BikeHacks

Pizza Delivery Front Rack Hack

I have love-hate feelings toward food delivery cyclists in New York City.  The hate feelings mainly come from them breaking every conceivable common sense rule related to cycling.  They ride the wrong way down one way streets, ride on sidewalks, ride without lights, ride without helmets (the exception being the Domino's Pizza guys - must be the corporate lawyers), and generally are impossible to figure out.  And their bikes generally are not in the best mechanical condition.

The love part has to do with admiration for them riding in any conceivable weather condition and of course their ingenuity when it comes to rigging up their bikes to deliver their cargo.  The funny thing is that I think most of the hacks they come up with are due to the penny pinching ways of the restaurant owners.

I remember being in a bike shop one day and a delivery rider wheeled in his accident waiting to happen, I mean, delivery vehicle.  The rear cantilever brake was broken beyond repair and he wanted to know how much it would be to replace.  The kindhearted owner quoted him the price of parts and whatever the guy wanted to tip him for labor (he may have well been a food delivery person in the past).

The rider looked at him, looked at the bike, looked back at him and said without blinking, "That's okay, I'll just ride with the front brake" and took off into the mean streets of Gotham.

Anyway, back to the ingenuity part, check out this hack for delivering pizza.  Ingredients?  Breadbasket, zip ties, piece of rotting wood, scrap metal, u-bolts and sweat.  The upside down thumb shifters are awesome.  Kind of makes me want to order delivery right now.



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Pedal Bike Rack

My recent move from NYC to Boston was a great relief to my wife in one major way. In NYC we had no extra storage and I had to keep our three bikes (one belongs to her and two to me) in our apartment.  She was not a huge fan of bikes inside our place and I can't blame her, dust and dirt falling off your bikes in your apartment is not a great thing.

In Boston however, we have an extra storage area outside of our condo to keep the bikes.  Yeah!  At this point I do not have to deploy any storage hooks which is nice as well.  For those that are space challenged, reader Nicholas sends along yet another bike storage hack.  He most recently submitted a bike frame bike rack, and he sent along another great storage hack.  Text and picture below credited to Nicholas, and more pictures of the hack in action can be found here. 

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I've got another bike storage solution.  Someone commented that my last one wouldn't work with all frame styles.  I think this one will, and it holds 2 bikes.  Oak dowels were driven through the yellow pine beam into the frame tubes and wood-glued in place. The opposing angles of the dowels prevents the frame from moving. The pedals are locked in place by rust (but could be spot welded).

Skateboard Bike Rack Hack

Last week I think I witnessed a first on bike hacks - the incorporation of a skateboard for cargo/passenger transport. The electric assist bike we featured had a skateboard fastened to the rear of the bike, meant for someone to sit on.  I am not sure how comfortable that might be without padding, but it still was a pretty ingenious idea.  As a kid I both pulled and was pulled by a bike while riding a skateboard with a rope - an entirely different and often unsafe mode of cargo transport that resulted in a few scars I carry with me to this day. 

I bumped into a second instance of a skateboard rack while trawling the blog of a reader, Old Fool.  The gentleman in charge has been cobbling together a cargo bike and it looks like a pretty formidable cargo transport machine.  The full write up is here and all pictures below are credited to Old Fool.

On the rear it is easy to spot the repurposing of a skateboard.

From the looks of it, a few animals must be quite grateful for this extreme sport bike hack.  Have you merged two forms of transport?  Let us know.

 

Plastic Carton Bike Moose Mitts

A few weeks ago a post on some DIY moose mitts fashioned from t-shirts was panned by some readers. One reader described using t-shirts as moose mitts as "stupid and useless."  Ouch! 

About a week ago I was running an errand and saw a recumbent rider go by with what appeared to be some killer DIY moose mitts.  I did not have the time to get my camera out and take a picture and was bummed.  Well, as luck would have it I stumbled upon the same bike yesterday, this time locked up which made ogling and picture taking very easy.  Check it out -

The owner did an excellent job of execution if you ask me.  They would appear to do the trick without being too bulky or hindering handling or braking. 

What say the critics?  Stupid and useless, or cool and ingenious?  Weigh in!  And if you have hacks to keep your hands warm when temperatures dip, let us know so we can share.

Complete Tandem Bike Build

The thought of sharing a bike with another person is both intriguing and disturbing to me.  I am intrigued mainly because I have never done it.  I am disturbed because the thought of not being in total control scares me.  Driving a car is far more dangerous than riding in a plane, but I feel safer when driving because I am in control of the car.  In a plane, the pilot is in control and I have no impact on what is going on.

The more tandems I see, the more intrigued I become and I know I am destined to try one some day.  Reader Eric's interest in tandem's led to the creation of a very stylish tandem.  Eric sent along the following text and picture. 

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During the summer of 2010, I acquired two cruiser style bicycles from the 1960's and used them to build a tandem bicycle.

The bikes were made by Sportmaster and had what I thought were beautiful curves in the top tube and seat stays.

The bikes were left outside and un-sheltered for a number of years so they needed some serious TLC. In the end, they cleaned up really well and now make one heck of a tandem bike!

Eric did a project write-up for the DIY website Instructables.com and you can find a link to the tandem build here.

