I’ve been putting off the rigging of my Edeluxe for some time – the Ixon IQ I run for short rides is plenty bright and has good run time – and comes on and off the bike quickly for errands and stops around town. Our Flèche is two weeks away – and I’ll need all night light – so I finally broke down and clipped the wires to the proper length and got the Edeluxe up and running. The light is simply outstanding – test runs in the morning and on the MUP late at night have really impressed me.
Mounting the light has been a bit of an adventure. I use a Mark’s Rack for my rando bag up front. The Mark’s Rack doesn’t have any fittings for front / low light mounting (save for the goofy tab on the end of the rack). Previously I ran dual E6 lights from the lowrider bosses – but with only one light (the brightness of the Edeluxe easily surpasses dual E6s running full steam downhill!) – I want to minimize wheel shadow as much as possible. I purchased the fork crown mount with the light but can’t run it with the bag, debated the lowrider mount, thought about mounting it euro style to the skewer, and purchased a Terracycle mount that works on the fork. None of these felt right (the Terracycle mount comes closest – and if I remove the rack this will be the system I use).
Rummaging through my parts bin I came up with what should have been obvious – use the spare bolts that come with the struts for rear mounting the Mark’s and get the light just below my bag. To do this I had to track down an M6 coupler nut – an email to a friend brought a link to McMaster-Carr (and plenty of time browsing all the cool hardware they sell). I had hoped for the coupler in stainless – but the black oxide variety is the proper length to keep the light tucked under the bag with enough clearance to the strut. I added lock washers towards the strut and a serrated washer towards the light. After some positioning play all seems well. Plenty of light, minimal wheel shadow, and so far rock solid. The mount will get a good workout this weekend – the usual suspects are planning 75 miles of dirt – 3 long and steep climbs, 3 covered bridges, views to the Green Mountains, ADKs, and the lake.
Hey Mike,
Clever set up.. I’ll keep that in mind for the future.
It’s hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like the rack struts are mounted to your forks by drilling through the forks. I can’t imagine that’s actually what’s happening, but it appears sort of like it. What’s actually going on there?
Cheers,
Dave
Hi Dave –
The fork has low riders that pass through the blades… I didn’t do any drilling! The Mark’s kit comes with p-clips if you need them – but the IF fork was ready to go for this application.
-Mike
I use a similar but far less elegant system to attach my IQ Fly to the same rack and also have it tucked under my Acorn bag. Has been rock solid and easily accessible. Thanks for the clue about McMaster-Carr