Long post alert!
There is no such thing as too much light for a cyclist, and when riding long into the night, in addition to intensity and spread of illumination and autonomous run-time, its extremely important for contingency management in the form of having a secondary back-up on the bike, preferably with a different power source, so that if one is thrown out of the equation (no time or place to recharge from a wall power socket) then the other kicks in (spare rechargeable batteries or AA/AAA cells or power banks). This is the same (redundancies) for both front headlights as well as rear tail lights (as if not more critical).
I used to have a lovely set of front and rear lights bought from K Mart in Australia. These were cheap but truly brilliant. And i used them for all my BRMs. The headlight had twin LEDs and a run-time of 4.5 hours, after which it could be plugged into a power bank to charge, and yet keep running (which in my opinion is a must-have feature for all rechargeable headlights).
Sadly, these were stolen from my bike in the early morning hours after completing a 400 (when the bike was parked to the side and riders were sprawled out recovering and eating and chatting). Nasty thing to do, but it is what it is. We live in a world where there is a resource crunch and many people choose to augment theirs the dishonest way.
Anyway ... (disgusted)
Post that, I bought a headlight from Ali Express after a lot of research and personal testimonials from riders I knew. It had a really big battery (which could double up as a power bank for your mobile phone as well) with a fantastic runtime and huge number of lumens from 3 T6 LEDs .... all on paper!
When I received it and started using it, within the first couple of night rides I realized that it was nowhere as good as my el cheapo K Mart light. But the reason I bought it was that it had an autonomous power supply that was rechargeable, unlike another brilliant round light gifted to me by a senior randonneur buddy of mine that needed to be plugged into a power bank (or battery pack) to run. That light is honestly better than the headlights of many scooters and motorcycles, but the issue I found in that is that while riding along at night on it, suddenly it would shut off. Now you can imagine how terrifying that is on a highway. You are riding along at 25-30 kmph (a safe speed on the straights for this light which is brilliant till even 45-50 kmph if needed on descents) and suddenly wham! pitch black in front of you.
I used to run the cable of the light from the handlebar, along the bottom of the top tube, to the power bank which I kept in my saddlebag. When I got off to check, the power bank had auto shut off (I initially used to think that the USB connector had jerked loose), probably not recognizing an ongoing power draw, and had to be manually put on again. I'm not convinced that is the reason, but since the other light is so el crappo, I've gone back to fitting this brilliant (but temperamental) light and have now mounted a top tube bag that I ordered from Ali Express for exactly this purpose (to place the power bank in front of me, so that if it auto shuts off, I can while riding put in on again ... and again if it shuts off again after some time). I have a handlebar bag as well, but that's mounted further away, in front of the handlebar, and in between the cables, and I use that in long rides/BRMs only for energy stuff, cable ties, food, spare tubes, batteries, and miscellaneous other stuff that one did not need often and needed access to on the move. The regular type of top tube bag with bags hanging on either side I do not like, in spite of the fact that they have great volume capacity and can carry a lot of stuff, because when you get out of the saddle on climbs, your inner thighs and knees invariably hit them on either side and you then land up off saddle riding with your knees flared out like a doodhwalla ... absurd.
Anyways, so now I have this new aero top tube teardrop shaped slim profile bag that tucks away neatly directly behind the stem and can hold the power bank and some other stuff as well. Hope it works, coz the light is simply brilliant, and I would hate to not be able to use it because of this issue. If there is anyone here who has used the same light and knows a fix, I am all ears and would be supremely grateful for the solution!
In other news, the zip ties tethering the rear seat tube fitted bottle holder finally stress fatigued after a good few thousand kilometers of holding strong and suddenly I found the bottle wedged between my leg and the frame. Shifted the bottle to the rear pocket of my jersey and tightened the remaining lower ties of the bottle holder so that it would not foul with the crank and rode home and re-fitted new ties. I'm really happy to be able to carry two bottles on a frame that has provision for only one. So no complaints there.
Managed to source nice quality foam sleeves from a shop in Phadke Haud (his last 4) and cut one in half and slid them over each bar end for some much needed grip and padding for my hands to rest on (my default position while cruising, equivalent to the shoulders of the drop-bar on my roadie).
My ACT is now nearing the 13,000 km mark, and am loving every moment on her. Sturdy, comfortable and always reliable she's been. Like an old shoe, she just feels nice. And a lot like my Bullet, I can actually let myself free in my thoughts when I am riding her.
Along the way, of the non-consumable parts of a stock factory fitted bike, I have worn through the stock rear wheel, the stock saddle, the stock single bolt saddle post, the stock hand grips, the stock pedals, and soon next on the horizon looks to be the stock crank (middle chain ring some teeth have sharpened and scalloped ... and the chain rings are riveted) and possibly the rear derailleur and/or rear shifter (possibly also thanks to a lengthened chain, the rear shifting now its common to get two clicks invariably instead of the single one, with the thumb shifter when shifting to a bigger cog at the rear, and then I have to follow it up with a single click in the opposite direction with the index finger shifter to ensure the extra click is reversed (even though the cog was selected ok).
All of this is of course going to cost more than what I bought my ACT for used (5k), but then I have already spent a lot lot more on her along the years I've been riding her (since 2017), so that's not really an equation I'm unduly concerned with. Simply put, I know it might be cheaper to junk her eventually and get a higher end used hybrid on OLX/Cyclop, but I'm not going to junk her. She's been a good bike and I intend to keep her, like my Hercules Top Gear before her.
Cheers, Doc