BikeHacks

Monkey Light Love

I am a big fan of the Monkey Light and the Monkey Light folks.  I have both an original Monkey Light and a Mini Monkey. Both have performed well and gotten tons of comments from those on the roads.  The Monkey innovators are now trying to take things to a whole new level with the Monkey Light Pro.  If you want to support some good folks who have a history of producing durable and fun products, think about getting on board.

 

2 Wheel Drive Bike

Maybe once a year I will see a bike on the roads built to be propelled by arm power rather than leg power.  Well, reader Scott built a bike that could be propelled by all four appendages.  Text and picture credit goes to Scott.  If readers are aware of bikes that have a non-traditional propulsion set up, feel free to contact us for posting. 

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Built from all dump pick parts, the double top tube frame had the right side removed for clearance of the chain during right hand turns.

Matching 26 x 1.5 coaster brake wheels, the gearing of the hand cranks was chosen for low cadence for better handling.  The hand cranks were made of pedal bearings with sections of steel handle bars soldered in place to except a normal grip and still allow the bearings to be serviced at a later date.

 

 

LED Light Strips for Bike

Reader Chris, he of horn and spot light hacks, is back for more.  This time he explains adding LED light strips to his ride. 

For another example, see this previous post on the same topic.

 

Bike Rear Axle Camera Mount Hack

The folks over at Montague folding bikes came up with a Go Pro camera mount hack and sent along the following guest post.  Enjoy a sweet hack and an option for a folder.

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I'm sure you've all seen the portable Go Pro cameras on the market. They're easy to mount on a helmet or handlebars for riding footage, but we wanted a perspective that would show you the bike as well. For this we put together a homemade bracket to mount our Go Pro on the rear axle. The camera comes with a clip that attaches to a few different bases, one for helmets, one for handlebars, and there's one that's simply flat on the bottom with a sticky adhesive. For our custom bracket, we took a piece of steel about 11 inches long (you could use aluminum for a lighter weight option), drilled a hole on one end for the axle to pass through, and screwed the flat base to the other.



The Go Pro clip slides into one side of the base, so we kept the screw off to the other side, out of the way. The adhesive on the base also helped hold it in place.

Then we just clipped the camera into its bracket:



To mount it on the bike, we used an extra long quick release skewer. We drilled the whole large enough that it also works with a bolt on axle.




We had it angled back to get as much of the bike in the shot as possible:




The resulting video footage is just what we wanted. A unique perspective of your ride that shows the surrounding landscape, and the bike you're on. Check out the video to see (About halfway through is where the Go Pro footage starts).

The bikes being ridden in this video are Montague folding bikes. Their design is a bit of a bike hack in itself. No doubt you're familiar with other folding bikes, but the majority of them have tiny wheels, and lots of proprietary parts. Everyone wants the performance and ride quality of a full size bike, but transporting and storing them can be a hassle. That's where Montague comes in. With 10 different models ranging from 700c road bikes, to single speeds, and 26" mountain bikes, they all fold easily for the car trunk, train, or closet, and deliver the same performance as comparable non-folders.

Montague's folding design is unique in that it does not break the frame's tubing. Both halves rotate around the seat tube, leaving the front and rear intact. They overlap when unfolded, and give you an extremely strong frame. The design combined with full size wheels, and all industry standard components (you can customize your bike all you want!), means you won't even know you're in the saddle of a folding bike. Check out the entire line of Montague folding bikes at http://www.montaguebikes.com/.




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Bike to Work Day/Week/Month - Look Out!!!!

Last week was the perfect storm of sorts in Boston.  The weather was beautiful and there was this whole bike to work stuff going on.  Now I'm all for riding to work, I do it all year long, however when you get a bunch of people on the roads/paths who have not ridden in a while, it can be downright dangerous.  I am going to start my own lobbying campaign with this post.  I am lobbying to change the name of Bike to Work Day/Week/Month to the Most Dangerous Day/Week/Month to Bike to Work.

