Tests (and recommendations) of bicycle parts, esp. mini-pumps, dynamo lighting & leather saddles

What is and what likely isn't to come on my site about bicycle lighting

Tests the way they should be done: thorough and asking the right questions...

• 2020-11-10: Bicycle lighting: Guide to the reviews and analysis
  If you are new to my pages and want to get a quick guide on what is important in lighting and dynamos, read this. Update 2021-4-7: Added an overview of the differences of bicycle lamps from bicycle brands vs. from torch brands (mainly for battery powered bicycle lights), Update 2021-5-25: Addition of the importance of awareness on how to judge beam shots and reviews and that beam shots are not enough to tell which light is the best.
• Bicycle lighting analysis
  What is needed in bicycle lamps and dynamos, experiments with LED light colour, effectiveness of lamps in the mist, difference between what you see in reality and beam shots, analysis of lighting regulations and much more.
  2021-5-25: On the experiments page I added: "More tests comparing e.g. the rendition of yellows", and "Use of low CRI LEDs and different tints in the house and as a bicycle light".
  

  For companies: Full translation of the German rules StVZO+TA (technical requirements) + FzTV (build/production requirements) in English, including analysis, summaries, build suggestions, description of the approval procedure, additional standards, information on other requirements that are not published in any standards, how the rules are going to evolve, and much more, along with consultation and help for the approval procedure included, is available to companies wanting to enter this market (for bicycles, pedelecs to 25 km/h, and more information on rules for fast-pedelecs/e-bikes). I have a sample of this for interested companies. Some of these companies I did such work for are: Exposure/Ultimate sports engineering in the UK, Superpedestrian in the USA. If you want to know more, email for information. I've also included information on whether approvals for non-standard lighting (such as lighting using non-standard power sources such as contactless rim dynamos and rim mounted lights, are likely to be succesful, with some requirements for any non standard lighting, and some examples. The whole process is fairly involved and expensive (but still far less cost than a development of a lens/reflector). Besides the big cost of lens/reflector development, there are: the approval procedure up to 2000 euro, company verification (around 1000 euro), assigning the approval itself about 500 euro. After that comes the choice to get help or do it yourself, in the latter case you will need to get all standards and get all German text translated and then spend quite a bit of time to figure out what the requirements really entail (and keep track of how the rules change). Additionally, for a company that wants a collaboration, I have ideas for better beam shapes for headlights, better housing and mounts, better taillights/cable management, user interface etc. ]

• Bicycle lighting reviews
  Headlamps, taillamps, dynamos and some oddities (non standard lights).
  Latest update: My experiences using a SONdelux dynamo hub.
  Previous update: Using a TL-DH10 to open a Shimano T8000 dynamo hub.
  Latest reviews: Spinup F12W pro spoke dynamo (USB + light output).
• Leather saddles
  Leather saddles, Brooks, Lepper, Selle Anatomica, Gilles Berthoud, modifications etc. + a San marco Rolls saddle as comparison
  Latest updates:
  2023-2-7: Notes on the B17 break-in on long rides. Here my experience with the B17 was different than with the earlier ones I used (B17 titanium, B17 Select), due to starting to use it on long tours. Not a good idea!
2023-1-30: Written up my experiences to fix a stretched B17 titanium, and a Gilles Berthoud aspin that was deformed. Both are more or less fixed. (I already made videos on these saddles at an earlier date
2021-12-8: Addition after a comment by a reader about lateral movement of a saddle with springs on what makes the springs give comfort.
• Mini pumps
  Read here what pressure you can really achieve, not the fairy tale numbers that most manufacturers tell you which are only relevant if your name is Arnold Schwarzenegger!

Tours, interviews, bike trips

• Tours of facilities with interviews etc.
  Philips bike light day January 2012, Exposure in March 2019, and more to come.
  2022-11-5: Tour of the factory of Dutch ID e-bikes, report to come.
• Bicycle trip August 2013 through NL and Germany, testing various bicycle equipment, in particular lights....

