BikeHacks

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 Canister

It is smart to ride with enough tools to make simple repairs, but a good set of tools can be expensive and you want to hold on to them.  Taking your tools with you can be a pain and reader Neil came up with a way to keep his tools with him and secure at the same time.  Take it away Neil.

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I wanted a way to store my road repair tools and parts, on my bike, while discouraging theft. Presenting the Tool Canister:

I'm a huge fan of PVC and the structures it can create with a little effort. They are in a sense adult LEGOs and a very easy medium to work with for people with little construction experience (*cough* ME *cough*). After spending a lot of time brainstorming in the plumbing section of my hardware store, I came up with an idea for a secure-able tool kit.

Right now I keep a metric set of Allen wrenches, a crescent wrench, screw driver, spare chain, and a spare inner-tube.

The basic parts are always the same, the only variable is the SIZE of the pipe and its accompanying fittings.

***Because you may need to place your hand inside the pipe during the build, pick your PVC pipe/fittings starting at 3 inches (that's the internal diameter or width of the pipe). If you aren't sure... try to fit your hand in the pipe @ the store, if it doesn't fit start @ 4 inches.

You will need to purchase the following essential components:

1) PVC Cap

2) PVC Female Adapter

3) PVC Plug

4) PVC Pipe (Cut 3.75 inches shorter than desired length of container from Cap to Plug)

5) U-Bolts, steel or zinc (ex: 1 inch bolts are for 1 inch diameter wide bike frames/handlebars,)

6) Carriage Bolt, steel or zinc

7) Nylon Locking Nut, steel or zinc - Count of 6

8) PVC Glue (or any Silicon Sealant/Glue)

9) Long Shackle Padlock (must be long enough to clear the diameter of the Female Adapter that you are using, and the internal clearance must be wider than the thread of the plug - see image of plug above)

You will need access to a drill, hack-saw (to cut the pipe and any screw shaft protruding past a tightened bolt), a wrench or pliers (to tighten the bolts), possibly a round file (to compensate for any miss-aligned drilled holes, or to widen holes that were drilled to small), and a hammer with a ball (not a hook).

First you want to pick a spot on your bike that you will attach the canister to. Make sure it has clearance for your widest diameter piece (the Female Adapter (2)), and the measure out the length that you want. Keep in mind if you mount this length-wise in the triangle frame of your bicycle that you may have difficulty reaching in for tools. Cut your Pipe 3 and 3/4 inches (3.75) shorter than the length that you want and hopefully just measured.

The basic construction is as follows. Put the Cap (1) on one end of your PVC Pipe (4), the Female Adapter (2) on the other end, and the Pug (3) goes in the Female Adapter. This is the same if you use larger pipe/fittings.

a) First, you will drill 1 hole where the Cap meets the Pipe. From the inside drop 1 Carriage Bolt into that hole so the thread is on the outside. Lightly screw on a Nylon Locking Nut to hold it in place. (Carriage Bolt secures Cap to Pipe)

b) Next, drill holes along the length of pipe, opposite the side of the Carriage Bolt, which will accommodate the U-Bolts (2 holes side by side the width of the U-Bolt). Do this twice, in-line so it will mount straight onto bike tubing/handlebars/rack.

c) Then, from the inside and starting with the holes closest to the Cap (this can be tricky to line up), drop the U-Bolt into the drilled holes so the thread is on the outside. If you are having trouble, grab you round file and widen up those holes. Lightly screw on a Nylon Locking Nut to each thread to hold it in place. (U-Bolts secure Pipe to Bicycle)

d) Now, drill 1 hole where the Pipe meets the Female Adapter, on the same side as the other Carriage Bolt. From the inside drop 1 Carriage bolt into that hole so the thread is on the outside. Lightly screw on a Nylon Locking Nut to hold it in place. (Carriage Bolt secures Pipe to Female Adapter)

e) Take your Plug and screw it into the Female Adapter so its snug, not tight. Note how far the Plug goes in by counting the threads. Unscrew the Plug from the Female Adapter. Measure from the exposed thread to the end of the Plug (the end that was screwed in). Approximately 1/4 inch past this measurement,is where you will drill on the Female Adapter to create holes for your Long Shackle Padlock. (Padlock secures Plug to Female Adapter, and prevents people from opening the Tool Canister).

f) Finally, insert one end of the padlock shackle into your Female Adapter hole that you drilled in step e). Mark the center, where it lines up on the square protrusion of the Plug. Drill a hole on this marking to create holes for your Long Shackle Padlock. Repeat steps e) and f) on the other side of the Plug and Female Adapter to create the other holes for your Long Shackle Padlock.

