another DIY project - reflective buddy (mud) flaps

This is something I'm still working on using reflective material and some repurposed flexible plastic material (was from a cover of a performated notebook).



Reflective bicycle mudflaps to keep rain and debris off your shoes and socks - and friend riding behind you. Hence the name, buddy flaps.

These are about 3-4 times wider and twice as long as what the fenders come with (if they have them at all) like on the Allez pictured below.

God, I love zip ties.

I love bikes... but I really have a thing for zip ties.

I picked up this chro-mo steel framed MOTIV brand (a Costco special) mountain bike really cheaply recently. It was a clean "garage queen" but lacked a saddle, seat post, and the shifters (shift+brake combo) were haywire like the ratcheting mechanism went afoul (common for a low end thumb shifter I've experienced). It has virtually brand new Tioga city tires too (though on the outset I was hoping to have a slightly more offroadable bike) and I intended to build it up for an in-town rider that I can leave chained up anywhere without too much worry about it being stolen or stripped.

I spent less than an hour swapping out the shifter+brake combo for an old school thumb shift and canti brake levers (somewhere I got these and had them lingering in a box of parts for just this type of project) and I found a bargain bin used seat at Bike Works ($5). The longest part of this work was getting off the handle grips without tearing the rubber. I also found a seatpost on e-Bay for $10 shipped. It should be here in a week or so, but I was eager to test ride the bike today, now that I'd fixed the gear issues.

I developed a 4 zip tie temporary fix for the lack of a seat post.

Here is the bike.


How the seat sits.


(Note to tinkerers: see the small yellow part on the seat? It's a small tear and I am wondering what - other than electrical tape - can I use to repair it?)

Underside of seat.


I wouldn't ride this for months like this - and I didn't even really sit on the seat while riding it through town as the height was way too low for me. I just wanted something there in the event I did need to sit for a moment.

I think Matt at Bike Hacks would love my hack.

My favorite bike blog... one of them... OK, a few of them, actually.

I am really finding the BIKE HACKS blog as a daily pleasure. It has humor, helpful low budget tips, and other views of the bicycle culture in the world.

I've also visited Bike Hugger for some of the same reasons.

Lastly, I enjoy the web site for DIYers called Instructables . It allows users to share their home-built projects, anything, really, but I tend to search for bicycle-related topics. It seems there are a lot of cyclists obsessed with building cheap trailers to tow gear behind their bikes. There are also homemade lights, ways to make your bike even more visible, and other things like that.

Worth a look at these sites as the weather grows darker, colder, and wetter.