some pictures.
2013-2-15: No tests/beamshots of headlamps for at least 3 weeks due to circumstances.
2013-2-6: Start of review of the current version of the Spanninga 15 (which is as I feared not the same as the original version), and of the Axa Go steady taillamps.
2013-2-2: Wall shots etc. for Spanninga 15 with 0.6W bulb (instead of 0.3W).
2013-1-20: Wall shots etc. for Spanninga Pixeo, Spanninga SPX, Axa Spark steady, B&M line brake plus, Spanninga Brasa, Spanninga Lineo, Philips Lightring.
2013-1-4: Started doing dynamo power measurements at various speeds using the method used to test them for StVZO compliance. More testing of the H-one S with new LED, and compared it with the Luxos B during rain.
2012-12-31: I've been working on headlamp reflector design the previous weeks. I will not tell much about it yet but the results are interesting. I've also been working on finishing the latest version of my switchbox to compare headlamps and taillamps. See here, pictures to follow.
2012-5-8: After some questions related to overvoltage protection I started on this section: Voltage, current, dynamo types.
2012-5-8: Addition to the review of the Herrmans H-diver. Still no beamshots as I haven't got round to a beamshot session yet.
2012-2-27:Opening the Philips headlamps by removing the lens. This keeps the housing intact but the LEDs come loose from it so need to be fixed with thermal glue after that if you don't use the internals (which press the LEDs to the housing).
2012-2-24: Start of reviews of the Spanninga Brasa and B&M Line brake plus taillamps.
2012-1-30: Oh almost forgot, end of December Olaf Schultz tested some PV-8s that I sent him/Fahrradzukunft. So there will be test results from him soon on the Fahrrad zukunft website.
2012-1-3: Philips Saferide 60 modifications and a disassembly (with a hacksaw :) ). Also, running it on the LBL's driver, running the LBL with an h6flex at 0.92A (instead of 0.70A of the factory version). See here.
2011-12-9: Added a section called "Artefacts and glare for oncoming traffic (2011-12-9)" to the review of the Philips LBL.
2011-12-4: Power output measurements put on the review page of the Sunup DS in table form (graphs to follow). Added a bit on the battery holder and comparison results with the Philips Saferide 40 to the now completed Test of the Q-lite 269 headlamp with cutoff (Cree MC-E).
2011-12-3: Taillamps: Power use and long distance test results moved to a new page: Taillamp comparison.
2011-11-15: Finally completed the translation of the LED experiments page to Dutch: LED experiments. Also made a few clarifications to the English page.
2011-10-13: Forgot to add this earlier, a pdf from SP with an overview of their series 8 dynamos and information on efficiency to the SP series 8 review.
2011-9-26:SP's 2.4W SD-8 tested in a standard sized wheel (622mm rim). Also added a note about power output and vibration on the Sanyo NH-H27 review page as that is apparently lower than StVZO requires and probably explains why vibrations are less than with e.g. Shimano hubs.
2011-8-18:Taillamp test finished bar some details, a little more information in the review of SP's PD-7 (=HB015) switchable dynamo hub after the preliminary review of SP's new small dynamo hubs PD-8. Changed all names of SP dynamos because since they are promoting them themselves they have a new SP designation: 63D -> HB015 and 83D -> PD-8.
2011-8-5: Automatically generated taillamp beamshot overview pages allowing you to choose the light intensity and thumbnail size.
2011-6-25, 2011-7-26 & 2011-8-5: Website reorganisation: Headlamps, dynamos, taillamps, StVZO, camera stuff etc. have been put into separate directories. This means old direct links to reviews of a specific taillamp or dynamo won't work any more... Some old references are forwarded, others go to an index page. For a link the best course of action is to take the link as in the table of contents to a summary on the main index page.
2011-6-20 Finally added corner and wallshots of all taillamps, added a taillamp size comparison picture to the Bicycle lamp size page and finally added pictures to the review of the SP PD-7 (=HB015) switchable dynamo hub.
2011-2-14 I just wanted to share that my estimates about the maximum output of the Supernova Airstream have been confirmed by 'Siam'. My estimate for the XP-G version was: at most 240 lm, well the results are: http://www.mtb-news.de/forum/showpost.php?p=8019707&postcount=1145: 217 lm for the XP-G version, and 175 lm for the StVZO version. This is lot less than the Philips LBL (270-291 lm) which also doesn't have a diverging beam, which confirms that my estimate that useful illumination of the road surface and throw by the Supernova Airstream would never get close to the Philips LBL, was also correct. I was of course already pretty sure of this after my tests of the E3-pro-StVZO, but it's nice to get objective confirmation by virtue of measurement of the light output of the Airstream.