Other sections

• Tests part 2: Less extensive tests: Bicycle bells, grips, gears, bike computers, water bottles, chain checkers, kickstands, pedals, tyre levers, suspension. List without detailed information:
  • Various topics:
    1. Average speed in a city with bicycle and pedelec,
    2. Anti-social behaviour from motorists in NL vs. what I saw in the UK, Poland, Ukraine,
    3. Some experiences with a velomobile: The Alleweder (early version).
  • Spoking a wheel. Tools, spoke patterns, place of the valve, asymmetry in the rim.
  • Spoke nipple measurements, spoke wrenches and spoke rulers
  • A first test with asthma medicine doping
  • Pocket lights (torches/flashlights): For use with travelling and for night rides for say repairs
  • Bicycle trailers
  • Bicycle panniers for getting groceries and for touring
  • Suspension: Front fork, springs on the saddle, fat tyres, sprung seatposts
  • Bicycle bells, including 3 youtube videos
  • Grips: Leather and cork-based, anatomic and round
  • Gears Various transmission types tested and compared + optimal gears determined
    
    • Experience: Gears: How much do gears (number and gear step size) influence your speed, and what is optimal?
    • Analysis: Cadence and gear step size: What step size is possible to allow you to always ride with a comfortable pedalling frequency?
    • Review of the original Nuvinci and the Nuvinci N360 hubs
    • Review of the Rohloff speedhub (14 gears)
    • Review of the Alfine 11 hub with mechanical shifting
  • Bicycle computers & navigation systems
  • Tyre levers and repair kits to take with you for repairs on the road
  • Chain life: 9 vs. 11 speed and chain checkers: Comparing Rohloff, Wippermann, Cyclus, KMC.
  • Floor pumps
  • Bicycle mini tools, are they useful? Or is it better to carry separate tools? [ The answer is the latter ]
  • Bicycle kickstands
  • Water bottles
  • Pedals, click systems (SPD and others), toeclips, power grips and other methods to keep your feet on the pedals.
  • Frame locks: In progress
    Issues such as hitting the key or know with your heels. Locks tried out: Axa SL-7, Axa SL-9, Axa Defender, Axa Victory, Abus 5850, Trelock RS 453.
  • To come: Bottle cages: Issues such as being too loose or too tight for standard bottles, how easily you can take out bottles.

  ---

  Experiences with various equipment on a long tour:

  • Tests of various equipment on a long bike trip August-September 2013
• My channel on youtube: WHS reviews where I will re-upload some contents about bicycles from my other channel which is since August 2018, only about critical analysis of events/situations and the people responsible for them (some of those will be bicycle related).
• Perhaps interesting my commentary about stuff I saw on the internet and on youtube about bicycle stuff.

Support this website! [ for more critical reviews ]

To support the extensive reviews and the brief reviews in section 2, use the paypal link below... [ Please then indicate in a message if there is something specific you would like to see reviewed/analysed, I will use those inputs then to decide what to test next (besides what I want to buy for myself to use, I will review all the products that I buy for myself in any case) ]
Paypal deleted, I will not use paypal anymore, they wasted my time multiple times this year blocking my account, last time was for a donation from a link here, they wanted information on selling, posting, etc. There is nothing being sold, the description also says it is for support for this website. I no longer have time to deal with these idiots..

If you have other ideas/suggestions to continue, send me a message. One idea I had but it is likely not of that much general interest, is a series of videos on the StVZO rules, what is good and bad about them, how deviations from the rules are allowed etc. I could even publish my entire StVZO analysis if there are enough donations (but that would require a lot of donations as it would mean not being able to use that as a large part of the value of the service I provide to get companies to make compliant lighting/e-scooters).
In case there is interest in a subscription type service, to say, buy more bike lamps or more types of the latest dynamos, or even saddle types that could be interesting to try out, to compare with the leather saddles I tried out. If you want to support in this way, spread the word on this (send links to people who may be interested to my youtube channel or my website), and have a look here: https://www.subscribestar.com/whs-bike-reviews.

