Homemade LED Bike Light

I just ordered a new mountain bike, and I want to build a homemade light system. I was thinking about making the housing out of carbon fiber, and using TIR optics to get a clean beam pattern.

Some other ideas:
For the Front Unit:
- 3 x 1W LEDs, or 1 x 3W LED (CREEs?)
- Finned heat sink
- 2000mAh lithium ion battery (3 or 5V)
- Switching buck circuitry to keep constant current to the LED/LEDs
- Barrel connector for Li-Ion charging
- Simple push-button switch

Rear Unit:
- Two high-output RGB LEDs
- 1000mAh lithium ion battery (3 or 5V)
- Switching buck circuitry to keep constant current to LEDs
- Barrel Connector for Li-Ion charging
- 3 10k potentiometers to adjust Red, Blue, and Green Value
- 1 10k potentiometer to adjust frequency of LED (for blinking Rear Light)
- microcontroller? (Analog may take up to much space)

Any ideas? Any recommended buck drivers / leds? Any good sources for components. (Like LEDs, Drivers, Heat Sinks, Carbon Fiber, Optics)?

Have you checked the bicycle sub-forum?:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=86

And the MTB lighting forum?:

http://forums.mtbr.com/forumdisplay.php?f=124

Between these two, there's not much left out. With the number of posts you've got, I'm guessing that you won't have much trouble with your project!

I'm a roadie so the head lights I've built wouldn't be of much interest to you but here's one editorial comment that might save you a lot of time and trouble. I've ridden many hours at night (on the road only, and never on dirt) and even as a compulsive do-it-myselfer, I wouldn't be able to justify the effort to make a tail light. There just isn't enough magic in the light builder's art to come up with something that is better than the tail lights you can buy at the bike store for a very few bucks. This really is the opposite of the situation with head lights, where a thoughtful and careful build will probably get you a light that is better for your particular purposes than anything you can buy.

Good luck!