Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

HappyHumber wrote:Sorry lads. no progress.

It's all still in the pack, after the little bit of excitement yesterday with that "Achtung! Halt! USB-katzenjammer" extra piece of paper. I will say though, the new light has got as far as being taken down the shed. I spent yesterday afternoon working through a backlog of inner tube patchings after it came to a head after a particularly bad Audax run puncture wise on Saturday left me in debt to some fellow club riders tube AND tyre wise.

I'm not really doubting the light's beam, having ridden a number of times at night with just4thehallibut, since he's had his, on some quieter more isolated roads. And I am already sold on the dynamo technology, albeit with a cheapie SP-Dynamo hub ebay special in a wheel I built up. It's just that worry-wart, Aushiker and his relaying of doom & gloom from other corners of the interwebs that has got me a little concerned with regards to the product build quality.

I dare say my main feedback will come after at least one or two wet night rides. What with my amazing powers of procastination and our diminishing rainfall hereabouts in this corner of Aus..... my advice is.... don't hold yer breath!

[edit] or J4tH could boot me up the ar5e and ask for his loaner light back. That might bring things forward.

Lots of people enjoying the SP dynamo hubs.
I made do for around 15 years with a Sturmy Archer dynohub and chrome switched headlight on the Moulton and still laughed at the battery heads knowing that I just didnt have the memory to try to keep up to date with when they need replacing. I'd end up away in the sticks with no lights so dynamo hub gear was always a no brainer to me (with no brain). Any working dynamo hub is a great dynamo hub so dont get hung up on the branding.
Those ebay prices are market entry prices and once they have some of the market just watch the prices rocket accordingly. Cheap now until they have built up the brands reputation.

As for the light, I seriously doubt that B&M would have released a bad product as it would ruin their reputation.
There might be a few bad uns in a batch and there might be an update to a usb plug if theres established a water issue.
No light on the market today is without its detractors.
All of them have given a few problems.
Some of the Edelux owners here have had water ingress issues as have some of the Cyo owners.
Theres always work arounds and updates to installation instructions.
I heard tales of woe on the net when I was looking at my Edelux purchase. Many of the issues turned out, like the cyo issues, were due to upside down installation, exposing the innards access to water ingress.
A good bit of night riding with the lights on usually sorts out any moisture due to the heat drying stuff out.
Relax and enjoy is my advice. Look up a few of Westcoastpetes posts about his Edelux, which to the best of my knowledge is still working fine, despite him thinking it was all over.

HappyHumber wrote:Sorry lads. no progress.

[edit] or J4tH could boot me up the ar5e and ask for his loaner light back. That might bring things forward.

Sorry kym to tell you this. Dave wants his light back. He came around and helped me. Get this... No rear cable or female spade connectors... Not happy bumm

Yup, we've just found out from separate purchases and enquiries that B&M (bumm.de) no longer supply with their taillights a length of pre-fitted double-wire, some heat shrink and the other two spade connectors, in other words the bits that'll you'll need to connect your taillight to the headlight to make it work. If you order a taillight make sure that you order the other bits. Hear that, Herr HappyHumber?

And on that there are three recommended taillights for the Luxos headlight, all Toplight models, the Flat S Plus, Line Plus and Line Brake Plus. But as long as you get one with standlight and sensor then it should work okay. I got the brake version and in addition to having no wiring bits in the box (as above) there was no instruction manual, took me a little while to figure out that the big red button on one side was so that you could flush the cache to shut off the standlight sooner. Having had a security guard at Murdoch train station come running up to turn off my taillight (lest it frighten train drivers) and trying to do this by pulling the wires out I can see the usefulness of a big red button.

I rode about 500km with my new Luxos U light in the first week, this included a 200km Audax ride with HappyHumber in the mist, rain, squelch of frogs and thunderstorms that Mandurah provides best. Light was set up properly to avoid water issues, no silly earthing through the frame, no loose connectors, has worked perfectly out of the box.

So now after digging online, found the pre-fitted double wire. Will buy 2 from harriscyclery, right now still a bit shy from having the required spend as well. So let me know HH if you are intending on running a B & M rear light and I'll order 3 cables which will push me up over the $50 international spend requirement

Gosh & dangit.

J4tH: The wire on your loaner setup just looks like a cheap paired speaker cable type wire. I thought we might have mentioned this at one stage when I floated the idea of leaving a harness on each bike for easy light swapping? The trick was just sourcing the right sized spade connectors at Jaycar/Altronic et cetera. ?

