Hacks / Bodges

I've got tonnes of those kicking around. I used some superglued together to brace my aerobar pads.

#anotherbodge

I made a cylindrical thingy to screw into a fork lamp holder braze on. So I can now put a modern light on it. Paul Components make a nice CNC one of those but they are 20 quid.

Mine is done with a bolt, a washer, a film canister, some plaster of Paris, some super glue and some electrical tape.

Drilled a hole in the canister. Glued the bolt to the bottom. Filled with plaster of Paris. Put in the cap. Wrapped in leccy tape. Screwed in with washer between fork and thingy. Mount light.

Bosh.

4 Attachments

Any experience mending Roubaix Lycra?

Do you think there is actually fabric missing or is it just a tear? I tore a small hole in some roubaix tights and just stitched it closed again with some nylon thread. Not very pretty but it holds up to commuting and washing.

a bolt, a washer, a film canister, some plaster of Paris, some super glue and some electrical tape.

Proper bodge that.

I'm welling-up...

I've a hole on my hip from an off a couple of years ago: those thick lycra tights (£3 for five from Primark etc) disguise the gap and keep your toes snug without significant bulk.

#protip

And your legs look kinky-hot too...

Proper bodge that.

I'm welling-up...

Ta very much.

Dremel 2
Adaptor plates 0

I'm very pleased with the outcome. Not sure if I will bother with the charcoal / epoxy mix or not (sorry @stevo_com, I'm still on the fence).

It reminded me of how brilliant Dremels are. I should use mine more often. Maybe clean my teeth with it.

Oh, and I used (blue) electrical tape in this bodge, to mark the cutting line before removing the plates. Always use electrical tape.

Always.

2 Attachments

Needed somewhere to mount my torch for trip later. Bodged this out of a clip-on TT bar and zip tie. Very disappointing that the torch doesn't fit in the hole for the bar though.

2 Attachments

Very disappointing that the torch doesn't fit in the hole for the bar though.

Leaves you somewhere to store your sausage though!

Mine is similar. Cut down a handlebar mounted bottle cage for my L2D. I might try a tri-bar mount though!

1 Attachment

I thought the honeycomb matrix would be finer. That looks OK as is

Fixed my dead Fibre Flare by making a new hinge from a piece of wire. As is typical of my workplace, no steel wire available, just a choice of Inconel high-nickel superalloy or various grades of titanium wire. Figured the Ti would probably blunt my side cutters. Paperclip would probably do in the absence of any of the above.

1 Attachment

Excellent work.

Bodgers, lend me your ears.

I've got a front rack on my bike but the bit that connects to the fork crown is in the way of the cantilever cabling. Consequently I had to move the connecting wire over the the rack mount, reducing the link angle and mechanical advantage and thus rendering the brakes basically useless. How do I bodge this so that the connecting cable sits below the rack mount?

My initial solutions:

1. Arrange the cables so that the little linking plates and vertical cable are offset to one side. Dubious braking performance and a hassle to set up.

2. Drill a hole through the rack mount, pass the cable through it and set up the cantis as normal. Rack may be weakened.

3. Switch to V-brakes. But they'd need to work with road levers and 2.1" tyres.

Bonus points for any solution which prevents the link wire from dropping onto the tyre, locking it up and throwing me off the bike, in the event of the cable snapping.

Crap picture attached.

1 Attachment

Option 2 for sure.

So long as the straddle has enough vertical clearance below that strut for its full travel. You could always bend the strut upwards to help with this.

Turn the bracket that mounts to the fork crown upside down. Then use longer bolts and spacers to mount to the bottom of the rack. That should free things up to let connecting wire sit lower and hopefully work efficiently, but without the wire being able to drop onto the tyre should the cable come loose.

Seemed like option 2 worked fine for someone else over on the front rack suggestions thread. One thing they said was that as your pads wear and you gradually adjust the cable, be aware of the link potentially hitting the underside of the bracket the cable passes through as it will stop your brakes pulling.

This seems like the best idea to me. And if you'd really like to get your bodge on, then bend your own mount for the lowest possible straddle.

Just to add a different option can you attach the rack to the bars instead?

Unfortunately the fork and rack aren't dead straight with each other so the strut won't drop any lower without bending. I'm fine with bending it but just want to check I'm doing the right thing before I make a permanent alteration. Seems like this is the best option though as it prevents the certain-death-cable-breakage scenario.

@tallsam maybe to the steerer somehow but the bars are out I think. See attached.

1 Attachment

Actually turning the bar around won't make a huge amount of difference without something like a 90° bend... Another photo attached to show tyre clearance.

1 Attachment

Any lbs will have a basket mount that you put in under the headset locknut. It will connect to the two holes in your rack and with a bit of creativity it will double as brake cable stop too.

Could you use a twisted support, like those found on pannier racks? Then you can lower the straddle below the support (if it’s possible to go this low) without (much) interference from the rack support.