# Flashlight Bicycle Mount 2NOV2022 So the other day, I stumbled on this here bit of PVC, and immediately, I had a fantastic idea. ![[Pasted image 20240523002515.png]] So I've had this bike for a few years since my friend Will from [Will's Poor Uses of Time](https://wills-put.blogspot.com/) found it on [Craig's List](https://www.craigslist.com/). I've been biking around as much as possible, treating it as my primary mode of transportation. ![[Pasted image 20240523002556.png]] However, it came with this ancient light that was dim, clunky, and just not my aesthetic. ![[Pasted image 20240523002611.png]] Last year I bought this $120 flashlight, [[Olight's Warrior 3]], for my previous job as a safety officer for the Seattle Space Needle. And oh fuck do I love this flashlight. Its battery lasts for weeks, if not months. It has a simple on/off button, multiple settings with your usual strobe, and four different modes of brightness from just a little light to look under a table or something to a grand total of 2300 lumens (it's feckin bright). ![[Pasted image 20240523002654.png]] I love this thing so much that I carry it in its included carrying case almost every day, and I have used it countless times. ![[Pasted image 20240523002706.png]] So when I picked up this piece of PVC and realized that its outer diameter was very close to my light, I acted immediately. ![[Pasted image 20240523002719.png]] ![[Pasted image 20240523002726.png]] ![[Pasted image 20240523002734.png]] I cut off about four inches and cut out the perfect amount for the mouth on my first try, too, to grab onto the light securely. After riding full speed down what has to be the bumpiest road in this city, I realized that this was THE MOST crucial step as this is only 50% of this thing's purpose. The other 50% is holding onto the handlebars. ![[Pasted image 20240523002800.png]] Speaking of which. I figured that I could disassemble and harvest the other one's mount. ![[Pasted image 20240523002830.png]] With the minor investigation of flipping the thing over, I found that this thing has a quick release. ![[Pasted image 20240523002843.png]] So with that taken care of, I discovered the most essential piece of this entire project. ![[Pasted image 20240523002855.png]] This one screw. But we'll get back to that. After fully taking it apart I threw away the quick-release portion and began work connecting my new mount. ![[Pasted image 20240523002908.png]] I needed the circular PVC to connect to the square bike mount, so I accomplished that by taking my file and aggressively removing material to better marry the two. ![[Pasted image 20240523002923.png]] Now I needed to make a hole for the screw to fit through to bind everything together. This is when I brought fire into the equation and heated up the end of my file, and, with additional eyeballing, stuck it through. ![[Pasted image 20240523002937.png]] ![[Pasted image 20240523002943.png]] >[!quote] A perfect fit. ![[Pasted image 20240523003022.png]] Unfortunately, there proved to be a problem,  the head of the screw was not made to fit into a round pipe, and it filled up so much space that it made the whole product unusable. However, with the power of fire on my side, I heated up the screw itself. It almost melted all the way through, but by ***luck alone***, I managed to mold it into a perfect fit. ![[Pasted image 20240523003056.png]] ![[Pasted image 20240523003102.png]] ![[Pasted image 20240523003108.png]] And with it screwed on, it feels secure, and aside from its appearance, it feels like it was manufactured this way. It's so secure I don't even need glue. ![[Pasted image 20240523003121.png]] ![[Pasted image 20240523003126.png]] And that's it made. I ended up cutting off a third of it and round the lips of the thing out to make it easier to put on. I enjoyed making this and haven't felt this proud of a project in a while. It works tremendously well and is so strong that if you pick it like a guitar string, it sounds like a xylophone key. ![[Pasted image 20240523003139.png]] ![[Pasted image 20240523003146.png]] Thanks for reading. A lot has changed for me since my last post, and I have been working on many long-term projects that I won't have anything to show for a few months, if not years from now. Still, I've got much more free time these days, so expect more adventures and short-term projects.