Baalz : Hold that thought about an order to Harris... If you're chomping at the bit to get it, don't wait for me. Otherwise I'll see what more locally sourced more "universal" solutions are available.

I still haven't looked at the tail light options, as yet. But thanks for the ground work of research above, J4tH

Mmm.. I'll have to go an fetch my hairdryer and heatshrink from the S&M Club.

HappyHumber wrote:Gosh & dangit.

J4tH: The wire on your loaner setup just looks like a cheap paired speaker cable type wire. I thought we might have mentioned this at one stage when I floated the idea of leaving a harness on each bike for easy light swapping? The trick was just sourcing the right sized spade connectors at Jaycar/Altronic et cetera. ?

Baalz : Hold that thought about an order to Harris... If you're chomping at the bit to get it, don't wait for me. Otherwise I'll see what more locally sourced more "universal" solutions are available.

I still haven't looked at the tail light options, as yet. But thanks for the ground work of research above, J4tH

Mmm.. I'll have to go an fetch my hairdryer and heatshrink from the S&M Club.

Jaycar I think it is http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=PT4520 But by the time I discovered this it was too late in the day, if I had known prior to leaving work I would have gone to Jaycar maddington, Just4thellaboutit saved me

I got the Toplight line brake plus light
About the rear cable, the front cable MAY be long enough depending how you connect it. The light comes with some heatshrink, but not enough to cover all required connections. It also comes with 2 3mm spades which ofc are not enough as 4 are needed for my setup.

There's an Altronics now in Cannington, I was pleasantly surprised to find recently. Right next to one of the few (half decent) Dick Smith outlets that still has some electronic componentry. It's about opposite the Cannington phone exchange - next to the intersection with the Cop Shop on it.

Oh, and on a similar note. I see after shutting down and the windows being papered up for a few weeks - the windows were clear and there looked to be new stock on the floor again at Committed Cycles when I went past last night. Someone said elsewhere they were reopening as something else - but all the old shop signage was still there.

rifraf wrote:As for the light, I seriously doubt that B&M would have released a bad product as it would ruin their reputation.

There is growing evidence that they have ... just see the likes of the British forums, e.g., YACF. By all accounts they went to the market way to early with this one.

Andrew

I do have my concerns, Andrew. It's just I'd already spent my dosh before you bought these YACF discussions to our attention. This is why I am trying to be positive (one of the rare occasions in my life) I just better get my act together, get mine fitted and put it to some use before the Bike24/B&M Return/Warrantee period expires!

I would love to know if the people who are reporting issues are using mudguards, the reflector on the top, or they failed to have the USB port properly protected. I have noticed that my handlebar switch the silicon is not quite flush on one corner

HappyHumber wrote:I do have my concerns, Andrew. It's just I'd already spent my dosh before you bought these YACF discussions to our attention. This is why I am trying to be positive (one of the rare occasions in my life) I just better get my act together, get mine fitted and put it to some use before the Bike24/B&M Return/Warrantee period expires!

and to add to your woes, this comment was posted on the Thorn forums .

No. I've been burned by enthusiasm for BUMM rubbish before. I'l wait till I see the lamp and the beamshape in person, or in the photographs of a reliable, known person, not a salesman. The remark in that review about the "hotspot not being too bad" gives me plenty of pause and should give you pause too; it's a judgement that's influenced by a new toy, and in a few weeks could shift to "that ™‹›fifl‡° hotspot is really, really irritating".

That said there has been no further reports of woe in the thread ... maybe a good sign

Andrew

I cycled to Ardross tonight and loved the light. Got to phils house he was waiting for me outside and yep he is going to buy it as well

If you see someone's retic on on the way home... take a detour across their lawn. Better still.. do a few a laps of it.

Ah... interesting I see there's some better/more humanistic translations of that German Addendum Andrew reposted over at YACF. Read from his post down

Erk! Divide by Zero... Circular Reference... I'm sorry you can't do that, Dave...... Daisy, Daisy... give me your..... number....

Well there is a forecast for next week showers so I'll go cycling out to see what happens.

Any updates HH?

Yeh, why aren't you out there pedalling around in that thunderstorm?

Ah, well.. I got my 200km permanent in earlier on Wednesday and more northwards than your goodself, J4tH.

