Indistinguishable From Magic

Josh Meissner writes about wonders of self-powered bicycle lights.

Humor me for a second
and imagine a car for getting around without headlights to see and be seen. If that seems ridiculous, then you understand how I feel about unreliable lights on bikes that I rely on.

Even after years of riding with the reassuring illumination of dynamo lights, seeing my lights flicker alive thanks to my pedaling brings me undiminished joy. It’s the same fascination as the faint hand-powered flashlight I had as a kid, except a hundred times stronger. Dynamo lighting is a game-changing and satisfying extension of the bicycle, as I both illuminate my path and move along it under my own power.

Faint too are my childhood memories of cranking along with the old rim-drive dynamos and dim halogen bulbs, which seemed to mainly sap the legs rather than produce a usable beam. Nowadays, modern hub dynamos and LED lights are silent, efficient, and bright. They remind me of Clarke‘s third law: „Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.“

Nowadays, modern hub dynamos and LED lights are silent, efficient, and bright.

The beauty about dynamo lighting is that it‘s simple analog tech. Pedaling the bike turns magnets in the dynamo hub, which induces a current into the copper wire. The hub acts as an electrical generator for the headlight that illuminates your path. There‘s no app; it‘s just basic physics.

Yet, this little bundle of magnets and copper fundamentally transforms how I cycle. They light up the night, increase flexibility, and generally make riding safer. I don‘t worry about charging batteries or being caught out in the dark. I can just get on and go, any time and for however long I want, whether I‘m navigating the city, the countryside, or touring further afield.

But I also know that with a comfortable, utilitarian, dynamo-equipped bike, cycling can be so much more than a sunny afternoon activity.

Always-on lighting, along with fenders and racks, turns the bicycle into a highly effective mode of individual transport. There’s some irony in the fact that the modern dynamo hub was invented in car-obsessed Germany. At least on this issue, my home country is, for once, on the right side of history.

The only problem is that since I’ve gone team dynamo, I can‘t conceive owning a bike without one. It would feel incomplete, like a bike without brakes. Okay, those exist, but they aren‘t for me. My city bike has a dynamo, my touring bike has one, my mountain bike has one. Somehow, all my friends have dynamo lights. My future child’s push-bike won‘t be without. I might have an addiction.

But I also know that with a comfortable, utilitarian, dynamo-equipped bike, cycling can be so much more than a sunny afternoon activity. It’s an infinitely flexible mode of movement on a human scale—a beautiful way of being.