The Fahrradzukunft magazine published a highly interesting review about dynohub chargers conducted by dynohub manufacturer Schmidt and others. The article was published in German language and unfortunately does not cover my Jawetec charger due to its unavailability. However, there are several interesting devices including the pedalpower+ stuff (check my link bar for more information on it!).
Update: the Fahrradzukunft magazine recently published part II of the USB charger article with some more very interesting devices and updates.

A short note on this blog: Most likely I will continue writing this blog at slow rate in German language. Xtracycle released several very interesting new addons and pannier kits and things are going on, but it is not such a big hype anymore. I believe it is worth of talking about in our native language, although big dummy cargo bicycles are still not a big issue here. At least, people realize the concept is useful, and I still love its great versatility and riding style.

The image shows my new ensemble of USB gadgets, the mobile power supply chain I will be using for further touring. Located uppermost is the JaWeTec bikecharger, that I had used formerly. See my previous posts about this topic. The bikecharger is connected to the dynohub und will create constant DC of 5V at its USB-out which is wired to DC-in of the new lightweighted SwissBatteries PowerTank M. This basically is some sort of optimized rechargable LiPo battery pack with some electronic circuit. The PowerTank will on the other hand permanently feed the Garmin GPS (without internal batteries) at its USB-out. This works, but I need to test whether the bikecharger will be able to keep up enough power level to ensure continuous operation of the GPS in the long run.

Finally I received missing Sapim Force spokes of length 254mm in black colour and built the new Big Dummy front wheel with lightweighted SON 20R dynohub and strong Spank Subrosa rim in chocolate colour. This time I took some pictures showing the building process which should pretty much follow Sheldon Browns guidelines with 3 crossings. Leading spokes run at inside at outermost crossing to maintain better tension at trailing spokes when braking hard with disk brakes.
The resulting wheel should be very strong. It has got 1197g of weight (including rim tape, without quickrelease axle). That appears quite ok for a durable disk brake dynohub wheel. The new front wheel will replace my current SON 28 / Spank Subrosa front wheel at the Big Dummy. The latter one will be installed at our winter MTB where it will replace an older Shimano dynohub wheel, making it easier to juggle lighting equipment between those cycles just in case. Also I can finally install my Shimano XT centerlock front disk rotor to the Big Dummy, replacing a cheap noname 6 bolt rotor. And last but not least, it will shave off another 200g of weight without introducing any compromise.

Click to load gallery!

Here it is. Measured 392g of weight without axle. Note there is some protective plastic coating around the hub making it less shiny than it actually is. Plastic will be removed after wheelbuilding.
Unfortunately silver spokes were supplied instead of black, so I will have to wait some more days before being able to build and ride the new wheel.

Within the last days, the brandnew Schmidt dynamo 20R came out as centerlock version.

Check manufacturer Schmidts homepage for details. I hope I will receive this item within the next few weeks. It will replace my SON28 disk hub in the Big Dummy, shaving 200g of weight off the latter. Also, I will finally be able to install my Shimano XT 2008 disk rotor with it. Currently I need to use some 6-bolt replacement rotor instead. Maybe, probably, this could have an impact on the fork oscillation issue mentioned previously. I hope so, but I do not know at all.

Late addendum: In the manufacturers installation document there is a clear statement against using this hub dynamo together with disk brake in tandems or cargo bicycles with front wheel(s) sized bigger than 20″. I have not been aware of that severe restriction until I found the mentioned document to be released, so I would like to point it out.

Using some pocket navigation or GPS device for big dummy touring may seem a good idea. For those, using dynamo hubs, JaWeTec in Germany provides some interesting solution for charging USB devices as like PNAs, music players and whatever. A similar device is available at Stollberg Elektrotechnik in Germany. For real outdoor freaks, there even is some 12V solar charging device available (Switzerland), and there is another German supplier with lots of useful navigation equipment and accessories for bicycling usage.

Late addendum: Zzing provide some USB dynohub charger with internal batterie buffering. It works similar to the Jawetec charger but will keep up delivering power even when cycle stops or goes uphill slowly.
Another very flexible solution could be a combination of a small unbuffered dynohub-USB charger (see above) with the SwissBatteries PowerTank which is some sort of mobile power buffer rechargeable in several ways and providing USB out.
Also I would like to mention Pedalpower+, an Australian supplier with several very interesting dynohub solutions, even providing DC hub generators.
And here is another one I recently found: Busch & Müller E-Werk is a brand new universal dynohub charger, apparently without an internal battery buffering, similar to the Jawetec charger.

Basically the BD frame builds up straight forward without any concerns or caveats. Get yourself some long cables, liners and wires and start. Here are just some small issues I encountered when building up the big dummy at home. Please have a look at Surly Spew for the real important topics of it.