As for the light we'ved dubbed the Boofenmüller - It got maybe an hour and a half usage in the dark heading from home, to the start at Deep Water Point, then south along the freeway Path. I had it still on as things were getting lighter and when I mixed it again with traffic at various other stages of the route.

Don't know what to say about it yet. Still early days. The only moisture the light would've seen was the odd drop of my sweat and a few pathetic spats of rain as I returned home from the finish point shortly before 5pm. If memory serves, I don't think the real weather front came through until after 7pm in the metro area.

The myriad of modes available is a little overwhelming at first. I was quite happy to run the light without the remote switch as I'm not gadgetted up enough to really need the USB socket presently, but as J4tH pointed out to me some of the various modes are not accessible without the remote switch. It's a little hard to play with the modes with the bike stationary and the dyno not turning. Or alternatively, to see the difference in modes riding in daylight!

I just saw this http://www.joe-bike.com/2013/06/12/safe ... read-this/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and have just received both of these lights. Baalzamon you were using this set up? have you experienced any problems?

Might have barely 1000 km on my head unit, after a few brevets since last posting. None of these Ks though have been in the wet and I have been still fluffing around with my tail light; having swapped between a couple of loaners from J4tH.

The jury is still out as far as the perceived quality goes from my perspective.

Krus07 wrote:I just saw this http://www.joe-bike.com/2013/06/12/safe ... read-this/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and have just received both of these lights. Baalzamon you were using this set up? have you experienced any problems?

Nope, mine is fine.

I had my bike on my stand, took the light off the mount and walked away, and my bike and stand fell over and broked one of the connections to the rear light. Not happy. B & M is a bit cheap on that area compared to supernova

Hmm.. Thanks Baalzamon. I guess ill have a go at running them together and if it doesn't work, buy the new brake line pulse when I'm over in Germany next month.

Hi All

First post - I am the Melbourne cyclist whose Luxos U failed who Aushiker referred to. I thought that I would post here and save Aushiker the hassle of reposting. I should point out that my light was never used in the rain (and I have mudguards in any case), that my dynamo is now happily running another light (so it wasn't the dynamo that was the problem) and that the light was correctly installed, including the remote.

I sent my light back to Germany in April and have now been told that my purchase price will be refunded. In relation to the German retailers that is pretty much unheard of in my experience and suggests that there is a systemic problem with the Luxos. H&S Bike Discount GmbH also specifically told me at the start that they would NOT refund my purchase price, so clearly something has changed.

rifraf wrote:As for the light, I seriously doubt that B&M would have released a bad product as it would ruin their reputation.

I could post at length on this issue, but the short version is that I have had four B&M lights in the last 6 years and three of them have simply failed and the fourth (an Ixon IQ) is so flawed that I don't use it, i.e., it's not fit for purpose. I'd suggest that, contrary to the above, producing a good product might ruin B&M's reputation.

Arapiles wrote:In relation to the German retailers that is pretty much unheard of in my experience and suggests that there is a systemic problem with the Luxos. H&S Bike Discount GmbH also specifically told me at the start that they would NOT refund my purchase price, so clearly something has changed.

German and European laws gives consumers a lot of right - in fact they are even better than in Australia with regard to returns (both cooling-off and warranty).

The sole difficulty I can see is when the buyer is outside of the EU and that their rights may not be (enforcably) protected to the same extent. However it still seems that a retailer may have problems if they can legally sell an item but then remove universally accepted basic customer rights for faulty products.

My guess is that they are trying to palm-off issues to save money and costs even though they are liable.

AUbicycles wrote: German and European laws gives consumers a lot of right - in fact they are even better than in Australia with regard to returns (both cooling-off and warranty).

My experience has been that whilst the UK retailers like Wiggle will immediately replace something that is faulty with a new product, with no quibbles, the German retailers will get you to send it back to them, whereupon they will send it to the manufacturer who will check/repair etc and then send it back to the retailer who will send it back to you. All that takes time - in my case a B&M light I sent back to the retailer was lost by them and eventually got back to me about 6 months later - unreplaced and unrepaired because the manufacturer said there was no problem with it.

H&S Bike Discount refused to pay for the return of my Luxos because I was outside of the EU. They did not have a sensible response to my query why, in that case they were happy to sell outside of the EU.

Hmm, I sent my Supernova E3's (f&r) to bike24 a few weeks back, I guess I'm in for a looong wait.
In the mean time I hooked up a Luxos U, which has only been exposed to a light sprinkle of rain to date, I'll be keeping a close eye on it!