Quick & Dirty Bicycle Headlight
Last night I was riding across town to fetch a drink at a new Milwaukee bar (Sugar Maple in Bayview). It’s about 5 miles from my house, so I wanted to ride my fast bicycle (as opposed to my slow-but-utilitarian bicycle). Problem is, I don’t have a headlight on that bike. What to do?
Hack.
The ingredients:
- Small LED flashlight
- Old bicycle innertube
- 3 medium zip-ties
I cut a length of rubber from an old innertube (you do save your old innertubes, right?) and wrapped it around the base of the flashlight. This would help to increase friction to make it stay put and protect my fancy bicycle from scratches. It also provided a bit of a shim to angle the light appropriately. I placed the rubber-wrapped light where my stem meets handlebars. Finally, I fastened the light securely with zip-ties so it wouldn’t fall off when I hit a pothole going 30.
In no more than 5 minutes, for no more than $5 in parts (all of which I had lying around the house [thanks to Chris for zip-ties]) I had a perfectly adequate headlight and I was off. Hurray!
Filed under frugal, hack : Comments (3) : May 8th, 2009 by tadfad
May 8th, 2009 at 17:56
i hear they call that one the hobo-light.
May 9th, 2009 at 00:27
or.. the hoboclops
May 9th, 2009 at 06:35
The hoboclops. I like it.