kabt53

How do you mount your dynamo headlamp on your front rack?
I have a VO passhunter rack and just purchased a Luxos U.

Would love to see how BF members have mounted their lights to this particular rack.
Suggestions / ideas also welcome.

catgita

Two ways. Most common is to make a small drop arm About 3.5" long out of aluminum that attaches to the eyelet on the side and reaches down to the light. The other is this.
https://www.compasscycle.com/shop/co...s-light-mount/

kabt53

The compass mount looks similar to the Nitto mount [from Riv Bike]. However the VO Rack I have does not have the light eyelet as shown - so I guess I'll need to make a custom piece.

I also saw someone had modded a caliper brake arm to mount the light, but my concern will all these is that
1. The weight of the light will cause it to turn and point down on bumpy roads
2. Spray from the tires might enter the light from underneath since the light is to one side of the fender.

mulveyr 

Ask your LBS for a centerpull brake arm from their junk box. It's the perfect size and shape to mount to the Passhunter's light mount. I used exactly that to mount a Luxos U to mine a few years ago.

It's also likely to be far cheaper than the other ones mentioned here. ;-)

rhm

I had a small MTB chain ring, really not sure where I got it, 22t and pretty worn out. It had four mounting holes.


I cut it down to three holes (so a little more than half) and i cut all the teeth off it. That worked quite nicely.

unterhausen

if you do a search on flickr for this, you'll find a lot of ideas

kabt53

Thanks for all the ideas. I think the chainring one is the most creative one i've seen so far. Will post pictures once I'm done.

JaccoW

Don't forget to make some cable guides.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/7516215@N03/8733550136

Oh and this guy makes custom racks from stainless steel. Not as fancy as VO, but perhaps more utilitarian and much easier to maintain on the road.

pdlamb

From Nitpickers Anonymous: looks like a 24t ring might be better, give you a little more adjustment.

:/

Tourist in MSN

You probably will have a long enough wire, but if you have a really tall frame size then your handlebar switch wire might be too short if you mount your light too far from the fork crown. You might want to check your wire length before you fabricate a mount.

I do not have a front rack on my Pass Hunter, I have been considering just using a P clip to attach my light to the fork blade off to one side. And I would need a long bolt to put the light off to one side far enough so that the shadow from the wheel does not bother me.

IK_biker

IQ-X on VO Randonnee
https://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...1&d=1496500218

rhm

I don't bother with a switch; i never turn the lights off.

As for the shadow of the wheel, I hardly even see that any more. It's off to the side, not where I'm looking. On the plus side, the light hitting the spokes makes a very distinctive and highly visible pattern, so I think that's a definite safety feature. No one can see it and fail to think, "bicycle."

Tourist in MSN

I assume you are not using a Luxos U which is the topic that is addressed in this thread.

The Luxos U has a USB charger port cable attached to the handlebar light switch. And if you always leave the light on with a Luxos U, you will get minimal power from the USB port. Even if you are leaving the light off, the handlebar switch does have a headlamp flasher (similar to a car high beam flasher) that might come in handy too, so there is reason to have the switch in a handy location.

rhm

Yes, sorry, you are quite right.

kabt53

Sorry if I was not clear earlier - I meant pass-hunter rack; not the pass-hunter bike/ frame.

unterhausen

you would definitely need a 24 tooth chainring for a Luxos, that thing is huuuuuge. One of the advantages of the IQ-X is that it can be used with top mounting by rotating the mounting ring. Makes rack mounting a lot easier

Tourist in MSN

You were clear, no apology needed. But I wanted to also be clear so I specified that I did not have a rack on my Pass Hunter to avoid confusion.

My light on my Pass Hunter is too low and gives too much shadow on rough roads (see photo), that is why I am planning to move my light higher and I will likely put it off to one side using a P clip on the fork blade. I do not have a USB charger or remote switch on the light that I use on this bike. I run battery taillights, so the wiring is quite simple.

unterhausen

I used silver to braze the BuM crown mount to my rack. It works really well at the expense of being a little inelegant. This would work on the VO rack, which is made of stainless and can be brazed. I'll take pictures later.

seajaye

Resurrecting a zombie thread. I'm about to receive a frameset for my next n+1 project, a single-speed randonneur. As I lay out all of the parts that have come in so far, gazing at all the shiny and polished bits, I realize a crucial thing that is missing:

No way for me to mount my light to my front rack!!

I could use some scrap aluminum, or VO's little thing, or an old brake arm.... but I find it hard to believe that in the years since this thread started, that there isn't a better solution. Randonneuring has become so much more prominent in the overall cycling 'scene' so i'm frustrated that no one has come up with a cool solution. Paul Components could make a little curved thing with the PAUL logo and charge $40 for it.

Related/unrelated, I was thinking about how to integrate the light-beam-friction lever rhm gugie , but I won't have any shifter bosses on this bike! I feel a bar-end might clutter the bike up unnecessarily. Any one have any ideas for how to integrate this cleanly?

And also just because I am excited:

the awaiting parts bin

unterhausen

Maybe a lever below the back of the rack? Not like you're going to be aiming the light all the time. One of the nice things about those vo racks is that you can braze things to them

gugie 

I've used scrap aluminum, Nitto's bit, and Rudi, as well as many others have just used the brake arm with no issues. Two of these are zero cost.

Mostly, however, I make custom racks with all the features you'd want integrated so you don't have to worry about screws loosening in the middle of the night. My original plan for Rudi's CERA was a bar end shifter, which worked fine.



Rudi found he needed faster access to the lever.



Stem shifter, bar end, thumbies, old SunTour Command shifter, wherever you want to put on should be easy enough if you want the adjustablle light thing.

That's the easy part.

Making the pivot thing is the trick. PM me if you need any help figuring that out.

seajaye

unterhausen , could you send pics of your brazing project? Wondering if this is a viable method for me to pursue. It would be nice if it were functional *and* elegant but doesn't sound like that is easy to achieve.

gugie Thanks for the offer. A good winter project could be adding this functionality to my other rando bikes (the geared ones that I might actually be descending a mountain pass at night on), but of course it could be fun to add this on the single-speed just 'cause. I'll retrace the threads here and on Google Forums and reach out with questions as they arise.

Tourist in MSN

Three years ago in post 17 above I mentioned that I planned to mount my light in a different place. What I did is shown below. I do not have a rack like you have, so my solution would not work for you but it might give you some ideas.




I used a threaded rod on the canti brake post instead of a bolt to make sure that I had all the threads engaged in the brake post.

unterhausen

CJ -- I was mostly just thinking about your desire not to have a bar end shifter, which I agree with. When I had them on my rando bike I constantly had a sore knee from hitting my bar ends.

My thought was instead of going with a bar end, a shifter boss could be brazed beneath the rack, near the back. I still haven't seen Rudi's bike in person. I'm not sure I would find it useful enough to put it on any of my bikes.

rhm

I have that light adjuster, or some working* version of it, installed on three of my bikes now. I really like having the adjuster lever as close to the brake lever as possible. Bar end is okay if you don't hit it with your knees. I don't hit my knees on it when I'm riding, but it does happen when I'm getting on, getting off, parking the bike, etc.

Bear in mind you also need a cable stop somewhere on the rack. CJ has that covered.

Here's what Mark built on my CERA:
Note that the headlight itself is separated from the lever that moves it by a section of steel tube. That's a good idea. Since Mark built the whole rack, there is already a good mounting location for this; the VO rack does not have that, but you can mount something to the rack.



*I also have a non-functional version of this on one bike. Until I fix it, It makes the bike useless. Don't let this happen to you.