Looking for a bike solution - bike light, flashlight w/bar mount?

[IdRatherBeFishing]

I am starting to ride a bike some more here and have a couple Fenix PD35's to use. One I have been using on a bar mount I made from duct tape and it doesn't hold real well - moves around (clip on the light holds it fine, but tape is too floppy).

I am looking at the mount that Fenix makes. Any thoughts on it?

Is there any real merit to having a dedicated bike light? It looks like most of them use a separate battery compartment. The ones Fenix makes look like they are all dual 18650's.

 

[RetroTechie]

Is there any real merit to having a dedicated bike light?

Yeah, that you can leave it on the bike, so you're always ready to go & also have a light when you didn't expect to be riding in the dark. When it's dynamo-powered, effectively forever without worrying about batteries.

Practice is different though. At times almost everything gets stolen off bicycles. So if it's 'high-tech / expensive' (or just looks that way ), and easy to remove, in many places you'll need to take it off the bike when you go shopping for groceries etc. Which gives you a basic choice:

• With a dedicated bicycle light, you take something with you that has no use when it's off the bike. And perhaps even a battery pack too.
• With a flashlight holder, you take a flashlight off the bike that can be useful elsewhere. Or your EDC, whatever. And no wiring / plugs to worry about. And easy to change to another light.

Hence why I went for the 2nd option. My bicycle rides in the dark aren't hazardous or long enough to require many lumens or give much thought to batteries. So a single cell RCR123 or 18650 light does the job for me. Since I often rest my arms on the handlebar, I choose to mount the light under the handlebar (vs. above it), which also tends to keep things in place better.

At first I used a holder which consists of a small plastic clip & some rubber bands. Which works quite well, but I found it troublesome to find the right holes in the rubber bands when attaching the light. Read: annoying / timeconsuming. Didn't seem very durable either, and I've had a rubber band come off at times (just one rubber -> no dropped light so far).

Recently I got Banggood SKU056645 (also mounted under the handlebar). A sort of clamp which isn't 'perfect' by any means, but is the most useful holder I've tried so far. Only ~3 Euro so I wouldn't shed a tear if someone steals that!

Something that uses velcro straps, is another option. Dunno if/how well that works in practice.

For a mountainbiker that hardly ever leaves the bike out of his/her sight, the above might be different.

 

[oKtosiTe]

I use a hose clamp for small lights (yes, my bike looks rusty, but it works really well) and a dedicated mount for my TM11.

 

[RetroTechie]

Cool...!

(both that 3D printed stuff, and riding around with a TM11 on the bike)
Perhaps you should be selling these holders... :thinking:

 

[oKtosiTe]

Cool...!

(both that 3D printed stuff, and riding around with a TM11 on the bike)
Perhaps you should be selling these holders... :thinking:

The guy behind the website (which is not me ) actually is selling them. I and many others contacted him when he posted a video of his bike mount on YouTube, so he decided to make them available.

 

[mcnair55]

I am starting to ride a bike some more here and have a couple Fenix PD35's to use. One I have been using on a bar mount I made from duct tape and it doesn't hold real well - moves around (clip on the light holds it fine, but tape is too floppy).

I am looking at the mount that Fenix makes. Any thoughts on it?

Is there any real merit to having a dedicated bike light? It looks like most of them use a separate battery compartment. The ones Fenix makes look like they are all dual 18650's.

Plenty of bike mounts on the market and some are really silly easy and good.I have a customer who is an amateur road racer and he uses dedicated cycle lights with main and dip beam costing in the region of £350 and will not entertain hobby lights.

 

[Mr Floppy]

Twofish cycleblocks will do the trick. I have used both original and cheap clones and they are great.

I had a couple of the Fenix mount. It is pretty good but it rattles. Had to stuff a bit of rubber into the middle of the bit that swivels. Unfortunately, I stacked my bike once and the mount snapped and broke so it isn't tough. Unfortunately it broke all the way to the screw hole so it was hard to fix.

 

[duckied]

+1 on the lock block. Its originally made to hold a bike u lock onto the handlebars.

 

[dss_777]

Take a look at the solution Dinotte Lighting uses for their lights. Many of them are mounted using a large o-ring and are surprisingly solid. Of course, the smaller lights have a small concave indent on the bottom. That matches up with the round handlebar, and the o-rings hold it very, very tight. I've used them for years, and always been very satisfied.

Harder to explain than it is to show... this webpage has excellent pictures showing the mounts, and should give you lots of ideas for mounting your Fenix lights: http://www(dot)peterwhitecycles(dot)com/dinotte.asp

On the DinotteLighting website, take a look at the "140L, 140R, 140A Tail light mount" for other ideas on how to use the o-rings.