The Wizard Works Umbra Light Mount Remedies Bag Clearance Issues

Mounting a light to the front of your bike, particularly when you have a big handlebar bag attached, can cause interference issues. Wizard Works, in collaboration with Bentley Components, developed the Umbra Light Mount (£50) to help remedy this issue. John’s got one on his Meriwether Ponderosa and his Rivendell Bombadil and would like to share some notes below in conjunction with the Umbra’s restock today at 11 AM MST…

Umbra Light Mount Quick Hits

£50
Not for mountain biking
Three colors: silver, black, or purple
Drop: Up to 50mm
Offset: Up to 40mm
Weight: 35g (excluding fixing bolt, confirmed)
Max Tire Size: 2.8″ or 75mm
Max light weight: 120g

Wizard Metal

So many of my fantasy metal albums make Istari references, and that’s because metal and wizards go hand in hand! The Umbra is Wizard Works’ first metal side project. If it were an album, it’d be a split 7″ with a dungeon synth band.

The London-based bag makers haven’t dabbled in machining components as a soft goods manufacturer. However, part of being a bag maker is making your products fit a variety of bike sizes for a variety of riders. Each of these bikes and riders poses a different bag-mounting puzzle, and the Umbra represents a solution for many of Wizard Works customers.

One such puzzle is the ability to run a handlebar bag with a front light. While there are a number of light mounts on the market, few alleviate bag and light interference. Knowing this, Wizard Works wanted a light mount that was ambidextrous and adjustable to fit a variety of bike styles. To help them out with this design problem, the brand pinged Yorkshire-based Bentley Components to machine their solution.

Wood Packaging, Metal Hardware

The Umbra setup and installation were a cinch, and the bracket is very well made. It comes in a laser-cut piece of wood with the hardware attached securely. However, I misplaced the button head bolt when organizing my workshop. It’s somewhere in a bin or a bag, I’m sure. While the Umbra was designed with generator lamps in mind, you can also run a light mount like the Paul Gino to mount a handlebar lamp.

I must say, the Umbra is very reminiscent of brake boosters from the late 1980s, right?

Drop and Offset Bracket

The genius of this bracket is that it can be run on the drive or non-drive side of the bike and offers a few places of adjustment to allow proper clearance. Thanks to the 50 mm of drop and 40 mm of offset, the Umbra will clear up to a 2.8″ or 75 mm tire. By tightening the hardware to its torque spec and using a blue thread sealer – Wizard Works already applied thread locker, but I’m OCD about bolts – the bracket is robust enough not to move during jarring descents on gravel roads and double track.

Umbra Installation Notes

However, remember that the Umbra is not intended for mountain biking and only works on forks with a drilled crown. Wizard Works supplies two bolts to assist in mounting, whether or not your crown is drilled with or without a threaded back. My crown is drilled, but I still like to use a nylock nut just for added peace of mind. They also supply a spacer to offset the bracket so brake lines and housing can pass under the bracket.

I chose to have the bracket centered on the 1″ fork blades of my Meriwether Ponderosa and adjusted the light bracket to be close to the fork leg without touching it. All of these bolts were then torqued to spec with thread lock. While there will almost always be a shadow cast by the light hitting the front tire, it’s always negligible, although I would love it if the beam angle in relation to the wheel path was adjustable, too.

What About Cantilever Brakes?

Yes! The Umbra works with rim brake bikes, including cantilever brakes, although with a few caveats. While most cantilever brakes have a similar offset, there’s no way to tell if your straddle cable will clear the Umbra mount.

I set my Rivendell Bombadil up with the mount, and there is about 5 mm of clearance between the mount and the straddle cable. Again, making sure to tighten and torque to spec ensures the light mount, light cable, and straddle cable maintain clearance to avoid abrasion.

Since there isn’t internal routing in the Bombadil fork, I was able to use a Presta valve lock ring nut to space off the Umbra mount, giving just enough room for the cable to be tucked behind the bracket. I also made sure to tuck the Edelux lamp cable behind the lamp mount bolt to ensure it doesn’t abrade on the straddle cable.

Overall, this bit o’ UK-made bling is more pricey than a Nitto mount ($25), but it offers an ambidextrous attachment with built-in adjustment. While it doesn’t feature any sort of failsafe catch to keep it from falling into the front tire, I haven’t had it move at all, and I made sure to torque the fork crown bolt to spec: 5 NM. If you were really worried, you could zip-tie it to the fork blade, too.

Bentley Components is renowned for its fine Yorkshire-made CNC work and finishing, and the Umbra is indicative of that. While buying the product from the US results in having to ship it to the UK, there are a multitude of US Wizard Works *stockists. Hopefully, the team will be able to send some Umbras over here with this next batch.

Check out more at Wizard Works.

*If your local shop doesn’t carry Wizard Works and you’d like them to, have them holler at Wizard Works!