Hey, thanks for stopping by! If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed. You can also subscribe to BikeHacks by email. Thanks for visiting!In case (like me) you’ve missed it, there’s a nice little resource site out there on teh Intarwebs called Free Bike Tools. The tools are the online [...]

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The other day one of the plates on my 50/50 pedals fell off somewhere. Never did find it. So I ordered up a new set of plates from CrankBrothers. The plates arrived quickly, but without the promised retainer bolts, which was a total bummer. When the old plate fell off, it took the old bolts [...]

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Over on Instructables someone started a post on uses for old bicycle inner tubes. He made it up to twenty, but we just know there have to be more.
The hacked inner tube made its debut on Bikehacks with windproof shoe covers. A follow up was using inner tubes to wrap your [...]

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Local cyclist and friend, Matt Haughey, will be riding in Cycle Oregon this summer and wondered whether upgrading his roadbike would make much of a difference in his performance.
Matt rented a high-end road bike just to see if the marketing hype surrounding such bikes had any grounding in reality. He was hoping for some performance [...]

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Reader Mike sends in this perfectly sensible tip: instead of buying a helmet cover, just pick up shower caps from hotels. They give ‘em away!
photo credit cecilianne

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Truing wheels isn’t the same as building wheels. Similar equipment is used, but wheelbuilding is more labor intensive. And requires some specialized stuff. Truing up an already-built wheel, however, doesn’t have to be scary (though you’ll probably make your wheel worse the first time you mess with it. Tip: tighten less). You’re gonna need a [...]

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Great DIY project over at Blue Collar Mountain Biking for making a bottle opener from a cog and a bit of chain. Just gotta get an old cog and cut it up. Full directions on the site, with pics, when you follow the link.
Alternatively, if you’re not a handy-person, you can just buy one in [...]

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A recent temperature spike in the Big Apple sent me rummaging through my closet looking for warm weather gear. Although I’m a huge fan of Lycra bike shorts from a comfort in the saddle standpoint, I am not a huge fan of putting my super tight shorts on display. As a commuter this [...]

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Over at back2dabike, Jason goes into excellent detail on how to build your own alcohol stove that’s perfect for touring. There are a fair number of instructions floating around for these kinds of stoves, but Jason’s are super-detailed, with the added benefit of being hilarious. And he’s got a video of the stove in action [...]

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Matt’s got some good tips on winter riding. ‘Course, here in the PNW we’ve got winter, but we don’t have Winter. Some of you Midwest and East Coasters have totally got us beat. But still. 30° is 30°, y’know?
Anyway, Matt’s tips are worth checking out, and be sure to scroll through the comments for a [...]

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