Makeshift Bike Lights

Not the most attractive option

With Leif Erikson Dr, along with all the other firelanes in Forest Park, at my finger tips, I face the annual problem of fading daylight. Getting off work at 5pm and having it be dark under the forest canopy by 6:30pm at the latest, doesnt give me a lot of time to get out before its dark. I looked into getting some bike lights so I could ride the firelanes after dark, but they are ridiculously expensive. So I thought of an alternative, using my father's GorillaTorch light, since it puts out quite a lot of light, then combining it with one of my petzl headlamps.

Yesterday, I decided to give my idea a try, but I didnt know whether to mount the gorillatorch on my helmet or handles bars so I tried both techniques. Rylee and I did some laps behind my house and on some short singletrack in order to try a little of everything. Ideally, I would love to be able to ride technical trails at night, but my system wasnt quite up to the challenge. The best system seemed to be mounting the Torch on my helmet (to utilize the long distance beam: the gorillatorch is advertised at a max of 60-65 lumens, but it seems like more than that) and having some sort of headlamp strapped to the handlebars to give more light around the front of the bike. This system still needs some tinkering in order to work for more technical singletrack, but should be fine for the firelanes. I will post some pictures shortly so check back later tonight for more details.

UNT

Bryan