Clunkerbike

The Tradewinds concept! While not strictly to scale , it is kind of the scale I'm aiming for, a 3x20" tadpole trike for a 182cm tall guy, onroad and offroad, with a collapsable mast and bow-boomed, loose footed rig of recycled coffee bean bag reflective mylar. Gunna defs build the trike part first, though. No point hitching a horse when their's no cart. (Trike image credit: KMX Karts, with mods by Crunchy.) The primary design consideration here is "wind assist", not monstrously wind propelled to the point of dangerous. The Whike ( whike.com ) , for instance, has a "storm rig" option for higher winds. I figure I'll start with a storm rig first, and see what the thrust and tipping forces are like. Also, my primary concern for adding a sail is as much urban visibility, as it is for transport. Might cause some bailful looks from "Mr Plod", though, so even that may not be a common use for it. For offroad exploring, through the bike sections o...

Hmm, the test hub I bought is a 130mm. However, I may be able to reduce the spacing on the non drive side to shrink it enough to fit. And probably relax the bearings a little, which are way too tight! It's not QR, so that won't be a problem, it's bolt one, so there'll be a tad more protrusion, is all, and that'll be handy for mounting the derailler hanger. Will need to dish the wheel a tad more, though, as a result.

This is Rosie and yes, she is riding me. She's my fixie. Rose gold, chromed, chromoly frame, manipulated seatpost, tight geometry Potential of Hydrogen PH01 Sulphuric Acid. A discontinued brand and, by extension, model. She was a bit of an impulse buy. She's riding me because this is the 2012 Melburn Roobaix and riding a fixie up that year's "Koperberg" was a fool's errand. (Some did, many of them fell, some hard.) And no, the fixed cog hasn't had any wear, I run her "flipped" - freewheelin'. (Photo credit: Creux Cycling.) Right now, she needs tyres, new bar tape and, if I can find an affordable solution, 2x5 derailleur gears. Melbourne doesn't have many really steep hills, but when you hit one of the ones that passes for a minor Tasmanian or Blue Mountains grade, an 80 inch gear breaks the spirit. If it's pavé, and cat 3, you'll suffer more than groin omlette, you'll suffer defeat, especially if you're a commuter hack, l...

Six years ago, I invented a thing called Dryline . My back brake, a mechanical disk, had shat itself. It wouldn't operate from handlebar, but could be operated at the brake caliper, itself. Had to be the line. It was, after a few hours of googling, I discovered this is a problem with mechanical disk brakes mounted inside the rear triangle. The cable fills up with water and road grime in winter and, unlike the old days, when bikes were designed with sheath sockets and open cabling, but disk brake frames have to make way for hydraulic lines, so by extension, mechanical cables have to be sheathed all the way, too. The problem is solved by installing a "cable vent" below the caliper, but above the bottom bracket. I couldn't find such a thing, so I invented one. I designed it, boaught a 3D printer, and made several, before settling on this design. (I'd forgotton the old cable runners that used to be under bottom brackets, BTW, that's another possible solution, if ...

There are these little "caliper to cantilever" brake adapter things that increase the cable pull by roughly 33% length, and they can also be used to addapt 6 speed friction thumb shifters to pull a derailleur accurately over a Shimano 10 speed MTB cassette. They say, "You can't friction shift reliably above 9 speed." Yeah, right. It's just about pull length and cog pitch, so there are always ways. These little adapters can be had for AU$17 on eBay and will change 1.2mm pull per cog thumb shifter to modern Shimano 1.6mm mountain cog pitch. The way they work is, the cable enters the pulley on a small diameter section, where a small movement results in a particular angular change. The cable then wraps around that small pulley and transfers to a larger pulley, fixed to the smaller one, such that the angular change results in a longer travel around the larger pulley so, as the cable exits the larger pulley, it creates a larger travel on a brake lever... or on a ...

Clunkerbike is a place to read, or submit for sharing, all things bike hack and "mullet mod." I'll discuss topics like how I converted my cargobike from hub gearing and rear brake to 1 x 9 speed derailleur gearing and a diacomp style centrepull rear brake, and many other hacks besides. So, sit back, subscribe and submit, and lets build a community of mullety weirdness on 2, 3 or 4 pedalled wheels.