BikeHacks

Bike Passenger Seat Hack - Go Banana Go!

I stumbled upon a great bike hack recently that got me to thinking about the design of bicycles vs. the design of cars.  It is rare for me ever to see a bike designed to transport more than one person.  It is rare for me to see a car that is designed to transport just one person.  I guess this is one reason I always find myself stopping to stare at bikes that are either designed for more than one person or have been hacked for multiple person transport - they are rare indeed.  What happened in the evolution of bicycles?  What kept designers and companies from designing bikes meant to transport multiple people? 

I was thinking about the this topic on a recent trip to a shopping center.  The center had multiple national chain stores and restaurants and hundreds upon hundreds of parking spaces - for cars.  Yet the store I rode up to was absent any bike racks.  I ended up locking my bike to a shopping cart corral.  I'm not complaining as much as I am just observing, I know that the demand for bike racks is probably low and thus the landlords see no reason to install bike racks.  And I guess it is actually good for me because the likelihood of anyone wanting to actually take a bike is probably quite small.

Anyway, enough rambling, here is the hack I passed - brilliant use of a banana seat, some foot pegs, and an extra set of small handlebars.  I have seen similar hacks in the past, however the handlebars attached to the seat post is a first. 

Simple idea, brilliantly executed. 

The loose supports on the front basket are troubling, looks as if the bike has been sitting for a while. 

If readers own, have experience with, or come upon bikes meant for multiple person transport we would love to hear from you for posting. 

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.

Bike Tricyle Built for Two

Riding a bike has always been a solo affair for me.  Not that I do not go on rides with other people, I just do not/have not shared the same bike.  Sharing the burden is certainly something I am interested in doing some time and reader Scott designed his own shared effort ride.  The ride in question has survived two Burning Man events so it has street cred.  Or would it be desert cred?  All text and pictures below credited to Scott.

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Greetings fellow bike hackers. I made this tricycle built for two a few years back and it has seen much use. Three persons can ride on it, but only two can pedal. I have plans to put two piggyback fork clamps for additional pedalling capability, and I also was thinking of an electric motor assist with solar panel shade canopy. 

I designed it to have the typical Schwinn cruiser look, just a little stretched out and gusseted for strength. I used two of my bosses old mountain bikes and one inch,and three quarter inch e.m.t. pipe. The fork and wheel are from a low-rider bike shop. The rear bench seat I made out of bamboo, wire, and fiberglass resin. I also made part of the rack from my grandfathers old tools. It has mostly been used on camping trips, and Fourth of July parades, but it has survived three Burning Man events. 

Stay cool,

Scooter Bee

Green Power: Bike Washing Machines

I do not claim to be particularly creative, but I have creative ideas all the time. You know that high you get when you think of something or daydream and say to yourself, “Dang I am smart. I’m sure no one else has thought of that.” I am sure many of you have the same experience as me though - you think the idea is creative and original and a few days later you see that someone not only already thought of it, but has already done it.

The Internet is a particular downer when it comes to finding out that you are not the only one with the particular bright idea. With a search engine like Google, you can type out a few words and see if anyone out there has already brought your great idea to fruition. 

I find myself constantly thinking of all the possible ways a bike can be used to make life better for people and the planet. Each time I am at the laundry mat, I find myself thinking about all the power that is used and one day I daydreamed of an alternate way. 60 seconds with Google and I found out my dream had already come true, multiple times. There are several versions of bike washing machines out.  One idea is to take an existing washing machine and hack it (link here).

Another version appears on the inhabitat web site.

Using two barrels of different sizes appears to be a cool option -

 

This option appears to be the most technical and certainly not very mobile.

 

The design I stumbled upon that I like the best is one that leaves the bike fully functional and seems fairly inexpensive and simple.  My only beef is that it is couched as being designed for the "developing world."  My feeling is that those in the developed world could likely benefit as much or more from exerting the effort rather than pushing a button to wash clothing. 

 

Have you used a bike to perform the function of machine?  Let us know.

