Seedsbelize: The profile may help, although then you would lose some of your ability to maneuver through tight spaces. I certainly feel the extra inches on my tail when I am parking my bike. Something wide also makes it difficult to lean your bike against a wall, which I do quite often. My setup is just under the width of my panniers, so that still works well. A wide setup will also have some aerodynamic drag (though I tend not to worry about that near so much as safe and useful) that you may want to consider. I suspect that the drag of a wider design would probably would be rather greater than using wood over a lighter material for the mount in a narrower design.

As for mounting materials, I don't consider wood an optimal material. I work with wood a lot, so I tend to have various pieces around, and it's easy to work. To do the job long term I would think aluminium bar stock would do a much better job on the whole, but that would have been an additional expense and been more difficult to install.

I definitely feel like I needn't worry about drivers being able to see me at night with the same lights they see on the backs of cars all the time. At twilight cars often really slow down to pass me when I am on the shoulder of the highway. When I need to take the lane for any reason I do flutter my brake light as cars approach, both to provide the signal, and because it is a signal when driving that the slow or stop is greater than usually expected and to take care.

I'll be very interested to see what you come up with and learn if you build some lights for yourself.

Tor