polymorphself 

This bike parks outside of my regular coffee shop. The man who rides it is either homeless or close to it. I often see him commenting on peoples bicycles and he seems to like to tinker.

Anyways check out his front brake…

beicster 

Maybe he doesn't like to use his front brake much. I hope his back brake is strong.

noobinsf 

Yikes. I may have a straddle cable that would work and would be happy to donate to the cause. Not taking anything away from his ingenuity, but you know, safety and all.

Jeff Neese

It looks like all he needs is a straddle cable.

Macguyver909

It's old school anti lock braking. That being said, who doesn't cut off the tails of their zip ties? What a barbarian!

Also what's up with the tin foil on the spokes?

All joking aside, I also have a straddle cable that I would ship for free to help him out.

polymorphself 

Yeah I was thinking he likely just couldn't find a straddle cable easily. Although we have a co-op in the neighborhood that you'd think would have some lying around. He's always at the coffee shop so I'll check with him tomorrow morning and see what the deal is and report back. Thanks all!

grant40

This bike looks like it probably belongs to a homeless person. I did one time see a picture of a straddle cable made out of hay bailing rope

grant40

Remind me of this image where the spring and one of the brakes was broken and this was to keep one of the pads from rubbing on the rim.

PhilFo 

What he needs is the clamp bolt on the left side canti. After that, it's just a straddle cable or even a short end of an old used brake cable.

dedhed

If you squint it's mint

polymorphself 

It does : )

Not sure if he has a place to sleep at night but I know he doesn’t have a roof during the day, he usually stays at the coffee shop all day every day and is friendly with the staff and regulars. The baristas hook him up. Nice guy.

52telecaster

I delivered meals to old folks for years. Our organization also helped the homeless. Some are incredibly resourceful but this just makes me want to cry. The world is a tuff place and I can't fix it.

As an aside, I have worked on the less fortunate's bikes many times. Once I fixed an excons bike. It was a mess and I made it safe. About a month later he murdered a prostitute. No telling where things lead. I still help anyone I can.

polymorphself 

Yep, definitely never know, which I suppose is as good a reason as any to help anyone you can!

For what it’s worth he always seems in good spirits and keeps busy reading lots of books. I’ve recently seen him with a construction vest on as well some days so I’m thinking he may be working some gig now at least part time.

Lola Coffee if any other downtown Phoenix folks are reading.

52telecaster

The folks that see and interact with homeless are my clan.

cudak888 

Do I spy spokes held together with aluminum tape too?

Just picked up a wrecked wheel at the LBS fixed the exact same way due to a bad run of stainless. The execution though...much less elegant:






-Kurt

polymorphself 

Yep, I hadn’t caught that!

Darth Lefty 

I'm not convinced this is worse than the original equipment, except that it seems to be about 3x more zip ties than required to do the job. Maybe he's worried about twisting them

embankmentlb

Just another reason disc brakes are obviously better!

Imazagi

If it works, it ain't stupid

SJX426 

UV will kill the zip ties over time.

Kabuki12

Like Russel , I have tried to help the homeless at my shop. They come around and rifle through the dumpster on their bikes . I give them whatever recyclables I have and even hired them for cash work like cleaning and painting. I have stopped doing it as it got a bit out of hand. It does not take long for the word to get out. I hired a man to paint my shop floor and he obviously has mental health issues. He showed up on foot right after I hired him and I asked him what happened to his bike. He told me it got stolen while he was asleep in the river bottom. I had an old mountain bike , a mid level Specialized that I had bought in 1990 but didn’t use anymore. I tuned it up and gave it to him with a nice lock. He showed very little emotion when I gave it to him and the next day he had taken the handlebars off and put hi-rise bars on. The grip shifters and brake levers were dangling off the bike as the cables were too short for his “new” bars. The front derailleur was completely bent and he traded the original front wheel for some painted one off a beach cruiser. Two days later the bike was stolen . I asked about the lock I gave him and he just looked at me. He clearly did not have the capacity to be on his own . It is very sad and in my area there are hundreds living without the help they need , and I’m not talking about hand outs .

52telecaster

It's beyond my cognitive ability to come up with a solution but there is definitely a problem.