Review Cycle2Charge USB hub
During our bike tour in 2021 we slowly gathered some experience with the USB hub, and we would like to share it with you. If you have any questions or remarks after this, let us know in the comments!
At first we hardly used the USB charging option, as we have not 1 but 2 Anker 20100 mAh powerbanks, which would provide enough juice for our phones and Kindles for over a week. Later in our trip, especially in Lapland, we would rely more on the USB hub to keep our devices charged.
The set-up: dynamo hub and charger
Julia, as a social media addict, has opted for the USB charger (she is also responsible for keeping the blog, it was not just Twitter and Insta). Kevin made the decision not to install anything. Julia’s Surly is equipped with a Super Precision PD-7 dynamo hub. Connected are the lights (Busch & Müller IQ-XS) and the Cycle2Charge USB hub (Version 2).
According to the specifications from Cycle2Charge, you have to cycle at least at a speed of 12 km/h to generate the 5Amp that is required for USB standards. Sounds slow, but having head wind or a hilly stretch can slow you down considerably. As there is no internal buffer battery, the output can vary wildly during riding. Therefore we choose to charge a small power bank as a go-between, thus providing constant level of power to the device you’d like to charge.
Does it work?
Yup. But we had to figure out some things (probably obvious, but OK). First of all; the head light needs to be turned off! When on, it would just suck too much power, and charging was only possible at high speed (over 20 km/h, so only downhill and with tail wind).
We also figured out that direct charging of our Android phones was possible, but only when we would switch the phones to “extreme power saving mode”. The problem was that in normal operation, the screen would constantly light up when charging, draining the battery faster than the USB hub could add. Hence the power bank in between as well.
With those 2 things in mind, we could keep our phones easily charged during the stretches where we couldn’t find a plug. Added bonus; the slow charging is actually better for the battery, and not charging to a full 100% also put less strain on the battery. So maybe we have increased the lifespan of our phones a bit.
It’s also meant that the front lightneeded to be in reach while cycling. We considered to mount the light on the front luggage rack, but in that case we have to get off our bike to switch the light on or off. Now we can do that while riding; switching the light on in tunnels or during rain, and switch it off when we want to charge our devices.
Kevin will install a similar setup for our next trip, adding redundancy and we should be able to be completely independent when it comes to electricity! He will look into the new version (v3) of Cycle2Charge, although we are also considerung the PedalCell. We will let you know of course!
