Will it work?

Ok very new to custom / homemade bike lights but I have been thinking about what I could use (or reuse) to make my own bike light.

I found an old (maybe 8 yrs old) 5 D-Cell Maglight in the garage on the weekend, how hard would it be to cut it down and convert into a bike light?

I mainly do commuting type rides with the occasional night ride once or twice a month. I'm not looking to blind every oncoming rider but would like to see the path a lot better.

Is it possible to reuse the maglight head and body to make the light with an upgraded LED and use an external battery pack?

I was thinking about using something like these:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/11-1V-2000mA...ronics_Batteries_Chargers&hash=item2c546620e2

Any ideas (or links if it has been done before?)..

if You only use the head, You dont have to cut down the body.
For the head there is a bunch of almost-ready-made parts, like heatsinks/thermal/led mounting plates, available.
Very good for starting, as is the whole light, because there is much space inside the head.

If You absolutley have to cut down the body, use it as an additional body for a light head
like this old mod here:



batt pack individually wrapped (shrink tube), not inside a metal container.