Over the past week I’ve seen a couple do-it-yourself solutions to common mountain bike delimmas that I wanted to share here. Both of these ideas almost certainly came from young mountain bikers since rich old riders rarely come up with such creative, chedda saving solutions. Take the first one for example – how much did you pay for that Lizard Skin protecting your frame from chain slap? $8? Too bad you could have gotten the same result for free.
Photo by Toulouse
Out in Utah we saw how riders there protect their frames AND the earth at the same time: by using old mountain bike tubes. Yep, just get any old flat tube, cut it once, and wrap the sucker around your frame beneath the chain. Find some zip ties (string or duct tape will work as well) and secure it to your frame. That’s it. Eight bucks saved and one less tube in the landfill. Over on instructables you can find a step by step how-to guide to doing this yourself but honestly it’s pretty self explanatory.
Now this next DiY project isn’t for everyone, especially for those who have nice cars or for anyone who hopes to pick up a member of the opposite sex using their vehicle. It turns out that it is possible to build your own bike rack using simple items from your local hardware store, saving you hundreds of dollars over one of those sweet Yakima or Thule systems. Of course in this case it meant punching holes into the trunk of the car and constructing the thing out of flimsy PVC pipes that flex and bend with every bump in the road but with every DiY project there is a tradeoff 😉
Mountain bikers are a resourceful bunch and there’s really no end to the possibilities when it comes to MTB DiY. What are some of your favorite projects you’ve seen / built?
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