FRANÇAIS

Efficient Illumination to See and to Be Seen

The front end: a generator to see the road

Finding good cycling lights has always been a challenge. And finding good lights that work even when the bike is fully loaded represents an even greater challenge. So here is my approach.

Headlight installation

View of the dual headlights

The dual headlights as installed on the Trek 520 touring bike and the Co-Motion tandem. The main headlight (on the left – closest side of the photo) is a Schmidt E-6 with a 3 W bulb. The secondary headlight is a Lumotec.
Notice that the lights are located just above the fender. They are high enough to stay relatively clean, even when I ride in the snow. In Winter, I clean the main headlight nightly and the secondary only when I hit rural roads.

View of the dual headlights

A 1.5" x 1.5" aluminium angle bracket was cut to the proper length (approximately 5" or 125 mm) and filed as shown. The lower end was bolted on the brake bosses using longer bolts.

View of the dual headlights

Front view of the dual headlights. Yes, I should have cut my bars a little bit longer so the bars would have been perfectly vertical. It turned out that I had cut the bars for the tandem which has a slightly different fork geometry.

Headlight installations over the years

Front view of the tandem

The front end of my touring bike as it was between 2001 and 2005.
The main headlight, then a Lumotec Oval Plus, was attached on the fork crown. The secondary headlight was attached to the left brake boss via a piece of plastic EMT conduit to insulate it from the frame.
The secondary is a bit too low to my liking; the wheel casts a shadow to the right and most importantly, the secondary gets dirty really quickly in rain and especially in snow.

Front view of the tandem

The front end of our tandem as it was between 2003 and 2005.
The main headlight was attached on the fork crown via a brake bridge because there is no brake hole in front of the fork. The secondary headlight was attached to the left brake boss via a piece of plastic EMT conduit to insulate it from the frame.
Notice that the secondary headlight is higher than above. It stays clean.

My system has been modified over the years. Here are other installations.

A bracket to hold a battery headlight on the fork crown

Installing a Vistalite headlight on the fork crown improved slightly its effectiveness. I bolted an angle bracket via the brake bolt (the bike used centrepull brakes) and installed a short section of EMT tube. The light was designed to attach on handlebars; the 1" tubing was just the right diametre for that!

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