CommuterKat

Sorry, my bad. It's actually an ear band. It goes around your forehead. His actually has the double sewn "toe to heel" ends over his ears for double the thickness and warmth over his frostbitten ears and the heel sort of hangs down between his eyes and covers the space between his eyebrows. Very comical. I wish I had a picture.

hoogie

I made my own hypercracker substitute ... I couldn't find one so made this one to remove cassettes on the road to replace broken spokes on the drive side ... simple to use and works well.

more info on my hypercracker webpage on how to make one of your own ...

sbeatonNJ

My homemade ingenuity has been limited to making key chains. I took the little spd part that you have to cut off the bottom of new shimano shoes and poked a hole in it for my key ring. You know the part on the sole that say SPD where the cleat goes in. Back in the day I had a piece of ACS RL edge tires that I used as a key chain, I wish I still had it that was cool looking. I also put magnets on the back of an old chainring and put it in my fridge, kind of a reminder to take it easy on the food.

John Ridley

The front light is an MR16 bulb, 20W spot, with front glass. They're $10 for 3 at Lowes.
The housing is a standard plumbing fitting; the rubber and surrounding stainless AND the two pipe clamps are all one thing, it costs about $3 I think. Also at Lowes. It's used to join together a couple of pieces of pipe. I can't remember the size, just take the MR16 over there and find the one that fits. It's a perfect fit. Another 40 cent hose clamp holds it to the handlebar.

The back is just a PVC plug. Drilled out and put a switch in, and drilled again for the wire.

The wire is zip cord, just electrical-taped to the frame, back to the rear rack.

I have a 2.3 AH SLA battery zip-tied to the rear rack. The contacts are open. I just hook a small battery charger to it with alligator clips when I pull in for the night.

2.3AH SLA is a bit slim with a 20W lamp. I have a 40-50 minute commute, and it's getting rather yellow at the end. SLA has a poor discharge rating, particularly when drawing 1.5A out of a 2.3AH battery. NiMH would be better.

Eventually I want to get a 4 AH NiMH pack; they're about $30 at various places on the web, but I would have to get a more expensive charger or go to trickle charging. Haven't decided which yet.

Anders K

My homemade chainwhipp. Small and lightweight enough to take on tour.

vrkelley

Great "commuter tool" for cars that get too close!

vrkelley

Tightwad's home-made bicycle trailer.
https://www.motherearthnews.com/arc/6552/
https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/79882-bike-trailer.html

cristoff

Try using a pair of disposable of gloves used for painting etc.on outside or inside if not big enough.

cristoff

Try a cheap pair of poly gloves then over them a pair of disposable painter gloves,very cheap.

cristoff

try cutting a hole for your thumb and a larger one for your fingers, your gloves over them you'll get the back of your hands protected from the cold.

dbg

From my commuter bike, the shifter for the internal geared hub (shimano7spd) is easily removable for the summer when I want to throw on a singlespeed rear.

Also the rubber tube section between the top and down tubes encases a switch that turns on/off the load (front and rear lights) on the front dynamo hub. This makes a big difference in rolling resistance.

Every bike I have (~15) has some version of DIY kludge on it.

And I'm a fan of GPS. Great for instant and average speed. Great for random exploring and avoiding the dead-end roads. And when I enter a route it can show the vertical profile. Very cool.

dbg

vrkelley

As mentioned on another thread...Fleece helmet liner for winter cool max helmet liner for summer. The cool max liner prevents weird tan stripes on hair or scalp. The fleece one keeps your headwarm.

Use double sided tape to place the heating or cooling swatch inside the helmet. Just cut a piece of fabric of the back of an old shirt. For winter I used the packing tape (not duct tape!!!). to block the holes and a home made helmet cover to block rain and snow made out of an old pair of rain pants.

Cost of materials $2 Reflective tape
Savings about $30 Winter liner, summer liner and helmet cover

madhouse

My wife and I have 5 kids; we like to take our bikes when we go "camping" (I use that term loosly). I mounted to receiver type Hollywood racks on one home-made tall receiver. I can get the tandem, train-a-bike tandem, 5 mtbs and a 16" bike on at one time. I carry my youngest's 16" in the storage compartments, along with a tool box, spare tubes, and a work stand!

Edit: And a two step step-ladder.

vrkelley

Any idea how to make one of these only sleeker and lighter than this dutch bike chain guard?

halfbiked

Are materials important to you? i.e. must it be stamped sheet metal, or are you open to using fiberglass?

vrkelley

Whatever is the lightest and won't fall off in traffic. Are fiberglass sheets available to cut out?

vrkelley

Suggestion for cable o-rings.

"One discarded rubber spacer, a paper punch, and a leather punch later, I had my three rubber brake bumper thingies. Perfect."


https://www.girlbike.com/doityourself.html

halfbiked

sorry. didn't see your response until today.

to build one from fiberglass, you would need to do some experimentation / fabrication. Its kindof a 'how badly do you want one' problem. To answer your question, no fiberglass is not available in rigid sheets. Fiberglass is a cloth. An epoxy resin is mixed with the cloth and allowed to harden. Usually its applied to a form or mold of some kind in order to get the appropriate shape. So, it'd be a labor-intensive project, possibly costing you time and money for more than one attempt. Look up West System epoxy / fiberglass for more info.

vrkelley

Since most helmets no longer include pads for customized fitting, I use sticky back foam insulation and just run it on the inside of the helmet. This works well even if the helmet gets wet. Frost King 1/2 thick weather stripping.

https://www.mclendons.com/Merchant2/m...ory_Code=51-12

spanky4x4

I think I saw it here on the forums but perhaps not. I have recently been playing with putting drop bars on my bike. I couldnt get any cheap bar tape for a couple days,then I remembered. use an old innertube.

I sliced a 27" open,then in half.one tube did both sides and absorbs shock nicely. when it gets hot out I dont think it'll work too good with sweat and heat but for cheap and quick it works quite nicely

sbhikes

I cut a hole out of my bike seat (not my recumbent bike seat, but my MTB bike seat) with a steak knife. Worked great to keep my delicate sensitive areas from being crushed. Hid the hole with a seat cover. Then they started selling seats with holes in them.

vrkelley

The number one location of stolen bikes is right out of the garage or apartment.

Garage docking station: Take that unused tow chain, dog chain or any sort of chain and wrap it to an immovable or heavy object out in the garage. To protect your bike from the chain, cut an old bike tube in half and slide it on both ends of the chain. You can just lock your bike up on the chain with a padlock.

LittlePixel

Or do what I did and Google for "Manfrotto" who make all manner of useful camera clamps.

vrkelley

Looks sortof ghetto maybe it's the color choice...Anybody tried one of these crates?

https://users.chariot.net.au/%7Eglori...ic_crates.html

spanky4x4

I had an old milk crate on the front for a while.it definatly is getto,but worked pretty good if you didnt overload it.itd about2.5 times wider then the rack and you really had to even out the load. I used it for small grocery trips,sunday paper,etc.