i've been seeing a lot of hand-powered flashlights lately, that only give 1 or 2 watts of power, but you crank it for 30 - 60 seconds for 1 hour of juice. i think the brightness would help to be seen at night but not to see at night. has anyone ever seen one with a handlebar mount? it sounds like they'd be great as a last-resort backup when your main light(s) batteries die and you are caught without spares. i saw one that also has a cell phone charger that is powered by the hand crank too, and an alarm, and a radio, etc...

I was thinking the same thing. I haven't seen any with bicycle mounts on them and the models I have seen could not be modified very easily to rig a mount onto a bicycle.

I saw a unit yesterday that was both a flashlight and a radio. I wouldn't mind having one of those on my commuter.

I wouldn't use one to ride by. They aren't even 1W of power. However, they would work to walk, and repair something if needed, to get you back to riding.

I have a crank style radio that we use for camping. I like it but boy you have to do a lot of cranking.

Get generator lights! There is little drag and the lights are there when you want them. Cranking with your legs is sure easier than with your arm.

Also, just like the good feeling you get when you use human power instead of gas to get to work on your bike, using human power in place of buying batteries that don't last or need more energy to recharge is fun. Generators are very useful to power the bike's headlight. That said, they are limited to certain headlights and power levels. If you need 10w, it won't do.

I got one of those crank-up flashlights as a gift. You don't appreciate how long a minute is until you use one. I would regard it as a true last resort, or maybe one step before breaking out the candles and matches. LED flashlights that run for days on AA batteries can be had for half the price, give much more light, take up less space, and are a lot easier to mount on your handlebars. And you can carry about ten sets of spare batteries and still be taking up less space.

I was thinking about this a month ago. Yahthe mounting was the thing that got me. Only thing I can think of right now is to carry some gun tape and tape it on is all I can think of right now. It'll hold all right. Not pretty but it'll work.

If you don't want to carry a roll of gun tape then I think some sportting/camping stores will sell 1-2ft of folded up gun tape for minimalists go light travelers. I do rememeber seeing on the news something about folding gun tape but that was last year. You know the old saying, you can fix almost anything with gun tape.


Zero_Engima

They tend to be designed by the "bar of soap" school of ergonomics and have no real surfaces to key onto. You might try a long (diagonal) section of inner tube used as an elastic band. Put it over the front of the flashlight, under the bar then on top of the rear. Ive done this with an AAA maglite on a hire bike, coming back from the pub at night.
Wind-up LEDs are a good idea for long expeditions, emergency/survival use. They dont illuminate much in pitch black but are better than dead batteries.

the one i saw had a radio, light (solid or blinking), a panic alarm, and cell phone charger. i just pictured myself with a bar mount version riding at night, headlight died, so i hand crank for a few minutes i got a blinkie, a radio, and charging my cell phone on my way home. 'twas a neat picture it was. i didn't know they were less than one watt ewwww! thats kinda pathetic. the one i saw was 3 led's so i'd imagine more than 1w but it didn't really say. the hub dynamo ones sound a lot better, especially if theres some sort of quick release so that you don't have the resistance all the time. also if you could make it power other stuff... say a radio and a cell phone charger?

I carry one on my touring bike and use it when camping and looking over the bike after dark to make sure everything is ok. I had to use it as a backup after giving my spare batteries to another person and forgetting those were my last ones! I used ball burgees to strap it to the top of the front rack. I had no problem using it as long as I shielded my eyes from streetlights and that sort of thing. Granted, this was no fun at all but it did allow me to get somewhere I could purchase batteries.