Weld Your Own Bike Repair Stand

I have almost suffered a brain injury repairing my bike.  I have thought about wearing a helmet just to repair my bike.  Why you ask?  Sound strange?  Well, I don't have a repair stand and often times I will contort my body into strange positions to try to fix or adjust something. 

The dangerous part is that sometimes when I stand up I suffer from orthostatic hypotension  - commonly called a head rush. When I stand up quickly at times I get very dizzy and have almost fallen over.  I can just see myself some day in the future trying to explain stitches in my head to all the people at work.  "Yeah, well, um, I stood up and fell over." 

I have recently moved and might actually have space for a repair stand.  I will have to determine if I want to come up with something on my own, we have had some great suggestions, or perhaps just buy a stand.  Reader Miguel contacted us and I don't know if he suffers occasional instances of orthostatic hypotension, but he welded his own stand and wanted to share.  Thanks Miguel - repair safely!

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I am enrolled in a welding class and road biking is a passion. So I derived a blueprint from ground up for a road bike repair stand. I'm really in to distant riding, not racing. I had the bike but it needed repairs. It's a bit difficult to repair sitting on your ass, or kneeling down. I needed a bike repair stand; after a few minutes of searching the Internet I came to a conclusion...they are way to expensive to buy on my budget.

Of course me being dumb, I didn't think first that I could build/weld one myself! It only took a few minutes to make a blue print. Measuring should have been my first priority, I did it all by free hand. Overall it came out decent, my friend Craig helped me. We experimented with Stick welding first, let's just say that didn't work.

Then we went to oxy-acetylene; worked perfect. My instructor Steve Farnsworth only charged me for the amount of metal being used, averaged out $20. I made it specifically for my road bike. If anyone is interested I can give you tips on how to weld it or more, I can make it. I still have a bit of modifying to do.

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Cyclo-cross Brake Cable Adjustment Hack

Okay, to start off I have no affiliation with Nationwide Insurance and they did not ask to be involved in this post, however I was reminded of one of their commercials when we received an email for WV Cycling.  The hack passed on has to do with adjusting a brake cable for a cyclo-cross bike and made me think about how many times I wish I had a third hand.

 

WV Cycling wrote to us and stated:  Easy trick for adjusting the straddle wire on a set of cyclocross brakes. Gives you a third hand and halves the time spent setting them up!

Setting up Cantilever brakes in the past was something I did not enjoy so I made the jump and saw the following picture on the site:

Photo and Italic Text Credit to WV Cycling

A simple bungee cord pulled over the seat actually provided two extra hands.  The following text sums it up:

I attached it to one side of the brakes, then over the seatpost for some mild tension, back to the other brake. Tadaa! The brakes were touching the rim, and I could eye things to an accurate adjustment.

Brilliantly simple use of a bungee.  Do you have third hand hacks?  Feel free to let us know.

Bikejoring

We’ve had a couple of posts about dogs/bikes/exercise, most notably a post that covered the Springer and WalkyDog…where the rider attaches his/her dog to a bike. In the spirit of winter news stories about dog mushing comes the following, passed on to us by a reader (italic text from Wikipedia). 

Bikejoring is a dog mushing activity related to skijoring, canicross, and dog scootering. It is a recreation or sport where a harnessed dog or team of dogs attached to a towline, pull and run ahead of a cyclist. Bikejoring is a non snow season (dryland) activity.

Bikejoring and canicross are both dryland mushing activities that probably developed from skijoring and dogsled racing. Bikejoring is also sometimes used to train racing sled-dogs out of season.

Photo credits go to Wikipedia

The dog or dogs are fitted with harnesses suitable for pulling and running in, such as x-back harnesses. The harnesses are normally attached to a gang line (if more than one dog is being used), and a bungee towline, which clips to the front of the bicycle.

Many bikejorers use bayonets, antennas, or plastic pipes to suspend the towline above the front wheel, and to prevent it from tangling between the wheel and forks.  Bikejoring can be fun but has its dangers. The dogs may be distracted by wild-life.

