I wouldn't call it ingenious but I took an eTap blip shifter and spliced the wires that come out of it so that it fires both shifters at once, giving me one button FD shifting on my road bike.

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Jonathan Blyer,
ACME Bicycle Co., Brooklyn, NY

Hello jonblyer and All,

I like it ...

The blip box is fastened to my right hand so I do not have to fool with wires and can shift regardless of hand position. (with Morf that will probably not be the best practice ... since my hands will stay located on the same part of the bar.)

But shifting the FD by pressing both buttons at once (in the middle of the blip box) is not as positive as I would like .....

With your idea maybe I will add one blip shorted and taped to the blip box to shift the front derailleur ..... so I end up with the up and down shift buttons on the blip box and one additional blip button for a more positive FD shift.

I will experiment ...............

---

Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

I wish i took photos, about six years ago I was doing swim coaching for a guy with a paralyzed shoulder. His mountain bike was awesome. Cable breaks with a bmx cable splitter adjusted so the breaks would pull at the same time but the front would touch first.
Gears were a left hand grip shift on the right and trigger shifter for the rear.
He was a former motorcycle rider so was quite skillful. The part that blew my mind was that he did all his own wrenching. One handed!

Nothing overly extravagant or ingenious


But I used to make these aero crank covers. No idea if they ever helped aerodynamically at all, but they looked cool and didn't require (although it wouldn't hurt) being permanently bonded on. They also didn't cost as much as a Vumachrono at the time ;)

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My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com

That's brilliant. You could potentially work the blips/blip box into a custom glove of sorts.

Dang Chris, you never told me about those. That is definitely not a hack-job. Looks very pro.

---

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Not sure how ingenious this is, but I took some thick AL sheet metal and some small stainless screws (and a hacksaw, a file, and a drill) and I created a custom arm that converted a (road) bottom pull FD to work as an gravel bike top pull FD, so it would work on my top pull routed frame. It took some precise measuring and trigonometry to get it right, but it works flawlessly.

The bike and some close up pics:






Greg @ dsw

---

Advanced Aero TopTube Storage for Road, Gravel, & Tri...ZeroSlip & Direct-mount, made in the USA.
DarkSpeedWorks.com.....Reviews.....Insta.....Facebook
--

For a retro-race I once made an aero helmet with cardboard and packing tape (as was a fairing over a road helmet). I think it was quite effective. I averaged 25 mph on my lowest watts ever, even though the cutoff mesh football jersey was flying in the wind.

You know they make clamps with a pulley for that, right? ;-)


http://cyclocrossworld.com/...p-with-cable-pulley/

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

I thought they turned out good. The problem (well, for marketing it anyways ;) ) was that I needed the crank in my hands to make it fit right. I suspect the new hidden bolts in most cranks means it would have to be bonded to the rings nowadays as well.

This isn't really something for triathletes, but it was a hack (I stole) to add straps to shimano pedals for track... slightly more elegant looking than zip ties. Works great fwiw, although I suspect my chance of coming out of my pedals anyways was very...very low.

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My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com

Nothing super genius, but a simple solution to a problem I had.

Used a pvc pipe with holes drilled on either side and zip ties to create a round mounting surface for a bike light between my aerobars.

I'll post a photo later

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...0aero%20bar#p5861314


I made a custom aero bar. Primary benefits: it let me get lower (by eliminating stack height of elbow pads), gave me storage that allowed me to get rid of a frame bottle, allowed "hiding" the shift cables from the wind, and increased cross wind stability. (The stability improvement was really great.)

---

2015 USAT Long Course National Champion (M50-54)

There's a who blog dedicated to this
http://yourbikehatesyou.blogspot.com/

---

I talk a lot - Give it a listen: http://www.fasttalklabs.com/category/fast-talk
I also give Training Advice via http://www.ForeverEndurance.com

The above poster has eschewed traditional employment and is currently undertaking the ill-conceived task of launching his own hardgoods company. Statements are not made on behalf of nor reflective of anything in any manner... unless they're good, then they count.
http://www.AGNCYINNOVATION.com

Something I brainstormed is figuring out how I could potentially get eTap to work on a mountain bike using blips as the shifter. Then you'd have wireless shifting and hydraulic brakes, so an absolute dream for travel.
I'm thinking you'd need to buy a Red eTap RD, then swap the cage out for either an XX1 cage, or just maybe you could somehow trick the Red RD to shift 12 times and do it as Eagle. I know with mechanical RDs you can trick a "10 speed" RD to move 11 times, but the electronics might prevent it. Still, it's probably possible with XX1 and you'd still have 1x11.
Ultimately I decided to just go standard XTR Di2 but keep my 10-42 cassette, which took its own finagling of the shifting settings, but it's working ok so far, just wish I didn't have wires everywhere!