Disk brakes

• When using disk brakes, take care you can get some rear brake tubing of probably 190cm in length. Magura offers up to 250cm, Shimano does not. With my 2008 Shimano XT disk brakes I had to use replacement tubing. I had a 250cm Magura liner in my toolbox, so I cut off Maguras fixed end and installed both ends with Shimano olives and Shimano hex nuts.
• At my forks IS2000 clamp, the Shimano caliper needed some more radial offset since there was not enough clearance between disk and caliper. Luckywise the caliper uses postmount standard and therefore I could insert some spacers between caliper and postmount adapter. I have no idea how this could be fixed with some IS2000 caliper.
• Take care for freeloader bag! Put some protective material at the inside of the left freeloader bag, where it hits the caliper. At long downhill sections it might get too hot for the nylon material. Or better use the quite expensive Xtracycle disk mount kit pretty well pictured in this nice BD build to protect freeloader bag from hitting any hot brake parts.

Tires and fenders

• Surly permits use of 2.5″ tires. With Schwalbe Fat Frank 2.35″ I realize there is enough lateral tire clearance, but it gets very tight at the rear end of the frame since this type of tire has got quite a high profile. Maybe this is the reason why it offers great riding comfort while being quite fast on the other hand.
• Mud catchers: frame and fork offer several thread eyelets for different purposes. I use SKS Bluemels, ATB version. These are lightweighted adaptive mudguards made from plastics fitting most 26″ bikes. Tire width should not exceed 2.25″ according to SKS, but it fits 2.35 Fat Frank tires on 30mm wide Subrosa rims as well, as shown in picture below. There is not much clearance in between, but it works. At the left side, I cut away one of the holding stays since it collided with brake caliper. It would easily be possible to mount it above the brake caliper since there are some more eyelets, but I decided to leave those for later usage. Front guard mounting is visible in the picture to the right. Take care there are safety clips installed at the front fender stays allowing them getting ripped off from eyelets, to avoid wheel blockage in case some stuff gets in between tire and fender.

Drive train

• The BD can be driven every way you like, but I prefer internal gear hubs. While Rohloff is too expensive, NuVinci is very interesting but too heavy and SRAM i9 is too heavy compared to Alfine, I chose Shimano Alfine 8 speed hub (1600g) with a 20 teeth sprocket. This hub is quite cheap, looks nice, seems to be durable and fits the frame, although the dropout slots are a bit too small for the anti torsion spacers. It could easily be used in combination with a dual crankset and front deraillieur, since a chain tensioning device is needed anyway due to vertical dropout slots.
  Nevertheless, for me it works with single chainwheel and 8 gears, and I do not even need a long shifting cable since Shimanos standard length of 210mm will fit by far. I believe it is nice to have only one cable instead of 2 for Rohloff or NuVinci, just for simplicity. Removing the rear wheel is slightly more messy, on the other hand.
• Although being 173cm in size, I am using short cranks of 160mm length. At the BD this is of advantage due to low ground clearance when going slopes and riding offroad and bumps. I may recommend Token bottom brackets made from carbon and steel. These are lightweighted and up to now appear to work completely silent without any cracking noises. In Germany you may get them for instance at Radplan Delta together with fine and lightweighted cranksets from TA Specialites or Sugino or many others. With a 34 teeth chainwheel I am capable of riding uphills at 15-20% and even more, strongly depending on the load, and it is still possible to pedal at speeds up to 40km/h.

Xtracycle

The Xtracycle rack is mounted losely. There is no fixed connection holding it in place. Since I do not like the lateral sloppyness of the V-racks, I wrapped some tape around its exterior tube sections before plugging them into the rear frame extension. This way the V-racks will stay in place a bit better and sloppyness is reduced. Also, as suggested by Surly Spew, use sections of thin bicycle tube covering the connection sections to avoid water, rain and dirt getting into the frame tubing where V-racks are mounted.
Nevertheless, always use some strap to connect V-racks to each other, no matter whether snap deck is mounted or not. When riding out of saddle and swinging the bike laterally your load might behave badly otherwise.
I have mounted a child seat on the snap deck. When using it, I fix it by a strong strap connecting it to the V-racks and being pulled firmly. Also I have several leather pedal straps for multiple purposes as to my needs.

Bicycle electrics

To me it sounds very reasonable to put lighting equipment on a cycle like the BD. Apart from being obligatory in several countries, there is no way around it when riding at night. Since I do not like messing around with batteries, I installed a SON dynamo hub with LED rear- and front lights and firm 2 wire cabling. Everything works without batteries. There is light even when bicycle stops. The Xtracycle V-racks are a perfect place to mount a tail light and some reflecting stuff. The headlight is mounted at the usual location at the fork.