g) Unscrew the U-Bolt nuts and affix the Tool Canister to your bicycle, and tighten all of the Nylon Locking Nuts with a wrench or pliers.

h) From the inside, apply pressure to the Carriage Bolt so the square area will catch on the drilled hole. If this doesn't happen grab your round file and widen it a small bit at a time. Tighten the Nylon Locking Nut onto the Carriage Bolt. (If the Nylon Locking Nut is to hard to tighten, get a regular Nut)

i) Using your Hack-Saw, cut off protruding threads on any bolts, leaving 1/8 inch of thread exposed past the nut. Using a Ball Hammer, tap the ends of the threads, so they flare out and flatten onto the Nut. (Flared Bolt threads secure the Nut, and prevent them from being unscrewed with a wrench)

h) Now just take your sealant or glue, and coat any steams or holes to keep the water out.

Extra Credit - Buy some anti-rust spray-paint, and coat any exposed metal (or the entire canister) to prevent rust.

ADDITIONAL PICTURES FOR REFRENCE:

Inside the canister.

Padlock holes.

Final Product and Prototype

The whole project should cost about $25-50 (your stores prices may vary) plus labor and depending on which lock you get and what you use for sealant/glue.

As everyone knows anti-theft measures are meant to discourage theft not stop it. This is supposed to make the zipper bags more appealing than your canister, but if a guy brings bolt-cutters, he's cutting your bike chain and taking the whole enchilada, Tool Canister and all.

If you aren't ready for the investment of a drill, borrow one.

Notes -

Hacksaws are good for cutting your lock off if you lose your key.

Everyone should have a wrench or pliers for general bike maintenance.

Round files and hammers have so many uses and they are cheap and abundant.

DIY Bolt On Front Rack

CETMA racks are super cool. They're front mounted racks of varying sizes that are pretty much bombproof. And they're made in Eugene, Oregon - Peace Man!  Anyway, I was poking around the web and came across an instructable for building a CETMA-style rack.




I suspect this would be a bit heavier than a genuine CETMA, but equally bombproof. You'll need some tubular steel and some angle iron. And you'll need a drill and a bit that are burly enough to get through all that steel. You basically build a simple frame and mount. Looks like it'd be totally functional, but heavy.

P Clamps for Rack Stabilization

Attaching stuff to your bike can be tricky.  Yes, certain parts come with an express purpose in mind, but they do not always function the way you want them to.  Reader CamoDeafie, who also submitted a post on Military Bags as an affordable bike bag option, did not like the parts his rack came with so he came up with his own solution.

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I recently got a Sunlite Alloy rack for one of my bicycles, which does not have rack eyelets on the seat stays, after trying to get the OEM clamps to stay, since the seat stays tapered upwards, the OEM stuff kept wriggling and loosened by going further down the seat stays, so I decided to go get a couple P clamps, and mounted them to the original mount holes on the rack itself, it is now very secure and a rather clean looking rack :)

This is the Sunlite clamp system; a V bar and a straight bar, the straight bar is supposed to be on the outside of the seat stays, while the V bar is supposed to be inside, between seat stays and seat tube; due to the V shape, it would not stay in place on a seat stay system that tapers towards the seat; thus after riding it a while, or putting any load on the rack, the clamp would wriggle and fall down towards the crossbar;

I replaced the OEM clamp system that kept falling down on the tapered seat stays with two P Clamps; here is the relatively clean installation; I say relatively, because compared to the OEM style of mount, it is better, but it is not as clean as a braze-on system (which would really be awesome to see..)

a view from the seat tube area;

overall view of the rack area from above;

And yes that is a Cat Eyes rear light mounted in place of the rear reflector.

Six Pack Bike Rack Hack

All photo credits in this post go to Ryan.

If you didn't get the Dolores Chiller you wanted for the holidays, consider this great six pack front rack hack sent to us from Bike Hacks reader Ryan 'HandsomeRyan' Cooper.  Ryan isn't hip, young, or urban...but he rides a fixie.  If you have ever ridden a fixie and tried to carry anything in your hands at the same time it can be tricky at times...especially if you are hauling precious cargo.


For the rack construction, welded steel angle iron was used...along with some u-bolts to attach the handlebars to it.  Total cost for this is approximately $20 and 2hrs of labor (if your handy with welding).



For now, Ryan uses his rack hack for hauling brews and claims it is improving his efficiency in beer consumption...Bike Hacks is skeptical of said claim and would like to test this theory out for ourselves.