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IG: idking90

I do indeed.

But then I would have been out an extra 25 bucks and, for that sum, my reward would have been FD cable routing that would have been as elegant as this:



I figured that I could at least do better than that.

And, it worked out, my solution cost me under a 2 bucks, plus it was kind of a fun problem to solve. And the FD cable routing ended up perfect, with flawless shifting too. And no FD cable slowly sawing through the frame's AL alloy cable stop at an angle ... yikes.

---

Advanced Aero TopTube Storage for Road, Gravel, & Tri...ZeroSlip & Direct-mount, made in the USA.
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My vote goes to DSW for the 11-speed hack for 10-speed wheels. Works a great way to keep your 10-speed wheels relevant.

http://darkspeedworks.com/blog-11speed.htm

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/kj

http://kjmcawesome.tumblr.com/

 




Not a major mechanical cleverness, (those tended to be in making brackets, tools and jigs when I was in the bike shop) but I was quite proud of how this turned out to tidy up the Garmin mount and Di2 control box. Button and LEDs still accessible.

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Developing aero, fit and other fun stuff at Red is Faster

I have three built bikes, two retro MTB's (1990 Marin and 2000 Airborne Ti) and my tri bike.

I also have two 'projects' - fat chance yo eddy and a Raleigh burner.

All are covered in small mods, each making the bikes 'better', more useful (to me) or just simply to make them individual.

All my mods are 'mechanical' from simple cable stops - from a crappy ally thing that won't hold the housing straight :



To a nicer Ti version to match the look of the campag brake adjusters :





Recycled Ti handle bar off cuts :



To hold the shifters securely :



Recycled broken USE carbon post :



To make into a custom computer mount (wraps around my torpedo) :





That mounts on my custom BTA mount.

Custom seatpost clamp :



To mount my custom carrier :





All my kit is loaded with this kind of stuff, I just have to be 'messing' with something ... lol

Currently working on Ti bolt on skewers - low profile front, low (ish) profile rear that doesn't need to be swapped out for the trainer. Trainer mounts to suit last item. Ti Co2 and inflators holder. etc, etc, etc ... ;-)

WD :-)

I didn't like the way the stock rear brake cable stop on my Transition "hung out in the breeze" off of the BB, so I designed and 3D printed this part instead. Not sure if this counts as a "hack job" though...

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

That's really nice, and solves something that irked me with the Transition, but I didn't have it for long enough to do something like that.

My 3D printing bits (cheating?) are mainly brackets like an aerobar GoPro :

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Developing aero, fit and other fun stuff at Red is Faster

Thanks...and I forgot to mention that I actually designed it so that the cross-section which is horizontal (when installed) is parabolic :-)

3D printers are handy things to have for little brackets and such (like your GoPro mount). I've even occasionally printed small "shims" to put under device handlebar mounts to take up the difference between a bracket designed for a 31.8mm diameter bar and the old 26mm diameter bars I run on some rigs :-)

On the subject of 3D printed parts, another part I tried for a bit was THIS shifter mount for a mono-bar style setup. The "axle" for the shifter bosses was a part scrounged from an old Profile Design kit intended to mount downtube shifters in the "point" of a loop-style aerobar. This worked really well, but I wasn't quite enamored of the mono-bar style setup from a stability standpoint.

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

3D printed stuff looks great, especially the transition... it's some paint away from looking like it came that way.

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My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com

Yeah...I sold the Transition before I got around to painting it. Last I checked, the guy I sold it to is still using it :-)

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

Nice part!

Is that really 3D printed, it is so smooth, it looks like it was injection molded ....

Also, how did it attach to the bottom of the downtube, did you drill your frame for screws ?

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Advanced Aero TopTube Storage for Road, Gravel, & Tri...ZeroSlip & Direct-mount, made in the USA.
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The printer is a good one ;-) You can still see a bit of the "layering", but getting a "glossy" finish with this particular printer works if you can have it built with the side you'd like a glossy finish pointing "up" on the build tray.

The part attached to the same 3 threaded inserts that the original cable stop bracket used. The 3rd hole is near the back edge of the part and is accessed from below on the bike. I'll see if I can find a pic of the original setup on the webs...

Here you go:

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

Another way to get a finish like that (and even smoother) is with an acetone misting chamber.

Nothing on a bicycle... but if you ever want to see some interesting ergometers stop by my lab.
Cheers,
Jim

Woah! This brings back memories. I had one of those in Little League Baseball!

i love ergometers. that's enough to get me to come by. that, plus i enjoy the wasatch.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Great, just let me know when you're coming.
Cheers,
Jim

It's definitely not as slick as WD Pro's behind the saddle holder but mine puts the bottles right where I want them, close to the seat. The XLab holder had them way too far back. (Let's see if I got the images right)








https://goo.gl/...os/QcDZmqTUypx5jNYu7


https://goo.gl/...os/v2FH9XskUte8iMfw9

Ingenious would be a stretch, but...3D printed end plugs for my road bar (sized to account for the thickness of the bar tape). They also work as an aerobar extension cap for 1X builds.

---

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

i like it!

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

 
That looks like a Garmin 500. How can you reach the buttons while it is mounted?

I too use a Garmin 500. I tried mounting it on the aerobars but I did not like it there. I also mounted it on the base bars, same. I did not like it.

Finally, I mounted it to the Felt aero pac cover:









.

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Once, I was fast. But I got over it.

The buttons are still accessible at the side.

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Developing aero, fit and other fun stuff at Red is Faster

Colby Pearce used to have something like that. I'd always envied them.

I made a bridge between my aerobars from a piece of electrical conduit, to mount my computer between my wrists, where I could see it.

I've also made a behind the seat bottle holder. It also holds 2 drink bottle, my CO2 inflator (held in a cut down pump clip) as well as my spares bag in a quick release clip. It's made of stainless steel sheet, bent to suitable shape with holes drilled for securing everything. It's not carbon light, but it's never rusted, never cracked and never launched a bottle or dropped anything else. I must have 100,000km on the cage holder by now. It's been on 3 tri bikes and several road bikes.

I had hoped to use my household oven for parts to make a home made autoclave for making my own carbon disc wheels or bike frame, but TriSpouse said she was using it for cooking food for our family. Also, other projects, including, building a man-cave treehouse (it's wicked awesome), wooden boat restoration (work in progress, but getting there) and solar water heater for the swimming pool, all jumped the queue ahead of toys for me. Next project is to build a motorhome from a bus, for retirement travelling.

Other than that, nothing special

---

TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

Did these wheels back in 2009;
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...t_reply;so=ASC;mh=25[/img][/img][/img][/img][/img]


This wheel had 12K weave

I feel like it did some cool little hacks here

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Cervelo_P3-6_Ask_Me_Anything_P5635494/?search_string=ask%20me%20anything%20p3#p5635494

Ghetto ´rotor rings´: Biopace 130BCD rings on a square taper crankset, rotated anti-clockwise 72° on the crank spider.

Nothing like as clever as the other hacks posted but they did the job.

Before:




After:




The older Biopace rings had a more pronounced shape than the Biopace II rings I used here.

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-------------------------------
´Get the most aero and light bike you can get. With the aero advantage you can be saving minutes and with the weight advantage you can be saving seconds. In a race against the clock both matter.´

BMANX

You're my favorite hack, Zach.

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Internet User

This was a mechanical hack for a test set-up, not for riding the bike.
In 2011 I wanted to test Q-Rings, if they improved my biking relatively to
round rings. For this I made a set-up with two 53-chainwheels next to each other,
one round, one a q-ring, such that I could
move the chain back and forth during test runs. That looked like this:



I put the results of the test hereunder for those who are interested:


Of course I had to move the chain between the test runs by hand, because the frontderailleur doesn't work with two 53-wheels.
The chain was on the 17-cog, which was not exactly between the two rings, but it cannot be all perfect...
The Q-Ring was mounted with OCP-value 3.

For the test the bike was mounted in the tacx flow with setting "constant wattage".