LIVESTRONG Bracelet Light Hack

LIVESTRONG bracelets have been around a while now, but I thought they were just for your wrist. JeffB502 over at Bike Forums got creative and used his bracelet to attach his Fenix light to his helmet.

  

We recently featured a similar hack, but with rubber bands.  

 

 

Video: Turning a Ten Speed into a Fixie

It feels pretty cool to take something old or discarded and with some elbow grease transform it into something usable. Reader Gabe sent along the following text and video showing the transformation of a ten speed that had been tossed into a dumpster.  If you have given a old item new life we would love to hear about it. 

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Last semester I did a video project on how to turn an old ten speed into a fixie. It is not really a kludge hack but it might give the viewers some ideas on their own projects.

A little bit of back-story on the bike is that it's a 1970s Prince Racer. I scoured the internet and could only find that it was a higher end department store bicycle that cost around $100 back in the day. Last summer I rescued the old ten speed from a dumpster. I replaced many of the components to convert over to fixie, BB, cranks, pedals, and bought new rear wheel w/flip-flop hub in addition to several other recycled parts.

Re:Cycling from Gabe Przygoda on Vimeo.

 

DIY for Cold Hands: Moose Mitts

It definitely seems appropriate to target winter riding advice during this time of year - at least in this hemisphere. For those in cold climates, keeping your hands warm and still being able to maintain finger dexterity can be a challenge. I have some neoprene bike gloves that work pretty well for keeping my hands warm, but if I want to undo zippers or even buckle my helmet on, I have to take off a glove. I just can’t feel very well through the material.

Handlebar mitts on motor scooters are fairly common, but it is rare that I see them on bikes.  had Nickjohnson’s flickr photostream provides a simple hack to try to keep your hands warm on cold rides.  Here is Nick’s description:

When the weather gets cold, some people put on gloves. Personally, it’s always bothered me to have anything between my hands and the brake levers. Here’s another solution: “moose mits” are insulated mittens built around your handlebars. You slide you hand inside, and have unencumbered access to your brake levers, but your hands stay warm.

This is the simplest design possible: I wrapped an old t-shirt around each brake lever, and tied it in place with an old inner tube. Voila. Warm hands.

Winter Bike Riding - Base Layer

Like any other time I have moved, when I shared with people last fall that I would be moving from New York City to Boston, I started to receive a lot of advice.  One recurring theme I kept hearing from people was how cold it is in Boston and if I planned on commuting  in the winter I would have to bundle up.  I try not to let the weather interfere too much with my commuting and the temperature has never kept me from riding.  I layered up when the temperature dropped in NYC, but my layering was a bit bulky and haphazard.

I decided that if temps were consistently going to feel like sub-zero (over to the left is what the temp was the other day) when commuting I might want to dial in my layers.  I recently purchased a couple of different clothing items in an attempt to stay warm and dry that I wanted to share on the blog because I have been quite happy with both.  These are not products that were sent to me for review, I did my own research and purchased them on my own. 

For winter riding in the past I have used several kinds of base layers. I have ridden with long underwear and some Sporthill tights from my running days and both methods were sufficient, but not entirely comfortable.  Columbia Sportswear has been making a marketing push recently and a technology that caught my eye was what they call Omni-Heat, billed as as thermal reflective technology.  I have never purchased a matching base layer of any kind and decided to go for their heavyweight longsleeve top and matching bottom.

From what I can gather, the technology is a silver fabric cut into small circles and then applied to the main fabric of the garment. The little dots are supposed to reflect heat back at your body, and the fabric is meant to breathe so you do not get too sweaty.  When you look at the fabric from the outside it appears "normal."  The photo is a bit washed out but it is solid black, except for the stitching . . .

When you look at the inside it is a different story.  The fabric almost appears to be a space blanket.

Both items have fabric only in the places that are likely to get the most sweaty.

Although the fabric almost appears to be entirely silver, when you look at it closely you can see the dots on the fabric.

My fear when I first saw the fabric was that it would be sticky when touching skin.  My fears did not become reality, the fabric feels like any other fabric when touching the skin.  I could not tell the difference, that is until I rode in it.  I have found the layer to be incredibly warm and the layer has helped me to achieve greater warmth with less bulk.  When paired with a new jacket, a topic for a future entry, I am warmer and wearing far less fabric.  The layer is a bit thicker than most other layers I have worn but there is a medium layer as well if you are not looking for "ultra" warmth.

I have been riding with the base layer for about a month now and I am really glad I made the purchase. Like other good products, the price tag is a bit high, but I have worn the layer every day and it has held up just fine so far.  If readers have advice on staying warming in cold temps feel free to contact us or comment.  I'll post on a recent jacket purchase that I pair with the base layer soon. 

 

Toe Strap Third Hand

Earlier this week we had a post about using a bungee cord as a third hand to assist with brake adjustments.  A couple of people contacted us noting that a toe strap is also a great third hand hack.  Reader Tom clued us in to his flickr page where he has some pictures of the third hand at work.  Below is text and a picture taken from his account.  Thanks Tom!

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A 3rd hand is a pretty useful tool. A toe strap cinched around the brake caliper does the same thing. It keeps the frot wheel from flopping around as well.

Toe straps are a nice addition to any toolbox- they are great to temporarily hold the handlebar assembly out of the way or to hold the fork in place when overhauling the headset without losing loose bearings.