BLT Fantom XR9 - how to mount it?

[bonj2]

seems really stable. really easy to do, just drill a hole in the guard, hacksaw down the bolt (so there's about as much thread as there is non-thread, or just a tiny bit more thread), then file down the nut, and hey presto. (Easier to get it tight so that it doesn't rotate by turning the mount itself rather than the nut on the back once it gets so tight.)

obviously it's only as stable as your mudguard is - it probably wouldn't be as good with those plastic seat-post-mounted mtb mudguards.

 

[summerdays]

Why did you file the nut? - the inside curvature of the mudguard?

Looks good though it wouldn't work for me there as I have a rack.

 

[bonj2]

Why did you file the nut? - the inside curvature of the mudguard?

Looks good though it wouldn't work for me there as I have a rack.

no, plenty of clearance without, the end of the nut's a lot shallower than the profile of the guard.
i don't know really, the end bit of it isn't threaded and it's therefore bigger than necessary. the middle bit of the mudguard is flat anyway so no curvature needed.

if you have a rack - think someone posted a pic of their successful rack mount on yacf. but yacf appears to be down at the moment.

 

[fossyant]

Well, I love it when a Bodge looks as good as that....well done you !!

 

[Radius]

Yeah great Bodge. If you were still called *that other name* it would make a good (sort of) rhyme...

 

[Chuffy]

ok you were right. the mounting's a bag of shoot. it's too unadjustable and made for too fat tubes to go on the seat stay.
BUT: i have had an idea how i can securely mount it: if you dismantle the mounting, you're left with the bit that the light clips onto with a bolt through one end. could you not, just drill a hole in the top of the mudguard, then hacksaw the bolt down and put it through the hole in the guard and screw the nut thing on the other side? I'm planning to have a go at doing that.... to be honest it looks like the only possibility.

Are you really who I think you are?

Sounds like a bad plan. For a start, you're putting weight on a part that isn't designed to take it, ie the mudguard. Secondly, you're going to need a lot of clearance under the guard to allow room for the bolt. This might not be a problem, but I'd check first before I reached for the Dremmel. Thirdly, drilling the guard will weaken it and taking the light off the bracket time after time will introduce more stress, no matter how gentle you are. You'll end up breaking the guard.

I'd find a way to bodge it onto a frame tube, even if you use a whole innertube as a shim.


EDIT - I seem to have missed out on a whole page of posts when I wrote this...
Looks neat (if angled up slightly, although that could just be down to the photo) but I stand by my other criticisms.

 

[bonj2]

Are you really who I think you are?

Sounds like a bad plan. For a start, you're putting weight on a part that isn't designed to take it, ie the mudguard.

no. the light isn't very heavy at all.

Secondly, you're going to need a lot of clearance under the guard to allow room for the bolt. This might not be a problem, but I'd check first before I reached for the Dremmel.

well, going by the fact i've already done it, it would appear there's enough clearance. in fact there's plenty, several times as much as necessary

Thirdly, drilling the guard will weaken it and taking the light off the bracket time after time will introduce more stress, no matter how gentle you are. You'll end up breaking the guard.

I don't think so. the life of a mudguard is a relatively easy one - i.e. it doesn't have to endure a particularly great amount of stress compared to how stable its mounting is, that's why it's made of plastic. even so, i don't think the slight bit of additional stress induced by the (probably <100g) weight of the light would be enough to crack it.
the hole's only about a couple of mm in diameter, possibly less, maybe only 1.5mm?
taking it off and on isn't going to fatigue it over time since the displacement from the mean position of the area under stress is infinitessimally insignificant.

 

[Radius]

Brilliant.

 

[MacB]

I just recently fitted a new rack, the Maddison Summit, and it comes with a universal fitting for lights. It's a bit of tube with a clamp at one end and I have fitted it to the cross bracing bar at the rear of the rack. It looks like a straight stem with only one clamp, 2 bolts, and small clamping diameter and some holes on its length. Like having a seat post at the back of your rack. It goes up vertically and I have put both my smartflash brackets on the tube, one on steady and one on flash. Angled left and right to give me a better spread and they're now far enough back that my jacket/panniers can't obstruct them(hangs head in shame at having been too stupid to realise this was happening until someone told me).

When I get the camera working I'll post up some pics, Pretty sure you could cobble something similar together with a bit of tubing and some inventiveness on fitting it. I can't seem to find anywhere to buy just the light fitting on its own.

 

[bonj2]

When I get the camera working I'll post up some pics, Pretty sure you could cobble something similar together with a bit of tubing and some inventiveness on fitting it. I can't seem to find anywhere to buy just the light fitting on its own.

if you mean the fitting for the BLT fantom you have to get your LBS to order it from windwave.

 

[bonj2]

Are you really who I think you are?

Sounds like a bad plan. For a start, you're putting weight on a part that isn't designed to take it, ie the mudguard. Secondly, you're going to need a lot of clearance under the guard to allow room for the bolt. This might not be a problem, but I'd check first before I reached for the Dremmel. Thirdly, drilling the guard will weaken it and taking the light off the bracket time after time will introduce more stress, no matter how gentle you are. You'll end up breaking the guard.

I'd find a way to bodge it onto a frame tube, even if you use a whole innertube as a shim.


EDIT - I seem to have missed out on a whole page of posts when I wrote this...
Looks neat (if angled up slightly, although that could just be down to the photo) but I stand by my other criticisms.

the guard's already got a reflector bolted onto it so i dont' see how it's any different from that chuffy. you tool.

 

[bonj2]

Brilliant.

chuffy does talk a lot of bollocks. don't think he knows what he's blathering on about. I think he's going to do it himself but is a bit pissedoff that he didn't think of it.

 

[Chuffy]

the guard's already got a reflector bolted onto it so i dont' see how it's any different from that chuffy. you tool.

And will you be removing this reflector a couple of times a week? No.
Does the reflector weigh the same as a light with 3AAAs installed? No.

So you've got the required clearance. Jolly good, you obviously followed my advice to check before you drilled. Sensible chap.

taking it off and on isn't going to fatigue it over time since the displacement from the mean position of the area under stress is infinitessimally insignificant.

If you say so. The clip that the light attaches to needs a bit of a push to detach it from the light. Where is the force from that push going to go if not into the mudguard? I may be wrong, the guard may stand up to this despite not being designed for it, but if it was my bike I wouldn't risk it.

It looks like a neat bodge but it's not one that I'd be tempted to replicate. You tool.

 

[bonj2]

If you say so. The clip that the light attaches to needs a bit of a push to detach it from the light. Where is the force from that push going to go if not into the mudguard? I may be wrong, the guard may stand up to this despite not being designed for it, but if it was my bike I wouldn't risk it.

surely if it stands up to it once, it will stand up to it any number of times...
I see what you're saying, and i'm investigating other methods of mounting it, but at the moment it's the best one

 

[bonj2]

with certain reservations, yes. those reservations being that i still dispute their essentiality in my own experience, but basically if people say that they get spattered if they're riding behind someone without mudguards, then if i'm going to be riding with other people, which i am, then i'm prepared to use them.
I think they do keep the bike itself slightly cleaner than without though