Hub mounted headlight
 

Last night, I put a home-made 20W outdoor halogen on my Sprite, mounted to the front hub. Seemed like a good idea. But I'm finding that the rim causes a big line light. I can still see pretty good, but I'm wondering, did I get this too low? Light not directional enough? I just have never seen this mentioned before, and it seems "duh" now that I've hacked up the light.

On your hub, like it's spinning around with your wheel? Sounds like it would be a bad place for a headlight because the wheel would shadow the front where you want it to shine, and half of the time it will be pointing up or down or backwards.

I assume you mean "by" the front hub, not "on" the front hub, as if you actually mounted it on the front hub that would be...an interesting...strobe effect... :-D

Most dynamo lights are mounted at the top of the fork where the rim brakes attach - for the exact reason you describe. The ones I've seen mounted down by the hub always seem to come in a pair, one on one side and one of the other, also for the reasons you mention.

Haha--you guys are funny.

I thought I had seen some mounted that low, at the hub level. I was also attempting to avoid marring the finish with any clamps (not entirely sure why, it's got plenty of scratches already). I'll have to give some thought to moving upwards tonight then. I did find this oddball 10W halogen today, "nightstick V500001 10W H.O.T. Halogen" (no battery, and some coaxial power connector); this looks like it could go on the fork or handlebars, once I figure out how to wire it up. [My current setup is a 12V 7Ahr gel cell, a bit overkill but I figured that would work well at the 20W level, to one of those Home Depot exterior lights]

Thanks for confirmation--not the best place for a light. Doah!

fyi, there are also mounts for mounting a light on the fork. Like this one -
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/imag...B&M493ghpb.jpg

I can't link to it directly, go to http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/b&m.asp and search for the text "This new mount puts the Ixon Speed, Ixon IQ Speed, Big Bang or Ixon right above the front tire at the fork crown." and it's right above it. You have to call them to order it - the mount is $3.

You install it right behind the brake, between the brake and the actual fork. The one drawback is that it made my brake a little less...futzier. There might be other, similar ones as well. fyi.

Interesting mount. I'm not sure how that would work on mine, and I'd have to get a light to mount to that (my setup is all homebrew), but I'll keep that in mind. Peter White seems to have quite a bit of lighting stuff listed on his page there.

Oh, and I did take it out for a ride last night. The line is annoying, but not that bad, really. Maybe I should put a second light on, for dual lights. :)