We've come across many light mounts in our innernette travels, but this is one where we said, "Duh, why didn't we think of that?" As seen in Urban Velo, a star nut and bit of steerer tube makes for a slick, no-cost light mount. The article was brief, so I decided to try it for myself.

Stuff you need:
• Piece of steerer tube. Preferably some waste from your last fork install.
• Star Nut. I’ve got a handful of these laying around from headset replacements
• Star nut setter
• Cutting guide/hacksaw
• M5 bolt. Length will depend on where you plan to mount it, and how many spacers you’ll use (if any)
• The light you want to use

1. Use your light to mark your tube for the cuttin’. I first marked this very close to the light clamp, but then realized I needed some extra width to get clearance for the light itself. Check out your light’s width and where you want to mount it before the cutting.

2. Cut/file

3. Pound in the star nut. I didn’t take a picture ‘cause I was trying out some unsanctioned hammering methods. Basically, you want the star nut flange to be flush with the end of the tube; you’ll probably have to pound it in for a bit and check along the way. Having multiple star nuts and tubes, I tried it both ways, one with the nut concave and hidden, the other with the nut convex and exposed:

Way number one: concave. This was easier, but also requires the use of spacers (in this case, a Problem Solvers SpaceOut) for the mounting. 

Way number two: convex. This was a little more difficult to get the star nut in just the right place, but the finished look is much nicer.

BONUS! One of my bar-end plugs happened to fit juuuuuust right. Definitely try this at home.