That is a thing of garage-engineering beauty! I have to remember the use of valve stem caps as finishing nuts; just freaking awesome.

Is there a way to mount it so it's outboard without having to re-do your bar covering? That way it would interfere AND give you the auto downshift.

Egad!

Why? Why is that headlamp set where it will illuminate the back of what you have on the rack, but not the road ahead?

I agree, the presta valve caps are really the icing on the cake here.

This thread is an eye opener, literally. I have widened my eyes with every post. I can't decide which I love the most. But ShannonM, I'm disappointed you don't show us pictures of the bad front derailleur idea.

Bad idea 97: There was a bike parked outside in my neighborhood for a couple of years which had a tree limb as the handlebar.

Bad idea 48: Once, I put a centerpull brake caliper on the rear a ladies bike. I routed the brake cable in the normal way, looping up from the top tube to the caliper. I anchored the cable end to the seat lug somehow and installed the cable stop/adjuster to the yoke which operates the brake. It looked weird but worked fine.

At the time I took the picture, just after assembly, I was going for a ride in the daylight and transporting nothing on the rack. The light was there for a visual clue to approaching automotive drivers, i.e. it was there for safety reasons and not illumination for after sunset riding.

In the long term I plan to make a leather bag for the rack and mount an appropriate light to the eyelet at the bottom front of the rack. The light will then be located between the fender and the rack and will be unobstructed. Hopefully it will appeal to your sense of style and practicality.

Tried to use electrical tape and carbon grip paste to protect a new carbon handlebar on my ancient 26" Trek MTB from the 90s:

Worked terribly. Torqued to 5nm, the handlebars would start slipping, rotating down every week. The electrical tape just seemed to make things more slippery. The stem only having two bolts at the handlebar clamp instead of 4 didn't help.

Eventually it slipped on a long trip, I didn't have a torque wrench handy, over-torqued it in frustration trying to get it functional enough to ride home, and CRACK.

Nah, just a simple change in how you grip it if/when braking. It downshifts very smoothly.

Made a mount for my Cateye with a MTB barend.

We'd hate to lose you because an oncoming driver didn't notice you and drifted into your lane because the stack of hymnals on the front rack was blocking the light.

Bar ends come in handy; here's a picture of how I mounted my Zwift Click shifters using an accessory bar & bar ends to put the shifters right at my thumbs when on the hoods:

My being in that exact same area for a few years, is what made me change my 700c road bike from a (flatland) road double to a road triple, commuting up the mild grades on Pellissippi Parkway between knox and oak ridge. Had I known how to climb better standing at the time, I probably could have gotten by with the double. But I like having the option to spin when needed. And I needed that low when biking around Norris Dam. In fact, this pic circa 2005 has a map of that area on the bars for guidance:



For serious hills like where I live now, even with the small 20"/406 wheels on the Dahon, a 52-30 low was not low enough. Fitting a wide double crank (50/34) was the best thing I ever did, stalled years before doing it, shouldn't have. But the IGH should get you there. I just preferred to avoid IGH for a number of reasons. I've seen several Dahon Speed TR ("touring") for sale, they have that setup, but on a long tour, I'd rather have all-external gearing, it's hard to find places on the road who can repair any IGH, and even in my town, all the bike shops refer folks to the one shop specializing in that.

What do you mean "zero bike"?

I also appreciate it, but . . . a couple of p clamps to mount the rack ends to the seat stays would be simpler and more solid.

Castle nuts should be a staple of everyone's parts bins.

I can see it from a "Don't-Mar-The-Paint" perspective as well. I should take some related to this subject pix and post here.

ETA:


I actually prefer the Pletscher style rear racks. They can be hard to find at times. About all this one is good for is tying the U-lock to.
The S/S straps on this "rack" don't pass through, or around, the seat stays, hence the bending. For the light duty purpose intended, it works.


-D.S.

My daughter and son-in-law (he is a native and UT grad) live about a 1/2 mile south on Rocky Hill just off of Northshore. Dangerous traffic in the area, but I'm told there is nice riding to the east of the TN River which requires, plenty of low gearing.

I'll probably limit myself to 20–30-mile rides, so I won't worry too much. I've had great luck with the DualDrive on my 2003 Cannondale. It has never given me any problems so I'm not concerned about reliability in this application..

I believe gugie came up with the term "Zero Bike." It is a bike which you store in a distant location for riding when you visit. Since it is not part of the "at-home" collection, it does not figure into the count when your SO tells friends, "Bob has 20 bikes!" I have limited storage space there so the Dahon needs to be folded when I'm not there and kept in a closet.

Botormike hydraulic brake banjo bolt.

Technically my phone did.

And a clarification - although zero bikes typically reside far from the owner’s home, they could be ar a neighbor’s house. As long as your significant other doesn’t know about it and doesn’t count as part of your collection, it’s a zero bike.

haha Laurie has more bikes than I do, and she's the one currently shopping for another, while I feel like I have enough bikes. I know, "enough bikes" is blasphemy, sorry. I'll be getting another one soon enough, just not looking right now. When I finish doing braze-ons and painting this vintage Frenchie I'm working on, and assemble it into a bike, that counts as n+1 right? If frames and parts count as bikes, then I have more than she does, but n doesn't increment when I build one up.

There is some competition for the finite* number of bike hanging hooks, so we basically define n as the number that need hooks. But other than that she's happy when I get another bike. I think in her mind it kinda gives her permission to get herself another too. Not that she needs anyone's permission.

* I have ideas for where to add more bike hanging hooks, so though the curve appears to be nearing an asymptote, I don't know yet if it's actually finite.

**Gurgle**
For a guy that considers himself at last knowledgeable on some words, this one's certainly a headscratcher.
Do enlighten us less edumacated rabble.

-D.S.

I ain't no mathemagician, but I use it as lay people do, with the second definition below (from Wiktionary):So, my number of bike storage hooks, graphed as a function of time, keeps getting larger. Does it approach some asymptote that it can never exceed, or is it in fact infinite? Logic suggests the former, since my basement is finite and there's a limit to how tightly you can pack bikes together. But we have our best minds working on a solution to that.

If y'all solve it, patent it immediately. You'll have just invented an FTL drive, as well as a desert topping bike storage system.

--Shannon

An asymptote is a curve that approaches a line without ever touching or crossing it.

Here is a graph of y = 1 / x

It approaches zero but is never zero.

Isn't the asymptote the line, rather than the curve? (IOW, the value that can't ever quite be reached.)

--Shannon

I think there could also be an asymptotic curve involved in bicycle storage. In increasing density:

Bikes side by side with enough room to readily access them (typical non-aficionado storage).

Bikes nose to tail to fit more in laterally.

Vertically-hung bikes.

Bikes with removed front wheels.

Double-stacked bikes using holders, trays, or shelves. (most of my bike storage is somewhere in this range)

Dismantled bicycles. (several project bikes in the trailer are at this stage)

Cut-apart bicycles.

Bicycles run through a shredder.

I'm sure I missed some intermediate steps, but using the final option could get hundreds of bicycles in a single shed. Although it would take a very long time and possibly breaking the laws of thermodynamics to get one together for the morning's ride. But it is a theoretical solution for the storage problem.

Beat me to it.

Rubber covered stainless steel P-clamps are very stable and don't mar the paint. In my town, they are available in multiple diameters at the commercial marine supply shop, in packages of like 10 for not much money. I'm sure they can also be had via McMaster-Carr or Amazon. Spend more for the stainless steel instead of just plated, it's worth it.