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I’ve been disenchanted with our old generic bike trailer’s hitch. It’s a clamp-style hitch that’s a total PITA to get tight. I was ogling used Burley trailers when I started wondering whether I could hack my own Burley-style hitch onto my old generic trailer.
The way the trailer hitched onto a bike always bugged me. The clamp tends to slip if you don’t really crank on it. I actually wear gloves when turning the crank handle, just to get it on there so it doesn’t move. It moved once on me while I was riding and one of the clamps slid into my disc brake. The brake cut through the rubber, and into the aluminum of the clamp. Ouch. I’ve kinda been done with that clamp since then.
The other day I was browsing Craigslist and ogling some Burley trailers. Nice trailers. As I stared at them, I thought the trailer body tubing looked familiar. So I started digging around the web, looking for how Burley hitches work. What I learned led me to this little bike trailer hack.
Rather than spending a couple hundred bucks on another used trailer, I spent $20 on a couple of parts and hacked a new hitch for the trailer (okay, in truth I spent $60 because my bike has breezer-style dropouts and I needed some special doo-dad to accommodate ‘em.
Anyway, instead of pictures, this time I made a little video that shows the hitch bits and, I think, adequately demonstrates my dorkiness. Enjoy. (runtime: 3:49)
There is a design competition that falls right into the spirit of Bike Hacks! Want $5,000 for your great idea? Design 21 is handing out money for great bike hack design ideas. The competition is called “Power to the Pedal.” Check this out:
This competition calls for a biking accessory or add-on for existing bikes that would improve the bicycling experience and encourage more people to make biking their primary means of transport – more convenient, more enjoyable, safer and more integrated into daily lifestyles – whether it’s for commuting, working, shopping, transporting, leisure or all of the above. In your description, you should define the user scenario and design problem that your design attempts to solve.
You cannot enter any design that already exists on the market or has been put into commercial production, or that you do not own the rights to.
The only bad thing is that the competition closes on April 30th. For more information visit the Design 21 site.
Anything cyclists can do to make themselves more visible is a plus. At RockTheBike.com they sell a product known as the “Down Low Glow.” It looks like a dope product for sure.
A gentleman who claims to have invented the Down Low Glow is featured in the following video. His web site is ridelow.co.uk. The video is 3:40 long and the Down Low Glow is in full effect near the end of the video. If anyone has one of these, I would love to know more. For example: How durable are the lights? Are they water proof? How long do they hold a charge?
Via CoolTools comes this pointer for blinky lights activated by magnetic induction. Similar to how your odometer works, Reelights work by a magnet attached to your spokes, which provides power to the light as the magnet turns.
Ah, April 15th. Hopefully you have not waited until the last minute to file your taxes. I just hate it when news stations send reporters to sit outside the post office on tax day. It’s the same “news’” every year - people procrastinate and file at the last minute - what’s the big deal?
What would be news is if elected officials embraced the concept of tax breaks to promote cycling. Virginia Beach tried to embrace just such a plan and unfortunately legislators seem content with the status quo. The following is a quote from an article posted on PilotOnline.com:
Under the bill, employers who provide showers and bicycle racks would receive a tax credit of as much as $5,000. Employees who ride to and from work at least 10 days a month would earn a tax credit of $15 per month.
Suit introduced the same bill two years ago, but a House finance committee refused to act on it.
For a glimmer of hope, you have to look west to all those hippies living in Oregon. Oregon.gov features this:
Bicycle Project
An employer purchases bicycles (or equipment to store bicycles) for employees to reduce vehicle miles driven a minimum of 45 working days per calendar year. The maximum eligible cost for a bicycle (including light and bolted equipment) is $800.
* Examples: An employer purchases bicycles for employees to use to commute to work. An employer purchases bicycle storage lockers to house the bicycles.
Were you able to take advantage of any tax credits related to cycling? If so, let us know in comments.
It was a sad day in NYC last week when Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal for the first ever congestion pricing plan in the U.S. was effectively “doored.” timesunion.com had this to say about the plan:
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wanted congestion pricing — that is, to impose tolls on cars and trucks entering Manhattan’s busiest streets during weekdays — for the best of reasons. It would have improved traffic flow, reduced air pollution from idling vehicles and generated much needed revenue for mass transit. Mr. Bloomberg’s City Council agreed. So did Gov. David Paterson. And the federal government was promising more than $300 million to help implement the plan.
As a city resident, the externality concept really hits home (a third party being effected by the actions of others). Most of the people who drive cars in Manhattan do not live in the city. They drive in, pollute the city with their exhaust, create traffic jams, cause wear and tear on the roads, and cause excess noise. Those of us who live here and do not drive cars have to breathe dirty air, listen to useless horn blasts, and dodge the potholes caused by cars.
In my opinion, congestion pricing would have been a huge step in the right direction and it’s sad to see a step toward reducing dependence upon the internal combustion engine as a form of personal transit take a hit. Several cities around the world have seen the benefits of congestion pricing and it is sad to see the U.S. lag behind.
Just over a month ago we posted an entry on a car that was pedal powered. Turns out the cops were not happy with the combustion free vehicle and ticketed the driver for safety reasons.
Michel de Broin, who created the bike car as a piece of art ended up the winner in the case as it was dismissed by the judge. The news story can be found on the TheStar.com web site and de Broin has a video of the car in action on his web site. The video is of the car making its way around Hell’s Kitchen, NYC - where I live! I’m sorry I missed it. Visit his site for the video.
One of the most common bike hacks you will see on the streets of Gotham are custom fenders. I have been a pretty big fan of modifying water bottles for fender use for some time. I covered one such a hack in a previous post featuring this first method of fending off road grime. Simply cut some bottles in half and zip tie them to your seat tube.
Another bit of creativity involves a reflector bracket, water bottle, and hanger. For this one I drilled a hole in the water bottle cap and bolted it through the rear reflector braket, cut the bottle in half, zip tied the two halves together to make it longer, and then gave it rigidity by giving it a metal hanger spine connected with duct tape and zip ties.
Plastic buckets are a common site as featured in this photo. This guy actually hacked down a rear rack to the bare essentials and then bolted the cut bucket to the top.
One of the most common fenders used by delivery riders involves hacked mail bins. If these things are considered federal property, the FBI could arrest half of the delivery cyclists in the city. I took this one with my camera phone so it’s not that clear, but it simply involves chopping a mail bin up and using some string to anchor it on.
Possibly the most important thing about cycling that people may not pay necessary attention to is bike fit. There is a lot of opportunity to make cycling unpleasant by picking a bike that is not the right fit. Wrong fit can result in everything from a sore neck to tendon problems in the knees.
Jim Langley has a great tutorial on making sure you and your bike are a good physical match. In my opinion, you should not purchase a bike from a shop if they do not take the time to explain to you the details of bike fit. There is nothing worse than purchasing a new bike and being sore after every ride, for the wrong reasons.
And if you are going to buy a used bike, make sure you do your homework on fit beforehand and bring a tool kit with you so you can make adjustments while you take your test ride to make sure of proper fit.
Cool article on a German dude who builds really crazy bikes. And lives on his wife’s salary. What a life!
His name is Didi, though he goes by El Diablo (who wouldn’t), and he’s a bike freak who holds a bunch of Guinness World Records. This, boys and girls, is a standard to which we should all aspire.
