DIY no weld tandem bicycle

It's pretty simple really, but see the step-by-step instructions at Instructables.

Basically, you do this:

• Find two cheap bikes you don't mind sacrificing.
  
• Secure the front fork by drilling holes through the headtube and sticking bolts through so the steerer doesn't move.
  
• Cold set the rear bike's front forks by spreading them out so they fit over the front bike's rear forks/dropouts, then put the "middle" wheel in and use the rear wheel axle to hold the whole thing together.
  
• Run a drive-side timing chain from the front bike to rear bike's crankset. The front derailleur is removed, of course, as are both derailleur's from the captain's bike.
  
• The drive chain is run from the rear bike's other chainring to the rear bike's rear derailleur.
  
• Cable up shifters and brakes.
  
• Ride it and have fun.

Details at Instructables.

DIY bite valve hydration system for cyclists

Bay Area cyclist Alison Chaiken doesn't like backpack hydration systems. The plastic bladder is easy to puncture, difficult to clean and expensive to replace. The backpack is annoying to cyclists. Alison came up with this homebrew bite valve hydration system that uses PET soda bottles and other readily available parts.


Gents, Alison is single. She's a physicist who likes working with large powered tools and she reads Cyclelicious. My heart swoons.

For more DIY bike stuff, see Bike Hacks.

DIY bicycle cap

Flickr user Panda Face sews his own cycling caps. You can too.


The pattern is here. He uses a thin piece of plastic from a school folder (cut to shape) to stiffen the bill. Props to Bren @ Bike Hacks, which has lots of other cool DIY projects for your bike.

DIY Rainlegs

I think many cyclists are familiar with Rainlegs, which are lightweight water and wind resistant panels that cover the thighs to keep your pants dry in the rain. For cyclists, they're perfect adjuncts to fenders.

"khyungyokpo" in Seattle gives his step-by-step instructions for Ghetto-style rainlegs made from a $16 pair of rubberized rainpants in this Flickr photoset.


Props to Bike Hugger, who has some extra notes and tips from the ghetto rainlegs designer himself.

DIY frame building jig

Don't miss the CONTEST: Win $10 with the Google Maps Street View contest.

Using about $300 in 80/20 framing metal and parts, Marc shows us how to construct a simple but useful frame-building jig.

Via the cheapskates at Blue Collar. They also give us this handy visual guide to tell lefthand from righthand threads.

DIY Xtracycle

Instructables has an article about a DIY project to build your own "Xtracycle" type bike with an extended wheelbase for more cargo-carrying capacity. Though you need to sacrifice one full-suspension mountain bike frame and drill a couple of holes, no welding is required and the project seems fairly simple if you have the right parts. It involves connecting parts of a "donor" frame into the rear triangle of your bike to create your extended wheelbase bike. The main part of the bike can easily revert to its original identity, too. An actual platform to make use of the extra room is To Be Done in a future episode.

Found via MAKEzine.

DIY superbright bicycle headlight

"This page describes the construction of a bike light comprising three 3W Luxeon LEDs. This project had three main goals. 1.) Make a light suitable for use in 24-hour mountain bike racing. 2.) Use readily available material as much as possible. 3.) Offer the details to the community and invite any and all comments."

See the step-by-step instructions with photos and parts list. Some power tools and soldering skills required. Assembly required.

Broken bicycle helmet visor repair

The problem: the little plastic tabs holding the helmet visor in place broke! When I rode, the visor always flipped up and back. Tape is sloppy. Glue can affect the integrity of the helmet by dissolving the plastic and foam. Simply ripping the visor off is workable, but the helmet looks even dumber than before.



The solution: Hook and loop fasteners! These happen to be Velcro brand, but any hook-and-loop fasteners with adhesive backing should work. I bought this package from Home Depot, but I'm sure any hardware/home improvement store will carry this stuff.



Cut to size and attach hook and loop fasteners -- stick one piece on the helmet, and attach the other piece to the visor, ensuring the two pieces line up.



All happy! Your visor will now stay in place. My job is a little sloppy; I'm sure you can do better.

Tags: diy, repair, fix, bike, bicycle, helmet, visor, velcro, fastener, hook+and+loop,

DIY shoe covers

Recycle leftover conference bags into useful cycling rain gear

Anybody who attends conferences usually has goody bags to bring home. Amanda usually donates her bags to Goodwill, but the bag from her latest trip was made of vinyl, "just right for raincovers for cycling."

She writes:

"I drew the pattern based on my favorite winter shoes, but they will fit over my Keen sandals too. Those spandex type covers sold to cyclists may look slick, but when you take them off all muddy and wet they wad into a stiff ball."

"I did make the bottom pieces bigger by sewing together scraps. Then I took apart the bag to salvage the vinyl piping to use to stiffen the top of shoe covers. I had velcro salvaged from another clothing item to sew on the ends so they would close over my heels. Both piping and vinyl were easy to sew on my machine.

"It only took me 3 hours to sew them up which gives me about $7.50 an hour given the price of the cheapest rain booties I could have ordered from Campmor, but no one else was paying me for my time yesterday and I didn't have to wait for them to be shipped.

"They have a clunky charm and the asymetrical color combo is stylish. The gap between pants and raincovers won't matter too much because the flair of the pant cuffs seems to keep the rain off. And this way there will be some ventilation. Poor ventilation is the biggest complaint about rain booties. For traction I may run a line of Shoe Goo across the bottoms."

Photos and narrative seen at Earthworm's Flickr photostream and used with her kind permission.

Greetings to Makezine visitors. Other Cyclelicious DIY:

• Build a ski bike.
  
• DIY Bike fenders.
  
• Bicycle iPod charger (from MAKE).
  
• DIY glowing ground effects for your bike.

Some uber-geeks may especially appreciate the bike search page. Type "DIY" in the search box and see what you find.

Tags: diy, shoe, raincover, raingear, gear, cycling

HOW TO: Campaign signs to bike fenders

Fend For Yourself provides instructions on do it yourself bike fenders made from campaign signs. Like Sue J reminds us, though, wait until after the election before pilfering recycling Coroplast signs into bicycle fenders.

Bike Search Engine: I've gotten all fancy using Google's AJAX programming API for their search engine. Check it out -- now, you also get bicycling-related search results from blogs, from the news, and from the website at large as well as from the narrower focus provided by the Cyclelicious Custom Search Engine. Try searching for articles on fenders -- not "bike fenders" but just "fenders" -- and see what you find. It's kind of fun, I've already found some new and interesting sites using this powerful tool.

technorati tags:coroplast, bicycle, fender, howto, diy, plastic, recycle, recycling, campaign+signs

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How to build a ski bike

Noah Koerper gives detailed instructions to build a ski bike in Dirt Rag magazine. This is by far one of the simplest designs for a DIY ski bicycle that I've seen.

The ski bike is not even remotely safe to build, ride, or even stand next to. Many early versions of the ski bike failed miserably, and just because this one�s stayed intact so far, doesn�t mean that yours is going to. So make sure all of your bolts are tight and your life insurance is up to date.

Bicycle iPod charger

Mark @ Geektechnique started with a handcrank charger for his iPod, then modified things some to charge the iPod with a bicycle generator. Some soldering and electronics skill is necessary. Via MAKE.

Tags: ipod diy electronics