hi,
I'm not a cyclist, but a few quick comments:
- Been done. A friend of mine did this years ago, not quite as simple cirucit, and he had two magnets on the wheel to charge a large cap. LED's in series to reduce the resistor loss and a cheap regulator. Flashing/OFF/ON switch.
- I'm sure those LED's are bright, but 'mcd' isn't really an indication of light output, just in the 'forward' direction, even so, I don't think it would be bright enough for true safety.
- Of course there will be drag, but i doubt if it would be noticable, and no where near the same as a dynamo.
Bout time this sort of thing was published on a webpage though, its a start for sure. Wonder when supercaps will start replacing batteries in apps like this?
Blueteeth.