Hacks / Bodges

How cool is that? I’m offically on the wrong thread now, that’s no bodge.

Dunno how the vertical tilt would work, but I’ll investigate. Cheers!

My mates ghetto rear light mount.

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Surely a single ziptie would've been better?

Those mudguards seem effective.

It's a funny one for sure. I've pointed this out to him (both the inefficiency of his 'mudguard' and the fact that all he needed was a single ziptie) but he insisted this was the only way he could've done it.

His excuse for the mudguard is that it works like an ass saver

Does that frame have an eyelet for a rack or fender on the drop out? Because if it does they can mount one of those cheap lights using half the mount and short bolt.

"Do at your own risk using while riding"

love it

I don't like my mudguard to move. I hate bike rattles, and nothing sounds worse then rattly stainless mudguards.
I originally made custom stainless brackets, of appropriate lengths, for the fork crown and seatstay bridge, but they were always a bit floppy before I fitted the racks. When I fitted them; I very carefully adjusted my racks to be as low as possible, for two reasons: to lower the bike's centre of gravity, and to create an extra fixing point for the mudguards. I simply folded a shallow crease into the mudguard, being careful not to distort the shape, drilled some 3mm holes and used some cable ties to fasten them. I was worried the cable ties would chafe on the drilled edge, but de-burred each hole from both sides, and they've been absolutely fine, original zip-ties after several months of riding. The front mudguard is now fastened to 3 fixed points, and the rear to 4. This makes them both very rigid, and the bike almost sounds like a basketball when you bounce it on It's tyres. Also used the same technique to mount the front light

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Other recent bodges, which have become semi permanent solutions, for now, include the following:

1. Broken front mudguard stays lashed with some skinny dynema. Absolutely bombproof.

2. Broken hook on pannier repaired with cable ties. That one stays attached almost all the time now, which isn't an issue, because I always have at least one bag on, to carry phone, wallet and keys etc.

3. Took an angle grinder to this rear rack the day I fitted it. It has a really stupid horizontal bar at the bottom, which sits significantly proud of the rest of rack, and means conventional panniers, such as the caradice super-c bags I use, won't fit. I'm sure it voided the warranty, but structurally it's rock solid without it. Rode 6 weeks of rough stuff, fully loaded, and it stood up to it fine.

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Yes, this double ended bolt arrangement would be quite easy to make if you have access to a lathe and the appropriate metric/ imperial dies. Or you could weld two bolts together. This would be less work, but probably not as elegant.

bodgemaster

Minor one

But the clear bolt saved me trawling through my parts bin for the actual mech bolt

Pub bike complete

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An update on the film canisters light mount:

I had an idea whilst riding and noticing that the Cateye I had strapped to it was growing dim - drill 3 holes in the plaster of Paris to hold spare AAA batteries for the light.

Unfortunately, drilling plaster of Paris is a ball ache and tends to ruin the whole thing, notably by detaching the bolt head that was glued to the canister and by chewing up all the plaster in undesired ways.

So, new film canisters have been procured from the very helpful and awesome @hoefla. PVC tubing with an 11mm ID has been ordered cheap from eBay. (AAA OD is 10.4mm)

The new ones will have the bolt and the tubes epoxyed to the base, before pouring in the plaster of Paris.

I am pretty excited about version 2.0.

Slick

Is it worth doing this in resin instead of plaster? Might be a bit easier to work with in terms of drilling and shaping post-cure.

I’ve done a few things in resin, using that silicon stuff you can melt in the oven to make casts from.

I thought about it. But I have plaster and don't have resin.

If v2 doesn't work, V3 can be resin.

If you use resin, try waxing or vaseline-ing a dead AAA or two and cast the resin around them to do away with extra tubes?

Vinamold is the stuff i was on about. You could do as Stevo_com says above, but make a cast from vinamold. as its flexible, its easier to get it off the original positive (whatever that may be). Then when you cast the resin, you can just cut the vinamold away.

It's actually slightly addictive once you've had a go. I went on a casting spree, not helped by the fact that i was doing an art degree at the time: The most esoteric thing i made was a clear resin ice lolly filled with dead wasps... #bloodystudents

Can we get pictures of this? Intriguing.

Yep, pictures will happen when the tubes arrive. Hopefully today.

The resin sounds cool, but hopefully I won't need it.

I could use molten metal...

.... and then enjoy having battery insides all over your ceiling .... poly and epoxy (most typical resins readily available) are exothermic ...

Reminds me of the Spesh bikepacking multitool where they provide only two edges of a large allen key so that the tool can be made much smaller.

Tap & Die set - tap threads into metal rod?
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/c/tap-die-sets-files-extractors/

poly and epoxy (most typical resins readily available) are exothermic

This is a good point! The plaster of Paris is exothermic too.

I'll stick to the PVC tubes.

Trying to get the hang of DIY anodizing.
The stem was originally black (kept the faceplate for reference) and then I drew on it before I re-anodized it.

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