Maybe one day someone will come along and make a better dynamo hub than the Schmidt. Until that day, know that the Schmidt hub is the best dynamo hub out there. In addition to being a solid producer of electricity while you ride, the hub is also a good… hub. It has great bearings, big thick flanges that are widely spaced. The finish is immaculate. On par with White Industries hubs. The only downside to the Schmidt hub (besides cost) is the electrical connection. In their stock form, connecting a light to the hub is a sticky situation, literally. The spade bits are hard to push on the hub’s electrical contacts, and harder to get off. Folks tend to yank on the wire, not the spade bit, and even the highest quality spade bit crimp job can fail under loads like that. That leaves ya without a light if get a front flat at night. No easy field repair. The solution? Have us solder on Schmidts elegant coaxial hub connecter. Ok, back to the good stuff. Buy this hub if you want the most efficient, best looking, longest lasting, strongest dynamo front hub out there. The wider flanges and beefier axle make for a much stiffer front wheel than the Shutter Precision hub. If you are a bigger rider, or smack into things, or tour, or ride off road, get this hub. If you are an occasional rider, under 150 lbs, and on a budget, consider the Shutter Precision hub. It’s a good hub, too, just not as beefy and over built as the Schmidt. Drag? Yeah, there is drag. There is also drag coming from the friction in your chain, tires, derailleur pulleys, bottom bracket bearings, baggy shorts, bike bags, and Ray Bans. Do you feel it? No more than all of those other things. In the work stand or truing stand, you can feel it, a notchy-ness coming from the magnets in the dynamo. Maybe you could also feel it on a glass smooth wooden velodrome or on some big aluminum rollers. But in the real world, you don’t feel it. It’s a non issue. We leave our lights running all the time, the most draggy set up possible, and folks routinely ask ‘how does your bike descend so fast?’. Well, it’s because we have a reliable light, so we can see better than everyone else, and so we can bomb the hills faster than everyone else. Not because the hub is a huge energy sink! Combine this hub with the Schmidt Edelux II headlight for road, easy trails, fire roads, bike paths, commuting, that sort of thing. Use a Sinewave Beacon for off-road stuff. Need a taillight and don’t mind a taillight wire? Check out our offerings from Busch and Muller and Schmidt. Tail light wires bum ya out? Scope our battery offerings from Lezyne, Busch and Muller and Spanninga.