My commute to work is 98% bike/pedestrian pathway, which is both a good and a bad thing.  It is good because I do not have to deal with motor vehicles much, but on the downside I have to deal with other cyclists, pedestrians, dogs, birds, squirrels, the occasional rat, and yes, even a regular on a Segway.  I try to ride a bike like I used to drive a car - defensively.  I think there is little to gain from riding aggressively.  Riding a bit defensive likely saved me from several possible trips to the emergency room last week.  I will describe three brief episodes. 

Episode I - There is a blind corner on my commute and it is not uncommon for pedestrians or runners to go two or three abreast.  I was approaching the corner early last week and two side-by-side runners began to emerge from around the bend and a guy on a fixie was blasting past them with little regard to the fact that he could not see what was coming at him.  What was coming at him was me.  I am very happy that I recently tightened my brake pads, I slammed on my brakes and came to a complete stop and the guy on the fixie swerved and almost took both one of the joggers and me out. 

Episode II - There is a very narrow corner near a cross walk and in order to let people pass, anyone who is stopped has to angle their ride. A woman had stopped in the narrow corridor, however she left not an inch for other riders to pass.  She was happily staring at the light, not paying attention, and I slowed down and chimed my bell.  Because of traffic and or headphones in her ears she could not hear me and upon slowing down I heard a loud squeal and the dragging of a shoe.  A guy had been following me and he almost rear-ended me. 

Episode III - A woman is riding toward me and is obviously enamored by something in the adjacent river.  How do I know?  She is riding on the wrong side of the path - straight at me.  I slow down and ring my bell and she finally looks ahead at me and starts swerving madly.  I guess her hands were not stretched over her brake levers because she does not slow down at all and starts screaming.  Fortunately she was composed enough to ride around me, barely. 

One thing I have learned during my time on earth is that I cannot control other people.  The moral of these stories is to ride defensively, especially during Bike to Work Month. Also, I suddenly have found myself longing for the days of sub-zero commutes where the path was much more desolate . . . and safe. 

Clever Bike Accessories

Reader Jeroen clued us into some pretty cool, or should I say clever, bike accessories featured on the web site Ecal. designboom compiled the accessories into a post as well.  Enjoy the still shots as well as the video which shows all of the accessories in action.  Thanks to Jeroen, Ecal, and designboom all.

ECAL «Bicycle Accessories» from ECAL on Vimeo.

What's New is Old - Screw Driver Set

Our Fix it Sticks contest attracted the attention of many, including reader Felix who saw some familiarity with the product.  He sent along the following -

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There's that old saying "What's new is old". The Fix-It-Sticks are a reiteration of a screw driver that Crescent Tools made years ago. I've had mine for about 13 years. I should have bought more... gave out a bunch of them and have only one left. Although it comes with 3 flat/Phillips screw driver bits, these could be replaced with hex or Torx bits.

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Chain Stretch

Way back in December I posted this picture when I was ranting about how much I hated glitter.

I mentioned that I would eventually run a post on the picture and I finally got around to it.  Here is the same picture, but with a nifty red arrow meant to direct your attention.

My commute is flat and I pretty much ride in the same gear all the time.  The only hills that really confront me are stiff headwinds.  Around early December last year my chain started to jump around like kid on Christmas morning each time I leaned into my pedals to climb a slight incline or to pedal into the wind.  At first I thought that all that was needed was a simple derailleur adjustment.  After that did not work I did what any person with a bike related issue should do - I visited Sheldon Brown's site.  Thankfully some kind souls have kept the site up after his unfortunate passing.

I have completely ignored chain life over the course of my cycling life.  I do not know if I am lucky, but I have had the same chain on my road bike for 17 years and have only oiled it to keep it up.  I have had no shifting problems on that bike, even after putting over 20,000 miles on it.  My luck did not extend to this bike though.  As can been seen in the picture, one sprocket is distinctly different than the rest.  This is a result of "chain stretch."

Sheldon's site does an exemplary job of explaining the fact that chains do not really stretch, rather the movable parts of the chain wear out and thus change the way the links of the chain interact with the cassette and chain rings.  One result is what you see in the picture, the teeth of the sprockets and chain rings can change shape.  When the teeth wear off, the chain can slip when pressure is applied. 

