Coop
Flashlight Enthusiast
The front lighting of my bike used to be done with 2 lights on 2fish lockblocks on my handlebars, but it seems I created a little problem for myself.
!! Warning !! Long post ahead
Recently, my saddlebag died, a 4lbs chainlock in a saddlebag intended for a lightweight rain jacket and a puncture repair kit might not have been such a good idea afterall. :shrug: I wanted something a little more spacious and stronger to replace it, so I went with a Ortlieb 'Ultimate 5 plus' handlebar bag. The bag itself is great, everything I was looking for in a bag, but when mounted it sits a little higher than the handlebars, making the use of handlebar mounted lights impossible.
I've been looking at other mounting options, found a lot and discarded all but one (and that one works but is absolutely fugly) and I would like to keep it a bit good looking as it's a very nice bike...
Moving the lockblocks to another position on the handlebars doesn't work as I mounted curved bars due to shoulderpains. While there is plenty of space, the curve of the bar makes it impossible to use the lockblocks, the lights would point away from the road, making them useless.
I looked at other handlebar mounts, like the adjustale Fenix mount, but the mounting clamp is too long and wouldn't fit on the curved bars.
I looked at things like the minoura spacegrip and the likes, but they interfere with the opening of the bag (it opens towards the front of the bike), so that option is out.
I thought about mounting a 2nd stem, with a piece of cut off handlebar and mount the bag on that, below the handlebars, allowing me to keep the lighs in their original position. But I already have a extender mounted, which doesnt have enough space on it for a 2nd stem to be installed in a safe manner.
So much for the stem & handlebar related options.... On with the fork...
My bike has a carbon fork, the fork doesn't have mounting points for anything else than brakes. I dont want to clamp anything to the fork in a place that's not reinforced, so the option of using a clamp-on stud is out, there's a rubber band clamp-on stud variety too, but these are not suitable to mount lights with on-board batteries on.
I want to keep the disc mounts free for a possible future disc upgrade and I prefer central mounted lights as they give less of a shadow from the rim. The v-brake mounts are currently in use for my brakes so that only leaves the mounting point at the fork crown for the road bike style drop brakes. This is a good thing, as it allows for the desired central mounting position, I found a (Thorn brand) ready made mounting bracket, but there's also the top bit of the v-brake assembly thats very much in the way for this.
I even considered losing the battery lights alltogether and go with a dynamo setup. As there are plenty standard brackets available for dynamo powered lamps to mount to the fork crown. But due to the carbon fork & clamping issue, a bottle dynamo is out (and my AXA HR dynamo doesn't fit properly on the rear of my bike due to s-bend seatstays). So that would mean getting a hub dynamo, which would mean an entire new or rebuild front wheel and as I want to keep the disc brake option open, I'd be pretty much stuck with the Shimano Alfine or SON hub dynamo, both quite a bit out of my price range at the moment.
The one option I have left is to make a mounting bracket myself, which isn't too hard (a bent strip of aluminium flat bar, some nuts & bolts and a piece of tubing to strap the 2 lockblocks to would do just fine) but as I have very little tooling when it comes to working with metal, it would become one ugly *** hackjob... :sigh:
So, does anyone have a suggestion on where to buy or how to make a decent looking sort of T-bar construction to host 2 lockblocks that mounts to the fork crown brake mounting point and doesn't interfere with the v-brakes?
Some pics that hopefully are helpful
the curved handlebars:
the front v-brake setup:
and just for fun:
my new handlebar bag 🙂
!! Warning !! Long post ahead
Recently, my saddlebag died, a 4lbs chainlock in a saddlebag intended for a lightweight rain jacket and a puncture repair kit might not have been such a good idea afterall. :shrug: I wanted something a little more spacious and stronger to replace it, so I went with a Ortlieb 'Ultimate 5 plus' handlebar bag. The bag itself is great, everything I was looking for in a bag, but when mounted it sits a little higher than the handlebars, making the use of handlebar mounted lights impossible.
I've been looking at other mounting options, found a lot and discarded all but one (and that one works but is absolutely fugly) and I would like to keep it a bit good looking as it's a very nice bike...
Moving the lockblocks to another position on the handlebars doesn't work as I mounted curved bars due to shoulderpains. While there is plenty of space, the curve of the bar makes it impossible to use the lockblocks, the lights would point away from the road, making them useless.
I looked at other handlebar mounts, like the adjustale Fenix mount, but the mounting clamp is too long and wouldn't fit on the curved bars.
I looked at things like the minoura spacegrip and the likes, but they interfere with the opening of the bag (it opens towards the front of the bike), so that option is out.
I thought about mounting a 2nd stem, with a piece of cut off handlebar and mount the bag on that, below the handlebars, allowing me to keep the lighs in their original position. But I already have a extender mounted, which doesnt have enough space on it for a 2nd stem to be installed in a safe manner.
So much for the stem & handlebar related options.... On with the fork...
My bike has a carbon fork, the fork doesn't have mounting points for anything else than brakes. I dont want to clamp anything to the fork in a place that's not reinforced, so the option of using a clamp-on stud is out, there's a rubber band clamp-on stud variety too, but these are not suitable to mount lights with on-board batteries on.
I want to keep the disc mounts free for a possible future disc upgrade and I prefer central mounted lights as they give less of a shadow from the rim. The v-brake mounts are currently in use for my brakes so that only leaves the mounting point at the fork crown for the road bike style drop brakes. This is a good thing, as it allows for the desired central mounting position, I found a (Thorn brand) ready made mounting bracket, but there's also the top bit of the v-brake assembly thats very much in the way for this.
I even considered losing the battery lights alltogether and go with a dynamo setup. As there are plenty standard brackets available for dynamo powered lamps to mount to the fork crown. But due to the carbon fork & clamping issue, a bottle dynamo is out (and my AXA HR dynamo doesn't fit properly on the rear of my bike due to s-bend seatstays). So that would mean getting a hub dynamo, which would mean an entire new or rebuild front wheel and as I want to keep the disc brake option open, I'd be pretty much stuck with the Shimano Alfine or SON hub dynamo, both quite a bit out of my price range at the moment.
The one option I have left is to make a mounting bracket myself, which isn't too hard (a bent strip of aluminium flat bar, some nuts & bolts and a piece of tubing to strap the 2 lockblocks to would do just fine) but as I have very little tooling when it comes to working with metal, it would become one ugly *** hackjob... :sigh:
So, does anyone have a suggestion on where to buy or how to make a decent looking sort of T-bar construction to host 2 lockblocks that mounts to the fork crown brake mounting point and doesn't interfere with the v-brakes?
Some pics that hopefully are helpful
the curved handlebars:
the front v-brake setup:
and just for fun:
my new handlebar bag 🙂
Last edited:
