THERE ARE TWO six-inch long strips of space on my bike that are in vastly higher demand than any other.  Of course, I'm referring to the sections of handlebar immediately adjacent to where the bars pass through the stem.

When unfettered with accessories they can be used to provide an extra hand position while riding.  That position, however, is not one I use all that much even when it's available.  It somehow creates in my mind the impression that instead of riding my bike I am pushing a lawn mower- a much less enjoyable way of spending time.

Now, however, that position is not available for that use, the space having been occupied by various accessories, gadgets, doo-dads, and extraneous bric-a-brac that have been bolted on or affixed by other means.  The list includes:

• Cycle computer
• GPS mount
• Phone mount
• hardware for mounting my handlebar bag

All of these items demand a piece of that most sought-after foot-long section of tubing.  It leads to considerable clutter and managing the space has become a bit tricky.

Not included in the list at the moment is the headlight, which I reluctantly removed this weekend.  Here's why.

The light I have- a dual-beam model with a nice long runtime, several operating modes, and a good-sized rechargeable battery- is a holdover from the days when I commuted regularly by bike.  I have no complaints about it.

BUT.  I've just splashed out for a handlebar bag because (a) I wanted the map pocket that comes with it, and (b) it affords me a little more space for carrying "ephemera" such as snacks, small food items for camp, my wallet, a camera, and so forth.    Of course, the space problem was compounded by the need to carve out another bit of that already-crowded handlebar space for the bag mounts.

My shiny new handlebar bag is of a design such that the top of the bag projects above the level of the handlebars by a few inches.  I knew when I bought it that it would not only require rearranging all the existing gadgets, it would also completely block the headlight, whose mount design places it just about in the plane of the bars.

"No problem", I thought.  "I'll get one of those 'handlebar accessory mount' thingies.  That will not only give me an extra foot of space in which to mount more junk, it will also rise majestically and soar above the top of the handlebar bag to provide clearance for the headlight.  Problem solved."

Well, it turns out I was half right.  The accessory mount does indeed rise above the handlebars, and does give me more space with which to work.  All of the aforementioned accessories have now been transplanted from the actual bars to new homes in the penthouse.  In the process they also got rearranged so that instead of being tightly crammed together and interfering with one another, they are nicely spread out and nothing overlaps or interferes with anything else.  That alone makes the effort worthwhile.

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Sadly, the new skyscraper-of-stuff is still not tall enough to enable the headlight to shine down the road.  Instead, it's just about level with the top of the bag, and the map case.  Although it would make a helluva bright map light, I don't envision a use case where such a thing would be necessary.

I tried thinking out of the box.  The New World Tourist "stem" is actually a long riser tube that ends in an arc; the handlebars pass through and are secured in the end of the arc.  That gives me about 12-15 inches of vertical space just begging to be put to use in some way.  Can't have any freeloading, unused frame space on a proper, self-respecting touring bike, now can we?

The snag came when I realized that the headlight mount design doesn't really work well when rotated by 90 degrees (that'll be pi/2 to you math purists out there).  The light is designed to be easily removed from the bike for security purposes, as for example if the bike is parked in unsecured open public areas.  But the clever slip/click release is attached to the back of the light, and that surface is angled substantially.  I tried rotating the thing to bring the lights back to horizontal but to no avail.  And there's no way to adjust what would be the up/down orientation- the beam would just go "wherever".

So, for the moment, the light has been removed.  I'll shop around for a suitable replacement / alternative, and relegate the existing light to my mountain bike.  That's not the end of the world: having a nice bright light can be handy when I'm camping along the C&O Canal, which I plan to do again "one of these days".

[UPDATE 1/26/2022

I think I have a workable solution.  While rooting around in the debris field on my workbench I chanced across some PVC pipe of a diameter that is suitable for mounting the headlight.  Even better, the length was enough that I could make a prototype and, if it works out, there's enough left to make a "production" copy if adjustments to the prototype are needed.

I can fit the PVC onto the front of the front rack and hold it in place with zip ties.  Or, I can install it around the front crossmember of the rack while I'm assembling the bike after shipping it to Oregon.  I think that in either case it'll need something to prevent the PCV from rotating, and from dropping off the rack.

Once the PVC is in place there's still enough room for the actual light mount and light.

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Keith A. SpanglerThat should work great!
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2 years ago

Keith AdamsTo Keith A. SpanglerThe Mark II version doesn't have the slots; I found that they really didn't work as intended. However, my front rack features a bolt-in cross member (you can see the end of the bolt slightly above and to the left of the left end of the prototype) that will keep the "production" model in place, along with the zip ties that will keep it from rotating.

The final product has been painted to (nearly) match the bike.
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2 years ago

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It puts the light fairly low, and I have to dismount to turn it on and off, but I don't anticipate doing so all that often so it's a workable stopgap.]