W**E
Not for all wheels. Does not work on wheel with 36 spokes.
I purchased this dynamo thinking it would fit my bike. I measured all the the part of my bike wheel that were required prior to purchasing and everything fell within the ranges published in the description. When I recieved the package. I noticed slight damage to outside packaging. Inside the product package everthing was disloged from the Styrofoam material an scattered throughout the box. Insection of the generator revealed that the on/off switch was broken. I did try to put the generator on my bike to see if I wanted to purchace a replacement, but plastic teeth wouldn't stay with the spokes. They kept jumping over the spokes and when the tire was spun it sounded like I had attached playing card to the bike. My wheel has 36 spokes and there was no position where the generator teeth would fall correctly in between them. The product may work for a wheel with less spokes.
W**N
Works as advertised
The media could not be loaded. Note that I received this product for a discount in exchange for this product review.I would have given this 2.5 stars - however, I could only choose 2 or 3.Pros- Works as advertised- Comes with a nicely constructed water-resistant USB cable and unit looks waterproof.- While the wheel does have some spinning resistance against it when the clutch is engaged and the unit it charging, There was no noticeable resistance during my riding. I rode up some aggressive hills while still charging and did not feel any difference.Cons- Instructions are fairly difficult and hard to translate (see picture).- This device only works with very specific wheel hubs. I had a smooth hub originally (See attached photo of Fulcrum Hub) and had to change it out to get this unit to work (luckily I had other wheels around). The charging unit has two small opposing teeth on the face of the clutch that stick into the spokes or the place where the spokes attach to the hub. When the wheel rotates, it then rotates the clutch wheel. This limits it to working with some types of wheels - but not all.- Not exactly "Frictionless" as mentioned. It is a Dynamo charger that requires physical spinning to generate a charge - there is some resistance.- Not removable - when you want to charge something, you have to be at the bike to do it- Only comes with a mini-USB cable... not great for iPhone users.- Plastic construction - I have some reservations on its durability. There is a minor slow vibration as the wheel turns that makes me concerned about material fatigue over time. The rotor that engages the hub or spokes has a very small raised cog to catch the hub. It will slip if not installed ideally.General- There is a minor whirring noise while the unit is charging.- At 1000mAh - it took one hour to charge my Android phone 20%. It would take five hours to charge it completely.- Unit had some minor scratches on the protective plastic cover when it arrived out of the box. There is plastic protective coating on the unit - which protected the unit. It appeared that this unit was tested or run prior to packaging... thus the scratching on the exterior of the protective plastic.Packaging- Upon first opening the package, there was some chaos going on in the box. The exterior spacers were floating around loosely in the box. There was a small foam cylinder that held the hub spacers in place, they could use this same mechanism to hold the other round pieces together instead of letting them float in the package.Instructions- The instructions were almost unintelligible. They were obviously written from Chinese and loosely translated to English. The diagrams were not extremely helpful and more visuals could have been added.Installation- The installation took about an hour. Much of that was trying to figure out what the instructions were trying to say. It was a bit cumbersome to hold the unit while assembling the wheel onto the hub, Several times the charging unit slipped off over the hub, over the provided rings and needed to be re-positioned before locking the hub. I am not looking forward to taking this device off or removing the wheel if I have a flat tire. I would have to remove the the hub spindle completely from the wheel to get the wheel to go past the (now fixed to the fork) charger. It is not meant to come off and be put on again (i.e. not portable).Operation- The operation is pretty straight forward. You do have a small rotating switch you need to turn to engage the charging clutch. You can not do this while the bike is in motion. So you have to stop to engage or disengage charging.- The LED on the unit is fairly self-explanatory - showing charging vs idle or discharging.Overall, I'm happy with the product on its maiden ride. This company can do itself many favors by hiring an English translator for the instructions and posting better videos or pictures of the installation. They can also do a better job in packaging the product.I'll post more about its durability and efficiency as I use it.Update 09/28/16:- I just road my bike over 400 miles in a week period and used this charger for my sole phone and GPS charger. The unit worked fine for keeping my devices topped off.- It did not charge well on one day of the ride (the indicator said it was fully charged - but it was not).- I have gotten used to taking this unit off the bike for tire/tube changes. I have removed it a dozen times and it gets easier with practice.- I devised a way to charge a portable battery charger from this unit while I ride - this allows me to remove the remote charger and carry it with me.- It is holding up and still working fine.
Trustpilot
2 weeks ago
1 week ago
