You are lucky my friend! I have experience with both these lamps.
I have the “old” Luxos U (so does Bbill, he could probably fill in everything I’m missing…) and it has withstood lots and lots of rain, nothing borken or dead yet. A “cheap” place to get them is German amazon, that’s were I got mine. Sure I wouldn’t charge anything when it’s raining/wet, but that feels like common sense to me and B&M strongly advices against it…
So maybe the new verision is superior to mine., I dunno.
Some pros/cons:
Luxos U can charge while running the light at half blast-mode.
The Axa can’t charge while running the light at all, either charge or light.
Luxos has a small threshold until it starts puttin juice to your phone, around 12km/s. This way you don’t burst small doses of electricity when moving the bike around, the Axa doesn’t have this feature and it’ll take toll on your battery in the long run.
The Axa is HELLA sensitive to water, we are talking basically no protection/seals anywhere. It’s also not very well built.
To charge with the Axa you need to open a port down on the light and plug your cable in every god damn time. This “lid” is shit and will likely come of within a week leaving your usb-port exposed when ever you don’t charge something…
The Luxos has a nifty on/off/light signal/full-/half-blast button that you snap on your handlebars which also doubles as usb-port, really great to be able to turn the light completly off during day-time. It bothers me to ride around in full daylight with my front light on…
I could go on forever, but you get my point.
Don’t buy the Axa, you’ll need to replace it so soon that you’d wish you just bought the Luxos the first time.
Oh man, didn’t know about the possibility of sending a “light signal” flash with the Luxos U without turning the light on then off. If that’s what you meant, it’s great. I want one. Don’t care if that and the adjusting beam will end up seeming like gimmicks, 'cause if so they’re incredible gimmicks.
What’s the output of the USB port? I could search, but you’re doing a good job, Victor.
[quote=Viggen]You are lucky my friend! I have experience with both these lamps.
…
I could go on forever, but you get my point.
Don’t buy the Axa, you’ll need to replace it so soon that you’d wish you just bought the Luxos the first time.[/quote]
Thanks, appreciate it. I guess I’ll cough up the money for the Luxos. I have a friend who wants a similar setup but probably won’t be willing to spend this much on it. So… did your Axa fail or is it still working? Where would you put it on a scale of mildly janky but functional to useless turd?
The light beam is really really good, gimmicks or not.
Riding through pitch black forests during northern european winter/autumn?
No problem.
[quote=lofarkas]
Thanks, appreciate it. I guess I’ll cough up the money for the Luxos. I have a friend who wants a similar setup but probably won’t be willing to spend this much on it. So… did your Axa fail or is it still working? Where would you put it on a scale of mildly janky but functional to useless turd?[/quote]
No problems, I’m glad to a tarcker help out.
It’s barely still working, so kinda janky and functional but expect no wonders.
I already have a 5000MaH external battery pack with a built-in solar panel. It’s great but it’s not enough if you’re camping in the woods for a couple of days. That small solar panel doesn’t generate much juice so you still need to visit wall chargers, just at greater intervals. Of course I could buy 3 battery packs and be set for a week, or carry around a bigass solar panel but a dynamo is kinda more elegant, and the idea of not having to wander around campsites looking for a wall socket and worry about whether my shit will get stolen is appealing. Really advanced big solar panels tend to cost more than a dynohub and you’re still fucked if it’s cloudy.
One of the reasons I want a dynamo setup is to track my rides with GPS. That uses quite a lot of juice, so the best way to do it while occasionally camping away from electricity is a dynohub.
I was just going to buy a $100 Shimano and call it a day. I’ll come back here with hub questions later. I can’t bring myself to go down this rabbit hole now.
This has been my conclusion. Use a dyno to dump into a battery pack all the live long day, and at night use the battery pack to charge your goodies. Direct charge seems to be a nonstartrer unless you can hit and maintain decent speed for decent periods of time which can be difficult in the PNW.
You can do solar, but you can’t do cheap solar. Better panels have a better convergence rate. Expect to pay 4 or 5 bills for a decent one, and like the above, forget direct charge. Use it to dump into a battery pack all the live long day, and then use the battery pack to charge your goodies.
Damn it. Just got an Anker Slim (6000 mAh) 'cause it’s supposed to be the cream of the crop. The Satechi has a 2A out port and 10 Ah for the same weight and volume.
Sorry I meant for your friend, not you. If he(she?) doesn’t want to spend for the Luxos, and especially if he doesn’t already have a dyno hub wheel built up, then I think a non dyno light + battery booster makes more sense.
^He wants to be able to charge cell phones and e-cigarettes for himself and a buddy of his for a couple of days while camping in the woods. It’s doable with a large capacity battery pack (or several smaller ones) but a dynohub+battery pack would provide much more flexibility and peace of mind. Those guys go through a ton of e-cigarette batteries and they get very nervous when they start running out…
Mounted the Luxos on this center-pull brake arm and then rode it for 30 drunk miles in the dark last night with .83. I am so impressed with this light I want to poop.
Nearfield light pattern =
Longfield light pattern =
Horizon cutoff =
Brightness =
Light color =
Flood light = (could be better but not complaining at all)
Attention hello light =
Handlebar remote control =
Integrated USB charger =
Standlight =
Funny story - the other night I pedaled to my local pub and upon reaching it realized my wheel was on backwards and my dynamo wasn’t plugged in! I rode there the whole way on the standlight and didn’t realize it. That’s how fucking good it is. (I knew something was up but thought I just needed to re-point the light or something.)
Gentlemen, the crown has passed from the Cyo to the Luxos for best dyno light ever.
