Even More on Lights

by Pamela Blalock with John Bayley

Clamps

So how do we mount all these lights? The lower the headlight is mounted, the more effective it will be, since road irregularities will cast long shadows from a light mounted well below eye level. A fork with lowrider bosses provides a great spot for mounting dual lights. Another advantage of having the lights mounted this low is one can use a rain cape without obscuring the lights. Finally fork mounted lights don't interfere with handlebar bags, or clutter the bars.

My brevet bike has both headlights mounted on the lowrider bosses. To prevent damage to the contacts while adjusting the angle of the lights, I have the light mounted to a short piece of stainless steel and this is mounted to the frame. I've also found some short rack stays that work well for this. The ones pictured below are actually for a tubus rack! To aim the lights side to side, I bend the SS bracket. I've also found the washers for v-brake pads can work nicely for setting side to side adjustment.

John has a bike with a sidewall dynamo brazeon, which also provides a good mounting point. We've had custom forks built, where we have specified brazeons on the fork just for this purpose. There is also a sidewall dynamo clamp, the Zinkens Dynashoe that works with cantilever brakes which can be used simply for mounting a light, as pictured below. St John's Street Cycles in the UK carry these.

You can also get a plastic gizmo, like the Cronometro NOB, designed for mounting computers on aerobars, that can be clamped to a fork and then used with a handlebar mount for the light. I've used these on a couple of bikes with carbon forks. Despite initial concerns about slippage, I have experienced none. But I will stress that if you mount lights anywhere a fork blade to take great care to tighten everything and check regularly for any loose fittings. Having a light slip and jam into the front wheel is not a pleasant experience! The design of the Cronometro NOB is such that it will adjust to almost any shape and size fork. And if your fork is carbon, I would recommend a protective layer of rubber and regular inspections.

Below is a photo of a clamp for STI computers that may also be used to mount euro style lights on a handlebar or round surface like the NOB mentioned above, or any sort of remote access bar. We had old unused aero bar clamps lying around and made remote access bars from them and chopped handlebars. One of the nice things about this design is that it is somewhat easy to move from bike to bike, or remove/replace when packing. There are some ready made devices like this, so you don't have to roll your own. I tried the Minoura Space Grip and was found the first generation version a pain to move from bike to bike and the second impossible to install at all. I've also tried the Sidetrack Excess Access. It is also a nice device, but may not work with some stems with a wide clamp, since it attaches on either side of the stem. All of these devices do take up some room on the handlebar, and may require some cable routing adjustment and retaping of bars. If you use narrow bars like I do, bar space is already at a premium. There is also a new purpose made light mount from R+M that works in the same way - this is a really well made clamp and I highly recommend it. See photos below.

Below you can see a Supernova E3 mounted on fork crown bracket from sjscycles. This one is designed to work with a threaded 5mm hole in the fork crown.
This is a very sturdy clamp and great if you have the type of setup shown above - threaded hole and cantis.

Supernova's fork crown mount expects a 6mm through hole.
The curved clamp that comes with the supernova e3, works fine on many other setups as shown below,
where I am using the Schmidt R+M handlebar bracket. It is available from Peter White, Harris, and sjscycles.
I have mated the Schmidt bracket with a mount from Terracycle.
The Ixon Speed IQ pictured is a battery powered LED light that I have as an emergency backup on my commute.
I highly recommend carrying a backup light and power source. We crashed and busted our front wheel on a double century once.
We managed to acquire another wheel, but it was not a dynamo wheel, so we later had to borrow lights and battery.

Below is the FlyIQ mounted on the Schmidt handlebar clamp.

I find that if I am using a single light, I prefer a central mounting (rather than side of fork). But bar mounted lights simply won't work with a handlebar bag.

Here is another possibility for a carbon fork, and with a Euro type light mount. There is a thick piece of rubber under this clamp.

Here is another possibility for a carbon fork, for a light using a handlebar mount. There is a thick piece of rubber under this clamp.

Terracycle have a lot of different mounting options for lights with handlebar type mounts to go elsewhere.