I tested at quite low perceived-intensity with pedaling frequency of about 80.


One test run was as below:
2'30'' with 220 W round ring : write down HF at the end.
1' with 130W regeneration
2'30'' with 230 W round ring : write down HF at the end.
1' swap chain and with 130W regeneration
2'30'' with 220 W Q-ring : write down HF at the end.
1' with 130W regeneration
2'30'' with 230 W Q-ring : write down HF at the end.
1' swap chain and with 130W regeneration

I did five same test runs which lasted in total thus about an hour.

Result of the test:
test run:--------------------------1-----2----3-----4----5
220 Watt Round ring HF: 116 116 118 116 114
230 Watt Round ring HF: 120 121 119 121 117
220 Watt q-ring HF: ------- 117 119 117 117 114
230 Watt q-ring HF: ------- 121 121 121 119 117

Conclusion:
There is a significant difference between the runs with 220W and 230W: about 3 heart beats.
10 W difference is about 5 % at 220/230W and is thus clearly noticeable in the Heart Frequency.
Comparing the round and the Q-ring, there is no significant difference. The difference must be at
least a lot smaller than 5 % or 4 % (with which Rotor advertised in 2011) because that should have
been noticeable, as can be seen from the difference between 230 and 220W.


(in the fifth run the HF was lower: probably because I was warmed up).


Although I did thus not see any difference, I decided to leave the Q-Rings on, since Rotor says your body adapts to them.


In 2012 I did the same test again, and found again no difference. That's when I decided to go "round" again.

By the way, since I rode 3 chainwheels on the front in those days, I needed another "hack" for my frontderailleur to work with Q-rings on the street:

Here are some of mine:

The wooden blocks are for my wife's bike. These go around her speedplay pedals when she wears casual shoes and rides with the kids to school. Release the velcro and she clips in for her regular rides. She's been using them for over 3 years now. I've replaced the velcro and deck tape once or twice.

The others are 3D printed items. A 12 degree wedge to angle up my pads, with the bolt holes at different places and spacings to be adaptable to different bars.

The orange, round piece is an insert for my K-Edge out front mount for a Lezyne computer. I just finished that. It took 3 iterations to get it right.

The knobbie thing in the middle is to replace my left shift lever when I went 1-x.

If you see something you like, I can send the 3D file.

Scott

I love it! Very creative and practical way to set up a test rig.

At most triathlons I've done, my seatpost is way too high to hang my bike on the rack by my seat. My handlebars are usually too high to go under the bar as well.

I made this simple clamp that I tighten to the rack with the screw knob, then the other side of the clamp holds my seatpost securely. Easy and fast to get into before and after the bike.

I've asked multiple officials, and all were good with it.

Does my dual 700C Hooker Cat. 1 turned into a 650C/700C funny bike count? ("Ingenious" only in that the geometry worked out.)

This is a cool idea! I have the same problem as you with my seatpost (I'm 6'6). Will certainly give it a try!

I thought my home-made derailleur hanger for a Cervelo P2 was pretty good.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...2_P5071372/#p5071372

I've had a few ask for more details. The clamp can be found by searching Amazon for: Chauvet DJ CLP-02 C-Clamp for DJ/Lighting Use

The hook that holds the seatpost is in the garage organizing section of Lowe's.

Dang, I like those.

Can I buy a few (4?) in black ?

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Advanced Aero TopTube Storage for Road, Gravel, & Tri...ZeroSlip & Direct-mount, made in the USA.
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--

Great idea!

I've uploaded the design here: https://pinshape.com/...ar-aero-bar-end-plug

You can download it and print it at home or via a 3rd party vendor.

A couple notes on the design:
-I'd consider it a beta, still some design refinement to do.
-The expander section is sized for a thick-wall carbon bar. For a thinner wall (ex. Alum), a wrap of thin bar tape works well.
-The design uses a nut and bolt system for the expander. You can pick those parts up at the local hardware shop, or just press fit the plug in with the tape.

---

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Cut jig for a P5x seat tube.


Garmin mount on a BTA bike bottle
and the BTA mount.


Angled spacer for arm pads. Used as part of my Mantis setup.

That is a very interesting BTA mount!

as a result of a bit of moderating that mount got a little less interesting but a little more sport specific.

---

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Did I miss something interesting ?

It was a tie wrapped BTA when I looked earlier ?