[ Note: I deleted patreon as it is part of the problem of removal of free speech by deplatforming people. The importance of free speech (so also of views by people you disagree with!) is related to finding the truth, as I will explain in my upcoming project soon. They also gave the terrorist organisation BLM a donation, which is an organisation similar to all complainers and whiners about western society: Trying to destroy society and its achievements and revising the truth to untruth. ESAD to BLM! ]

If there is enough support I could do e.g. a comparative review of all of Berthoud's leather saddles with the best of the Brooks saddles (esp. the B17 and Imperial, Team pro) and with bicycle lighting there are ways to go such as finally make full comparison videos with switching between lamps while riding to show the differences, and of course some more of the latest dynamo headlamps and pedelec lamps.

If you are interested in supporting my site, you could consider sending me a sample of a light you have that I haven't tested yet.

My test bike was stolen Thursday evening 9 Aug. 2018, in NL/Leimuiden. If you see it in NL let the police know and send me a message...

Maybe it's on the way to Poland, or some such destination, but in case it stays in NL, if you see it let the police know and send me a message...

Nederlands: Cannondale fiets, type Vintage, zwart, schijfremmen, Dit is mijn testfiets, opvallend door 2 verschillende pedalen voor testen, dito 2 verschillende handvatten, 3x9 versnellingen, bijna alles is zwart, zadelpen: Descendant, zadel: Brooks b17 imperial (uitsparing in het midden) zwart, linker handvat kurk, rechter handvat leer bruin, fietscomputer: O-synce, achterdrager vervangen: was Cannondale's eigen merk (maar die was gebroken), is nu Atranvelo, Stuureinden van Ergotec, ligstuur (alleen de arm-steunen) van Ergotec, koplamp: Herrmans H-one S (met plakband waarop V2 geschreven staat, dit is de versie met neutraal wit licht), achterlamp Spanninga Solo. Continental achterband, voorband is een Compass Barlow pass 38mm vouwband (door een lezer van mijn site gestuurd om te testen/vergelijken)

English: Cannondale bicycle, type Vintage, zwart, disc brakes. This is my test bike used the last 2 years for testing lighting and pedals and grips etc. And so it sticks out by having 2 different pedals for testing, ditto 2 different grips, left grip cork, right grip leather (brown), 3x9 gears, almost everything is black, seat post: Descendant (contrary to the pics), saddle: Brooks b17 Imperial (so with cutout in the middle) in black, bike computer: O-synce, rear rack: Atranvelo (I had to replace the original rack which was Cannondale's own brand, which broke), bar ends from Ergotec, aero bar (but only the arm rests mounted) from Ergotec, headlamps: Herrmans H-one S (with tape on which I wrote V2, this is the 2nd version of the H-one S with neutral white light), taillamp Spanninga Solo. Continental rear tyre 42-622, front tyre is a Compass Barlow pass 38mm folding tyre (sent to me for testing by a reader of my site)

Numbers on the frame: 57 1 086.128 (so: 571086128) / UN..571 (can't quite make it out)

Pics:

The method: How to do tests the right way, including how to determine what is important for tests

The following is only of interest if you are interested in understanding people, I explain a lot of the behaviour of people related to discussions on forums, newsgroups etc.

• The truth and the method. Here I analyse some misconceptions and tell you about what it means to make a good review, what do you need to measure (if anything), and what it means to be scientific. Being scientific is not about doing measurements, but about the way you analyse what needs to be analysed... You don't need to measure the exact temperature of a room to know whether it's too hot, too cold, or just right for you. Same with vibrations by dynamo hubs... A few topics: Do you ride faster with smaller wheels? Do you ride faster with a lighter bike? Does dynamo efficiency really influence your speed? The answer is no, or not significantly at best in case of dynamos, but many people think it is a big influence. Countering misconceptions about these and other topics is a big part of the process of doing proper reviews!

Last modified: 2023-2-5