Having your dog run in front of your bike instead of beside it looks a little safer …however it would take a more highly trained dog to Bikejore as opposed to using Springer or WalkyDog.  I know a couple that has a dog that seems to have endless energy and maybe something like this would actually wear the dog out. I have told them several times that the dog could easily power their whole house, if only they could harness the energy of the dog.

I would be concerned with wild-life distraction, after all, if a dog can do this to an owner that is standing still, imagine what might happen if dogs were distracted while pulling you along at 20+ mph!

 

Thanks Stephen for sending us the link!  Do you incorporate canine exercise into your bike routine?  Let us know. 

Avoid Frozen Bike Pump Seals

It had not happened in a while because temperatures have been quite mild, but this week I experienced brake cable freeze for the first time during a cold morning ride. I documented my issue with my Avid BB5 rear brake in a post a year ago this month.  It is time for me to once again use gravity to empty the water out of my cable housing. 

Freezing temps can pose challenges for cyclists and over at Bicycles and Icicles, Tim has an entertaining post about a frozen valve seal on his bike pump, and a handy solution as well.

If it's really cold out, and your pump is exposed to the weather, avoid a valve seal blowout by sticking the business end of your pump in your mouth and blowing into it until the rubber loosens up a bit. Tim calls this giving the pump a Lewinsky. Heh.

Body Bike

Some people will engage in bike hacks, and other people will engage in BIKE HACKS.  When we are talking ALL CAPS we are talking about serious business.  In a past entry I put out a call to engineers to produce stuff that riders need/want.  In the entry I was a bit critical of some students that worked on bike project for a class.  They created a spoke-less wheel which is kind of cool and all, but it made me think of "innovations" that are not of much practical use. 

I can't bag on the students too much because I am sure they had constraints and the professor likely had learning goals in mind, but I ran into another student project that I think is practical and awesome at the same time.  Some Stanford University students, participating in the Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing, came up with a full body bike.  Here is a short description of the project from the site: 

AIM set about the task of creating a hand and foot-pedaled bicycle of standard size and shape. As far as we are aware no such bicycle existed prior to our efforts.

The initial task was presented to a team of Stanford University senior undergraduate mechanical engineering students taking the course, ME 113 Mechanical Engineering Design taught by Professor Fritz Prinz in the Spring quarter, 2003. The students were told that they could not change anything to the rear of the handlebar neck of a normal bicycle, i.e., all changes had to take place from the neck forward. The students were given a budget of about $1,500 and ten weeks to develop a fully functional working bicycle.

Turns out Silicon Valley is not just about computer chips, check out the final result -

Makes me want to spin my arms just looking at it.  Checking out the AIM site for the full innovation cycle.  The sad part is that the program that inspired the bike seems to have come to an end =(

 

Bike Shovel Rack

I don't know about everyone, but when I do good I end up feeling good.  One small example happened on a busy three lane road I cross on my commute.  A lady's car had stalled and traffic was backing up.  No one got out of their car to help, rather they laid on their horns and everyone just tried to get around her causing traffic to snarl. 

She was driving an economy car and the road was flat so I leaned my bike against the traffic signal pole and told her to stick it in neutral and I would try to push her.  I guess commuting does strengthen the legs because I was able to push her about 50 yards into a median where she was out of the way.  The rest of my commute felt better than normal.

Reader Ryan saw an issue on his commute that needed attention and came up with a bike hack to address it.  The following text and pictures are credited to Ryan. This entry is a Bike Hacks Classic.

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A local green-way trail had a section covered in about 4" of muck from recent rain storms. I knew I wanted to clear it off but how would I get a shovel there? I spent some time in my garage looking through all the stuff I had kicking around. Out of some junk I made this rack. The body of the rack is a 1x6 piece of wood. I mounted it to the bike using conduit clamps. The shovel blade sits in the groove on the bottom, and the u-bolt gets tightened down to keep it from bouncing around.

I spent about two and a half hours shoveling the muck off the trail and when I was done it looked fantastic. The pictures show the rack and the before/afters of the cleanup. If each of us does one little thing to improve our community for other cyclists the whole world will become a great place to ride.

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Do you have Good Samaritan ideas or stories to share?  Let us know.