Bike Bucket

Carrying stuff on your back while riding can be a pain and some people will go to great lengths to avoid sweaty back syndrome.  I have seen creative uses for buckets before, but this might take the cake.  Reader Mike, who also submitted a DIY Bike Flasher, transformed a 5-gallon bucket into a cool trunk.

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I hate to wear anything on my back while riding, but I like to bring a backpack to work to carry my Doritos and whatnot. I'd been sticking the backpack to my rack using a four-legged spider of bungee cords, which added a few minutes of fiddling to my day that I wanted to subtract.
 
I'm using a horizontal 5-gallon bucket with a hinged plywood lid. The little curved white bits between the bucket and the plywood base are plastic cutting board material, but plywood would work just as well (maybe better). This design has good balance (maybe better than a pannier on one side might be? I've never used one of those so I'm ignorant there) and is water-resistant (though I haven't ridden in the rain yet). But the main advantage I wanted was a super-fast load/unload, and I definitely got that!

Materials:

5-gallon bucket (don't buy one - find one, they're all over the place!) 
plywood (base is about 12"x8", lid is a 12" circle)
hinge (one is okay, two would be better)
latch 
J-bolts (x4)
screws, washers

Tools:

jigsaw, driver/drill, wrench.

A few notes on construction: The plywood parts are all stuck together with wood screws, and the bucket is screwed to the curved plywood pieces using wood screws with washers. J-bolts hold the base to the bike rack. A pin holds the latch shut. The thickness of the plywood shouldn't make too much difference, but I used 3/4" for the base parts and the stationary part of the lid, and 1/2" for the part of the lid that swings. Cost: the price of the bucket is probably the biggest variable, but can often be $0 if you're willing to do a little poking around - I know it's hard to believe but folks throw these away! The hardware should be under $6. Time: about an hour.

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The Precious

Some people bike with precious cargo, but I was a bit stumped when I passed this bike the other day.  Thoughts from readers on the exact point of this hack are welcome . . . logical or not =)

 

Fridge Freezer Bike Basket Hack

It's cold outside where I live.  Not traditional Boston cold from what I hear, I have only lived here for about a year now, more Climate Change kind of cold.  I hear that temperatures around freezing here are pretty mild when compared to years gone by.  It is winter however and reader Matthew submitted a chilly hack.  Enjoy.

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I have had a bike rack in the shed for a while so all I needed was a basket to go with it. The inspiration for making a basket came from similar storage hacks on your site.

The basket was constructed using two old fridge freezer drawers and connecting them together. I only had to remove one wire section from the deeper drawer using a hacksaw and using a bit of force they were joined together to create a basket.

An old seat post clamp was used to clamp the basket to the bike rack. Additionally a couple of nuts of bolts and a few cable ties were used to complete the fixings. The finishing touches were rear reflectors and lights on the rear of the basket.

U-Lock Storage Hack

Keeping your whip secure is important, but carrying a lock can sometimes be a challenge.  I came up with my own hack for carrying a heavy chain lock, and reader Nikos came up with a hack for carrying a U-lock, some of which suffer from flimsy mounts.  Nikos blogs over at Bicycle Obsession! Text and picture credit to Nikos. 

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I've heard a lot about this problem with the U-lock. Their mounts are verycheap plastic and they end up useless after some rides. So I came up with this solution for my girlfriend's bike (which has a very small triangle and the mount doesn't fit). It works brilliantly and its very easy to mount and dismount on your bike. It's actually just two bunjee cords holding the Lock from touching the rack and few pieces of inner tube to keep the hooks in place. You don't have to take the cords out everytime you dismount the lock, just hook them on the rack.

Bike 'n Ski

Reader Martha sent in this great hack that she spotted . . . perfect for the winter recreation season.

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On a vacation to Colorado, I noticed a sweet bike hack outside a liquor store.



Someone had transformed their bike into a ski equipment hauler - they had a milk crate on their rear rack to hold ski boots, and a bungee cord to strap the poles to the side of the crate.



When I came out of the store to take pics of the bike, I had the chance to talk to its owner.  He showed me how he straps his skis, perfectly balanced, onto his backpack, giving him the ability to carry everything he needs to the slopes.



He said that he uses the crate to haul beer after a day of skiing.  He also said that after carrying all of his gear to the slopes, the actual skiing part always feels like a breeze, and he does it all winter long.  It's certainly the most unusual bike hack I've ever seen, and yet entirely practical.

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Some studded tires might also come in handy...or maybe a Pugsley if you want an "off the shelf" solution to snow riding.