Generally speaking it is easier and cheaper to replace a chain as opposed to a cassette and thus it is a good idea to keep an eye on the condition of your chain.  It is good to lube and clean your chain, Sheldon's site is a great resource for this, and to measure your chain to get a sense of the "stretch" that is going on over time.  This can be done with a specific tool or with a tape measure. Here is a portion of text from Sheldon's site:

The standard way to measure chain wear is with a ruler or steel tape measure. This can be done without removing the chain from the bicycle. The normal technique is to measure a one-foot length, placing an inch mark of the ruler at the side of one rivet, then looking at the corresponding rivet 12 complete links away. On a new, unworn chain, this rivet will also line up exactly with an inch mark. With a worn chain, the rivet will be past the inch mark. [For accurate measurement, the chain should be held under some tension -- either on the bicycle, or hanging. Also, use a metal ruler or tape measure. Wood, plastic and cloth all can expand or shrink.-- John Allen]

If you do visit Sheldon's site, be prepared to have time fly quickly.  It is pretty easy to get engulfed in all of the great content and soon you will wonder where the time has gone.  Moral of the story here is to keep an eye on your chain wear, or you might find yourself having to replace more parts than you would like to.  

Bike Repair Stand - Ceiling Space Saver

Repair stands are one of the most searched for hacks on this site and reader Leighton clued us into a space saving ceiling mounted stand to add to the plethora of options we have posted in the past.  We have featured a ceiling mounted stand (is it appropriate to call a stand if it is not standing?) previously, but this new one is retractable.  The stand comes from the blog Tears for Gears and for all the gory details please jump over to the specific post.

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Photos credited to Tears for Gears

 

Valve Cap Hack

I have thought up hundreds of bike related product ideas during my lifetime, but not one of them has made it into production.  I have to give it to those who actually make a go of getting a concept produced.  Reader Gene came up with a novel valve cap hack, check it out -

I have lost a few valve caps in my day so I can relate.  I had never heard of Quirky.com before, but I guess you vote for things to produce and Gene has his product featured for voting.  If you give a thumps up to the idea, offer your vote of support.

Dual Purpose Mudguard and Reflector

Two hacks for the price of one is always a good deal and reader Karl hacked up a dual purpose mudguard and reflector.  He took a retroreflective sleeve fitted for traffic cone, cut it up . . .

. . . and attached to his rear fender.

For a full write up visit Karl's blog. 

 

Bike Rain Shelter Storage

We all face different parking dilemmas, and although reader Assen had plenty of space, Assen wanted a rain free parking place.  The solution is below.  If readers have come up with innovative parking ideas feel free to contact us for posting. 

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I needed a rain-sheltered place for the bike, so I put down a rubberized 4 x 6 rug on the balcony. Lifting the bike way up should do the trick.

tet

 

D.I.Y.: “Po’ Boy” Fenders and PVC Pipe Dual Headlight

Jack from bikecommuters.com passed along two great hacks.  The first hack is a fender made of aluminum strip and an old election yard sign.  Sometimes the clearance between brakes and tires can pose problems for fenders and he gives a great description of how he D.I.Y.'d to get around the space issue.


Second, he came up with a great double headlight system using PVC pipe because he was running out of room on his handlebars.  Pretty dope setup for sure!  Turns out Jack does know jack.  Check out both hacks via the bikecommuters.com site.

DIY Bike Car Horn - Beep Beep

Reader Chris, who attached a spot light to his bike, is back again.  This time he shows how he attached a car horn to his bike.  Whether it be via light waves or sound waves, Chris is capable of making sure drivers are aware of his presence on the roads. If you have hacks or ideas to share about how you make those on the roads aware of your presence, feel free to send our way.

 

 

What Not to Do with a U-Lock or D-Lock

It used to be that a college degree was a ticket to gainful professional employment.  Many now say that a Masters degree has replaced the college degree and is the new standard for comfortable employment.  One thing is for sure, a college degree does not confer street intelligence or common sense.  I give you this video as evidence.  Some call it a U-Lock, some call it a D-Lock, but it is not called a neck lock for a reason.  Shades of Breaking Bad did cross my mind.  Happy locking.