OK I am going to start commuting soon. I am going to use an old chromoly road bike. I just bought lights for it (headlight and tail light), Wald folding rear baskets, and lots of reflective tape. Planning to get some armadillo tires too. Anyway my question might be dumb but I don't know the answer so I'm asking. I am going to put new tape on my handlebars. Should I install the light bracket on the handlebars before wrapping the tape or after? Or does it even matter? Thanks in advance for any wisdom that might be offered.

light usually goes at center of handlebars where you might stop tape anyway near the stem.

If it's any kind of light I am familiar with, I would put it on after I taped the 'bars so I could get it off again without having to deal with the tape. In fact, I would try to put it on the portion of the 'bars that isn't taped, next to the stem, like BigMac said.

No such thing as a dumb question.

<Well okay, asking me if I would ever vote for Hillary Clinton for any office would be a dumb question.>

Thanks, I was leaning toward taping first anyway. Right now I have a water bottle bracket and bike computer bracket and a bike bell all near the untaped part. So I'll see where there is room, think I can get rid of the water bottle bracket, but I'd like to keep the bell and of course the computer.

remember, lights can be mounted "upside down" so that they're under the bar instead of on top as a bell would need to be.

Oh thanks, that's a good tip.

I've got one of these on order even as we speak, along with some other stuff.


I haven't quite figured out yet what the new configuration of my dashboard will be, but with this I might be able to free up some space for a coffee cup holder, GPS, cyclo-computer and at least one headlight..

an alternative to the minoura swing grip is the nitto light bar holder. at $50, it's not cheap, but it's easier to mount than the minoura swing grip, it's got more room to mount stuff, and it's sturdier, too.