Fifty Plus (50+) - Rigging my bike

I'm a relatively new biker (5 months and 2800 miles) and, other than a couple of organized rides, all my riding is by myself. The upshot of this is I don't get to see how other bikers go about making their bikes work for them so when I have a perceived need, I have to make my own solution. First I added the cheap Schwinn speedometer, no problem. Next I added a heart monitor which I wore on the wrist but I didn't want to be taking my hands off the bars to swap back and forth from heart to time functions so I added the watch, which had the added bonus of a stopwatch to monitor my elapsed time without having to push buttons on the speedo. The watch is wire tied to the bar, sounds sloppy but it works well and doesn't look obvious. Then I had all the functions I wanted but still wasn't happy because the heart readout on my wrist kept twisting around and was hard to see. I wanted to mount it in the front but I was out of bar room. So I found some junk in my shop and made the mount below. Tried it a little while ago and it works fine.

For all I know, there's something really sanitary, tricked out and really cheap to do all this. There's no cheaper solution to my parking brake though. When you prop your bike against something, do you have trouble with the front wheel rotating and rolling allowing the bike to drop? Ii have a fat rubber band around the hand grip, when I stop I just pull the front brake and put the band over the lever end. The bike is then stable.

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x229/TomD77/post%20from/DSC8536.jpg

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x229/TomD77/post%20from/DSC8534.jpg

I have a plain Jane Garmin 305 that does all that yours does.

BUT, I want to compliment you. That is a very nicely arranged dashboard for a bike, its a little busy, but very functional. Does your HR monitor say 309? I would take a break if I were you.......;)

I have a carbon fiber mount that looks very much like your handmade one. Nice job. One idea. Why don't you find a piece of tubing that is long enough (3"?) to hold all three faces?

I've used the rubber band trick myself.

Here's a shot of my mount. No better than yours.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k87/tomfrady/GiantwithK-wings3c.jpg

So where are you going to put the lights?

Had this problem on the Tandem for night riding and you can get an extension bar that will give you space for 4 such attachments on a single bar in front of the main bars.

So where are you going to put the lights?

If I end up needing lights (not wild about the idea of dark riding), I could just make the tubing piece a little longer and relocate the other stuff there as suggested by Mojo Slim. The tubing is just PVC painted black.


I have a plain Jane Garmin 305 that does all that yours does.

Never seen the Garmin, does it give all this info without having to play with buttons? Heart rate too? If it does, I'd sure consider one of those but I want the info on a single display. Sorta like you wouldn't want to have to push buttons on your car dash to go back and forth between temp, gas gauge, speedo, tach, etc, you want them all at once. Actually the speedo will give all except heart but who wants to be fiddling with tiny buttons all the time, especially at 20 mph on a paved shoulder next to a high speed highway? I prefer everything at a glance. BTW: You need to be in really good shape to get the heart rate up to 309. The wind must have been REALLY bad because the speedo was reading 0 at the time! ;-)

A product that I used in college and has become impossible to find was made by Rhode Gear and called a Flickstand.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2224/2511812063_d0435f5445.jpg

Simple, elegant, cheap and lightweight.

I have a plain Jane Garmin 305 that does all that yours does.

BUT, I want to compliment you. That is a very nicely arranged dashboard for a bike, its a little busy, but very functional. Does your HR monitor say 309? I would take a break if I were you.......;)

I agree--it's more information than I want or need, but you've done a good job setting it up. There's really no right or wrong way to do stuff like this, and I sort of enjoy cobbling up solutions.

who wants to be fiddling with tiny buttons all the time

Agreed. I like my Blackburn Neuro 6.0 for this reason. I can see speed, ride time, cadence and heart rate all at the same time. For clock time I use my watch. Off the bike, even in the presence of clocks I still use my watch. Ingrained habit of upteen years.

Here's my "dashboard":
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/pics/1/docs/00/00/71/67/small/100_1776.JPG?v=1

I'm bummed because I had to remove my Orca horn to put on the gps.
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/pics/1/docs/00/00/38/61/small/Double_Stem_Side_View.JPG?v=7H

This second picture shows the double stem setup I tried when I first got my LHT. It worked fine, but I decided it was overly heavy for what it got me. I took off the bottom stem, installed spacers, and put an extension on the holder for the handlebar bag to clear the cyclocross brake levers. It worked fine.

I remember the flickstand. Couldn't you flick it down after riding over broken glass to try and brush the shards out before they penetrated your tube? It seems like a great product to prevent wheel flop when you're stationary and off the bike.

To the guy with the watch on his bars: have you seen the clocks that fit on your stem cap (http://www.amazon.com/Stem-Captain-Threadless-Top-Cap/dp/B003LR86AA)? http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51D9WQuIO9L._SL500_AA300_.jpg
Looks pretty slick to me. Of course, I always wear a watch, but it might be nice to be able to just glance down instead of having to pull back the sleeve on my cycling jacket. (I know - pretty lazy huh?) Of course if the display is too small I'd have to put on my old-man reading glasses, which would defeat the purpose.

Are you like me? Addicted to buying gizmos for your bikes, but you already have everything you need, so you're searching for items of modest value? :o

I'm a relatively new biker (5 months and 2800 miles) and, other than a couple of organized rides, all my riding is by myself. The upshot of this is I don't get to see how other bikers go about making their bikes work for them so when I have a perceived need, I have to make my own solution. First I added the cheap Schwinn speedometer, no problem. Next I added a heart monitor which I wore on the wrist but I didn't want to be taking my hands off the bars to swap back and forth from heart to time functions so I added the watch, which had the added bonus of a stopwatch to monitor my elapsed time without having to push buttons on the speedo. The watch is wire tied to the bar, sounds sloppy but it works well and doesn't look obvious. Then I had all the functions I wanted but still wasn't happy because the heart readout on my wrist kept twisting around and was hard to see. I wanted to mount it in the front but I was out of bar room. So I found some junk in my shop and made the mount below. Tried it a little while ago and it works fine.

For all I know, there's something really sanitary, tricked out and really cheap to do all this. There's no cheaper solution to my parking brake though. When you prop your bike against something, do you have trouble with the front wheel rotating and rolling allowing the bike to drop? Ii have a fat rubber band around the hand grip, when I stop I just pull the front brake and put the band over the lever end. The bike is then stable.

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x229/TomD77/post%20from/DSC8536.jpg

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x229/TomD77/post%20from/DSC8534.jpg



Like the OP, I do 99% of my riding by myself. That is one of my primary reasons for being here on BF. I get a lot of ideas and information here.

+1 on the Flickstand, I used to use one on my touring bike in the early 80's. Sometimes you can find them on the 'bay.

I am currently using a homemade steering stabilizer, made from a spring, mentioned in another thread.

Just for giggles I thought I would post a pic of my cockpit in it's current configuration.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=177121&d=1289083688

Just for giggles I thought I would post a pic of my cockpit in it's current configuration.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=177121&d=1289083688

It made me laugh! I haven't seen streamers on a bike in years! I think I like those bars though.

Like the OP, I do 99% of my riding by myself. That is one of my primary reasons for being here on BF. I get a lot of ideas and information here.

+1 on the Flickstand, I used to use one on my touring bike in the early 80's. Sometimes you can find them on the 'bay.

I am currently using a homemade steering stabilizer, made from a spring, mentioned in another thread.

Just for giggles I thought I would post a pic of my cockpit in it's current configuration.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=177121&d=1289083688

So where is the "back up" alarm button located in the cockpit?:lol: