Bikes and antelopes, they don’t mix
Oh shi…..
Antelopes hate bikes? Poor spatial recognition? Don’t know, but ouch!
10.Oct.11 
Bicycles are good for the economy, our health, and our pocketbooks.
http://www.theurbancountry.com/2011/05/bicycle-infrastructure-is-good-for.html
Stunning Wooden Bike
Unbelievable! A Japanese shipbuilder turned his talents towards the construction of this bike (and others). Constructed of mahogany and apparently very strong and light
Full article: http://www.coolhunting.com/design/sanomagic-wooden.php
How to make a quick release wheel lock
If you’re an urban dweller like myself, you’re probably familiar with the unfortunate need to keep your bike (and its parts) away from the grubby hands of crackhead thieves. Thieves love three things: transit stations, cable locks and quick releases. In other words, easy pickings. Cable locks are easily cut and quick releases live up to their name and release quickly often leaving a sad wheel-less, saddle-less bike. In my last post, I showed you how to lock a saddle and in this post, I’ll show you how to make a cheap (or free) lock for your quick release wheels.
You will need:
- A suitably sized hose clamp. Stainless would be best
- A piece of inner tube to protect your frame (if you care)
Unscrew the hose clamp all the way until it opens. Slide the clamp on to your fork leg or chainstay or seatstay and with the quick release lever position parallel to the frame, tighten the clamp around the quick release elver.
Voila, you’ve made it just difficult enough to remove your wheel that most thieves won’t even bother and will just move on to a vulnerable target. Remember though to carry with your patch kit something suitable to undo the clamp in case of a flat. A coin might work in a pinch
How to make a free saddle lock
Materials needed: 1) spent unpatchable innertube, 2) spent stretched bicycle chain, 3) chain tool
Your local bike shop should be able to supply you with the tube and chain for free or you might already have this lying around.
The basic premise is simple: loop a piece of chain around the saddle’s rails securing it to the frame. The lock is the chain link, the key is a chain breaker tool. A crook could be carrying around one of these tools but really, the odds aren’t great. To protect the frame and saddle rails, the chain is wrapped in innertube
So there you go, an easy and free way to lock up your spendy leather saddle
Stop signs don’t work for bicycling
Short article worthy of a read: Stop signs don’t work for bicycling
Some gems that sum up the sentiment
… it is desirable, normal, and natural to keep up momentum when bicycling. Not surrounded by 2,000 pounds of steel, we can see all around us (no blind spots!). We can hear and be acutely aware of traffic, and we can stop on a dime. If we misjudge the situation or make a poor behavior choice, the damage is likely to be to us. No way does this behavior merit a $242 fine.
A bicycle is not a motor vehicle. To expect bicycle riders to behave exactly like motorists is like expecting kayakers to follow the same rules as motor boaters.
Motorists of course tend to not agree but I think though without the experience of riding a bicycle as transportation, they have no right to judge.
However, yielding to traffic and rolling through a stop at a casual speed is completely and utterly different than barreling through a stop at full clip. The fixed gear brakeless morons that sometimes exhibit this behavior do us all a disservice and by no means represent the whole by any stretch. Most of us actually want to stay alive and know that we have a lot more to lose in a crash than a motorist and thusly proceed extremely cautiously through intersections
How to build a bike repair stand for cheap
Want a heavy duty repair stand but just can’t spring for Park Tools $200 wall mount clamp? Ya, me either; so I made one. It’s a fairly easy straight forward construction that uses standard iron plumbing pipe and a woodworking clamp.
Mine is mounted to the ceiling but it could just as easily be mounted to the floor. The clamp shown is a Pony 3/4 inch pipe clamp from Home Depot for $13.36 but if you have a Harbor Freight nearby, you can get the same clamp for $7.99. Next step is to drill some holes through the clamp with a sharp metal bit (and cutting oil). To clamp the tubing of seatposts and bike frames, I made a “V” shaped cut in some scrap wood then stapled scrap innertube to it to provide slip resistance and to cushion the clamping force a bit. You can make this cut with a handsaw, a table saw or even a circular saw (just be careful of course). I originally used douglas fir but that cracked after a month of use so I made a new one out of oak (much harder of a wood).
The clamp simply slips on to plumbing pipe (in this case 3/4”). From there you thread on elbows and fittings to attach it to wherever you like. At the ceiling or floor, a flange is used.
My flange is attached via four through bolts with fender washers on the back; this is plenty of support. If you can find the pipe at a salvage yard or free on Craigslist that’d be ideal but otherwise you can get pre-cut pre-threaded sections at your local big box
A setup like this is by no means as versatile or fine tuned as a commercial offering like Parks bank breaking clamp. For instance, you can’t rotate and lock it in position and you can’t raise or lower the height but I’m more than happy with it even without those luxuries. Even with the daily use/abuse it takes in the shop it still holds up great.
Beer by bike–six pack holder
Pretty classy, eh?
If you like the idea but don’t want to shell out for this leather model you could accomplish the same thing with one, maybe two, straps from toe clip pedals. Id make damn sure the cardboard on my six pack was stout though
http://www.etsy.com/listing/69286355/6-pack-frame-cinch-polo-mallet-holder
