My son is doing the Great Vic bike ride this year. It will be his 3rd time since doing it with his school in 2009.
At the campsites they provide mobile phone charging stations, where you leave your phone overnight. This time he thought it would be better to get a small solar phone charger so he can keep his phone with him. However, it seemed to me that it would be more practical to charge it while riding.
I did a quick web search and found numerous devices available - virtually all of them Chinese of course.
There are the obvious old-fashioned type fork-mounted dynamos which are driven by friction on the side of the tyre. These are a modern version with a 5V USB output and phone charging cable, but at a glance the dynamo itself looks the same as the old ones.
There is a chain driven one mounted on the rear fork.
And even an air turbine for mounting on the handlebars. (Sounds a bit optimistic)
Does anyone have any practical experience or knowledge of these devices and what is available?
His bike is a modern lightweight serious road bike. Not a commuter bike. It's all head down and bum up. My concern is that the tyre-driven dynamos like the one I had on my Malvern Star in the 1960s is probably going to be a bit rough on those thin racing tyres, particularly when the speed gets up a bit.
