DIY: Front Rack Light Mount

After my first bike commute I had to come up with a different way of carrying all the crap I need to have with me on the bike in case of a breakdown, rain gear, spare tubes, cables and locks, and stuff needed for the office.  I decided to go with the handle bar bag my friend Cliff gave me last year however, that meant that I had to find a different way to mount my headlight.  If you want to see the steps to get this point, please click the (Read more >>) link.

A former work colleague and one time bike commuting buddy gave me this front rack from one of his bikes and I have had it on the Cross Check for a couple of years but never used it in the way it was intended to be used by putting a boxy, rando bag on it.  It has really just been an ornament.  

While searching for ideas I came across a picture on the interwebs showing a light mounted on the side of a front rack and the piece of metal that it was mounted to was bent from vertical to horizontal. That image stuck in my mind all day at work and when I got home I started rooting around in my boxes of tricks (old bike parts that I have collected over the years) found two rear rack mounting brackets that happen to measure perfectly to the side nuts on the rack! 

Initially, I was going to use a piece of a titanium handle bar that I broke a few years go while riding in the woods. It would have to be cut. Dreading that, I kept looking until I found an old piece of carbon fiber seat post that broke on me last last year.  It was a knockoff FSA seat post that should have cost $120 but I got for $25 from Amazon from off shore retailer.  It was the right size, too!

I scrounged a few 4 mm and 5 mm bolts for water bottle mounts and stem plates for the side of the rack and I went to the hardware store and got two metric bolts with lock nuts.

I used my drill press to make the holes through the seat post and then mounted it to the frame mounts. I put the handle bar bag on realized that there wasn't enough space between the bottom of the bag and the mount for my headlight, so I mounted the tube underneath and then it fit perfectly!

The mounting is really solid

Now I just need to test it!