2011-2-13Update of the StVZO page about the ability for endusers to open housings, and about the differences in requirements between car- and bicycle headlamps which largely explain the problems cyclists have on parallel roads.
End of January 2011:
Due to circumstances all tests of lamps & dynamos had been postponed until early June (and it only got going slowly at that time). I did make some missing pages in Dutch and several pages in German.
2010-12-4 & 5 Various updates with examples of decoding what's in StVZO: Standlight, taillamp shining forwards, and what I think is the reasoning behind the power limits for headlamps and taillamps.
2010-11-20 and later Test of the runtime on high of the Philips LED bike light that I bought. There's probably a batch of these with incorrectly programmed electronics... I've done various tests and sent my findings to Philips.
2010-11-17 - 2010-12-16 Tests of the B&M IQ Cyo RT, Trelock LS 885, Lupine Betty 2011. New beamshots of the Philips LED bike light on road 2 with camera at 1.65 m. New beamshots of the Edelux and Philips Saferide LED dynamo with lampheight of 1.05 m and angled properly to give best illumination of the road up to ca. 50 m.
2010-11-17: I tried out foglamps on a bicycle. I made pictures of torches in the fog at various distances from the camera lens to see at which distance a lamp should be from your eyes so you won't get blinded in the fog. See Experiments with LEDs.
2010-11-11: I made new beamshots of the Philips dynamo, Edelux, Frankenlamp on road 3 at 0.75m, 1.05 m both with camera height of ca. 1.55 m which is more as you'd see the beams when riding slightly less upright. But I think the final camera height setting is going to be 1.65m... These new beamshots are at the moment only shown on the new beamshot page, not the individual review pages.
2010-11-9: Added a section on dynamos that could be of interest (Note that I already mentioned them with their strengths and weaknesses, since the start of these webpages, in the review of the SON 28 and the section on magnet strength). Added beamshots of torches with LEDs in various light colours on a wet road and in fog, see Experiments with LEDs.
2010-11-7: The main bicycle lighting page got too long, so it has been split up into various webpages. Each review of a lamp or dynamo is now on a separate page. A synopsis will be placed on the main page for each lamp/dynamo. It may take a bit of time for all links and image locations to be fixed.
2010-9-15: Neutral white/cool white LED comparison on a wet roads (LED experiments page)
2010-9-12: The LED experiments page is now linked from the main bicycle lighting page.
1 &2 September 2010
Added a description of tests with the Philips LED bike light I had already done ca. 21 August: Mounting the lamp lower at fork crown height just to see what would happen. No beamshots yet. Also comparison in light output on the road of symmetric beam vs. beam with cutoff.
1-21 August 2010 Tests of 2 lamps that are not for dynamo and/or road use but give a view of what's possible in future dynamo lamps with cutoff:
30 June & 1 July 2010 A new page with descriptions of annoyances from bike/car lamps, but also LED streetlamps (to be added: LED traffic lamps). The section on parallel roads was also moved to that page. Also, a few days ago I elaborated a bit on what you see when someone with a Magicshine P7 lamp is riding towards you: My description was for the worst case scenario (a completely unlit road), and I added a description of what you see when encountering someone with this Magicshine P7 lamp at night on a well lit street.
14 & 15 & 21 June 2010 I've done various tests on ca. 6-15, 21 June 2010. Result:
A comparison of the Schmidt Edelux (180 lumen at 30km/h) and Magicshine (P7 LED lamp with Li-Ion battery, ca. 550 lumen), to see how more light influences what you can see on the road, but also how annoying they are for oncoming traffic.
Pictures showing the difference of a neutral- and cool white LED in what you see at night (garden pictures).
fall 2008: My experiences with the Shimano DH-3N80 dynamo hub.
2008-9-16: Bicycle lighting page created, with a review of the Edelux, the union roller dynamo, the SON28 dynamo hub and various other information in response to the pathetic 'reviews' in magazines. I made earlier mention of my ideas of what's needed in good reviews, and some issues such as the vibration problem I had with the SON28, on the dutch forum of cyclingmagazine 'Fiets'. Neither the people from that magazine nor the other readers of that forum were interested...