WD :-)

Question about the angled spacers for the arm pads. How did you overcome the problem of the screws now being angled as they enter the thread on the arm pad holder? on your setup does the screw come down from the top of the arm pad holder? I've stripped a few threads trying to accomplish the same thing with various spacer setups.

The spacer has a hole up front and a slot in back. I had to open up the bolt holes in the arm rest pads (turn them into slots) to keep the bolt alignment with the mount/clamp.

(In my best Taz voice) Why for you moderating?

Serous question though. Not sure what the problem was.

Dan removed an anime picture of a naked woman bound with rope.

Ok, that I get. The photo I posted from TinyPic was not that.

got it - thanks

just to be clear, was she bound with rope or tentacles?

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My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com

Definitely rope and it gave me some ideas.

Nothing fancy - a piece of 3/4 PVC cut with a Dremel to hold a standard rear light on an aero seatpost and held with a bungie. Never fallen off and easy to remove for races.

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Proud member of FISHTWITCH: doing a bit more than fish exercise now.

Let's try this again....




Not as interesting, but should not draw a red card.

Am I the only one who hacksaws my saddles? I have narrow sit bones and big thighs. Can never get behind the saddle, which is a big problem for MTBing and descending Colorado mountains on my roadbike. Doesn't negatively affect TT bike or CX bike much.

I'll cut off 1 cm either wing of my fizik arione. Makes the width 110 mm max and with that I can slide behind without a problem. You can peel back the cover, saw off 1 cm on each wing and reglue the cover. Nice to be able to throw my weight back and forth without worrying.

Nope, you're not the only one. Keith Bontrager did exactly the same back in the mid 90s. Probably there's a better write up if you search more than I did, but here's something I found quickly that describes the thinking:
http://www.bikepro.com/...saddles/marco-c.html

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Damon Rinard
Engineering Manager,
CSG Road Engineering Department
Cannondale & GT Bicycles
(ex-Cervelo, ex-Trek, ex-Velomax, ex-Kestrel)

now, this is ingenious.... I have the same problem, but ended up putting it on my saddle bag.

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~ Marcus
"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese"

Thanks for the link. Smart thinking from Keith.

Best info I can find is that this Bontrager saddle is 120mm wide. Might not be narrow enough for me still. Dunno about length.

Narrowest MTB saddles I can find are Fizik's that are 125 mm width, a small difference from Arione's 130 mm. All are a bit too long for my liking.

Might pick up a bontrager from ebay to try out.

Not sure if this counts, but turned an old Spinner NXT into a "Tri Spin Bike". Got another seatpost, cut the top part off and got it re-welded back on the opposite way around. Made the seat spigot thing thicker adding a piece of 1 1/8th alloy bar to make a 'steerer tube'. Just attached the old stem and bars that came with my Slice. Not as much adjustability as I had hoped, but it hits my personal co-ordinates just fine. I had the frame bead blasted and powder coated prior to re-building it.
My reason for getting it was so my girlfriend could also use it as I have the original bars, but also get a session in whilst looking after our new baby, as it is a lot quieter than my bike on the turbo.

Just started to play with a 3d printer, but this turned out perfect! Now to print off it's mate... Those 3d modeling classes from 10 years ago in college may pay for themselves yet someday!

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My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com

Nice. I have had a lot of fun with the 3D printing stuff for the bike. It opens the door to all kinds of possibilities.

Can't tell, what is the 3D printed part?

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Advanced Aero TopTube Storage for Road, Gravel, & Tri...ZeroSlip & Direct-mount, made in the USA.
DarkSpeedWorks.com.....Reviews.....Insta.....Facebook
--

Exactly!
(10mm riser on the forward bar)

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My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com

Brilliant! I need to make one of these now.

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"Always race like you're in contention for the podium"

I post bike related projects to Instructables. Check it out.
https://www.instructables.com/member/SCHLEPIC/

Hello Slowman and All,

If you use an aluminum valve extender on your disk tire .... you can bend the aluminum valve extender about 45 degrees in a smooth curve so it is easy to inflate with regular tire pump chucks.

I had to try the bend a couple of times ... putting the valve extender in a vise and using pliers to bend ..... and I broke one extender on the first try .... but once done it is easy to repeat and makes inflation a no two hander no brainer .... .

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster