Has Anyone mounted a light on their fork?
 

Any advantages/disadvantages?
How did you attatch it?

I think I've asked about the same thing before. Here's some of the possible mounting options

Low Down Mount 2 is on the hub instead of the fork.
Low Down Mount 1 is also on the hub, but more friendly to the lights with Q-R set-ups that go on bars.
Gino Mount from Paul Components mounts to any M5 eyelet or braze on. Mid or lower fork, your choice.
Minoura Besso uses a clamping band to attach itself to the fork or any other tube it'll fit on your bike.
NOB sort of like hose clamping a plastic dowel rod on.

Probably some others I'm forgetting right now....

My commuter has threaded mount points halfway down the fork for a front rack. For a number of years I just used P clamps to hold a pair of AA flashlights (one on each side). The vibration made it hard to keep them aimed, and I think it also led to contact problems with the battery, I'd have to reach down and tap them while riding. THey weren't the highest quality lights around (imitation mini maglights). But they were great to light up what was immediately in front of the bike. Much better than the helmet light, as you could really see the shadows behind road trash.

Fork crown. Of course, it's a dynamo powered light...

Peter White has a bunch of odds and ends you may be able to use for mounting a light on your fork.

My +/-

Advantage: Less cluttered dashboard.
Disadvantage: Mounting bracket failure more prone to cause endo ('nuff said about that).:twitchy:

I saw a dynohub system with the light mounted on the skewer. It was really cool since the wiring stayed with the wheel. Otherwise, it has the disadvantage of casting a shadow. I have a fork crown mounted Supernova, and the shadow of the wheel still confuses me when I'm not paying attention. I keep semi-consciously thinking it's a shadow from my helmet. And then I realize it's my wheel and there really is no UFO tracking me from 100 feet up.

The problem I had with a low-mounted (lower fork leg) light is it created distracting shadows. Basically a 1" diameter stone appears as a stone plus an 8" shadow. Multiply by hundreds of stones on path, and that's a lot of shadows/unlit area.

I returned lights to handlebar after a few short rides, where they've remained since.

I did this from the ground up. Since I use a venerable Kirtland handlebar bag on my Spectrum touring bike, I had the fork built with a single water bottle mount brazed on the fork blade about 2 inches below the crown. I cut a piece of old handlebar to make a screw on mount and then have a Cateye headlight mounted to that piece of handlebar. IMO, you're always better off with a higher mounted headlight. With that said, this performs fine, with no shadow issues, so it meets the mission requirements.

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/7953/img0522b.jpg
http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/4807/img0518p.jpg
L shaped bracket fabricated to bolt to unused brake studs.

I'm wandering off topic a bit, but I have a similar skewer-mounted system (pic below shows the light from Fall 2009). I've had it for two years; I love it, but I agree the shadow could be an issue. Two other possible disadvantages for such a low-mounted light are: 1) on a natural path MUT with small rollers, the low light casts the gullies in shadows; and 2) when encountering peds in the dark, it's possible that they might voice a complaint--something like, "You're light's too bright. People can't see. You gotta dim your light, man!" In such cases, at least with the system I have, it takes some extra care to reach down and flick the switch to low while watching the trail for other stuff, let alone not inadvertently hitting the human . . um . . yelling at you. Then reaching back down to flick it back to high to resume MUT cruising speed. Ugh, I really should be a better citizen and dim my light . . .

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c.../DynoLight.jpg

Great ideas everyone. I appreciate it. I'm also considering mounting a light or two on a front rack. Anybody do that?

what dyno light has high/low?

A favourite mounting system with a DIY light bar mounted at the fork crown.

By lowering the lights it clears the bars and increases their effectiveness... sometimes a longer shadow is a good thing as we usually see this before we can identify what is throwing the shadow.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=219772http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=219773

"what dyno light has high/low?"


Light On!'s dynolight

The high/off/low switch has recently been moved to the back of the light. My dynolight, an earlier model, has the switch on the top (side).

+1 Same experience. A handlebar mount is about the lowest I'll go. If I had to choose, I'd take a helmet light over a bar mount any day. Far less long shadows.

I have an arrangement similar to Sixty Fiver.... here 2 MS on a Swing Grip. Other bike has a pair of 200Ls.

I also like that it tucks the lights away out of view.