Share your genius bodges/impromptu repairs/innovations!

PBo

Problem: Reusing a gear cable, with a frayed end - bugger wouldn't go through the sleeve.
Answer: wrapped some tinfoil round the end to hold loose threads flat! Bingo!

Problem: Don't like having light on seatpost as luggage/son's Hamax seat blocks it.
Answer: Used a seat stay bracket, with some cut up handle bar grips to fill the hole and fastened it to the pannier rack.

Problem: Many things....
Answer: You'd be amazed what cable ties can fix - never be without them, they hardly take up any room in a seat pack etc......

I swear, sometimes the joy of fixing a problem is better than riding!

gtvlusso

Bar tape ends keep unwrapping?

cut up an old inner tube into 1" to 2" pieces
slide onto the bar to be re-taped
re-tape the bar
pull the ends of the inner tube over where you would put the sticky bar wrap stuff.
Holds the tape in place for life.

Alphabet

gtvlusso wrote:

Bar tape ends keep unwrapping?

cut up an old inner tube into 1" to 2" pieces
slide onto the bar to be re-taped
re-tape the bar
pull the ends of the inner tube over where you would put the sticky bar wrap stuff.
Holds the tape in place for life.

oooh, that's good...

gtvlusso

Alphabet wrote:

gtvlusso wrote:

Bar tape ends keep unwrapping?

cut up an old inner tube into 1" to 2" pieces
slide onto the bar to be re-taped
re-tape the bar
pull the ends of the inner tube over where you would put the sticky bar wrap stuff.
Holds the tape in place for life.

oooh, that's good...

Epic fail on my behalf - last time I re-wrapped a bar - forgot the innner tube trick....now have Duck Tape sticking the ends down :-(

Wrath Rob

Black electricians tape for me. Does the trick

Stuey01

gtvlusso wrote:

Bar tape ends keep unwrapping?

cut up an old inner tube into 1" to 2" pieces
slide onto the bar to be re-taped
re-tape the bar
pull the ends of the inner tube over where you would put the sticky bar wrap stuff.
Holds the tape in place for life.

Really struggling to visualise this.

Cafewanda

PBo wrote:

Problem: Reusing a gear cable, with a frayed end - bugger wouldn't go through the sleeve.
Answer: wrapped some tinfoil round the end to hold loose threads flat! Bingo!

Great tip. Ta for that as I've currently got such a gear cable in use. The foil should keep it til I get the bike serviced in November.

CiB

Other end of scale and a fair bit further on; a pal of mine at school tried to straighten the rear wheel on his Halfords Racer [circa 1977] by leaning the bike aginst the garage and throwing bricks at it. Did it work? You decide...

A empty plastic tub of Sudocreme chopped down can become an oversized P-clip that acts as a rear light bracket, fitting nicely round BMC's excitingly unusual seat post design.

A broom handle with a soft cloth taped to it is useful for cleaning out the seat tube when you eventually get the seat post out that's been stuck soild. If you're in that position, remove the bottle holder screws on the seat tube, invert the bike and squirt GT85, Teflon lube, WD40, KY jelly or whatever comes to hand through those screw holes, so that it can run down and creep between the seat post & tube. That's the theory at least.

Alphabet

panniers from a phil n teds buggy wory surprisingly well on a bike if you're too tight to buy proper ones.

flyingbanana

gtvlusso wrote:

Bar tape ends keep unwrapping?

cut up an old inner tube into 1" to 2" pieces
slide onto the bar to be re-taped
re-tape the bar
pull the ends of the inner tube over where you would put the sticky bar wrap stuff.
Holds the tape in place for life.

Or break with convention and wrap from the inside out... Leaving the sticky tape as purely cosmetic affair.

Aidy

flyingbanana wrote:

gtvlusso wrote:

Bar tape ends keep unwrapping?

cut up an old inner tube into 1" to 2" pieces
slide onto the bar to be re-taped
re-tape the bar
pull the ends of the inner tube over where you would put the sticky bar wrap stuff.
Holds the tape in place for life.

Or break with convention and wrap from the inside out... Leaving the sticky tape as purely cosmetic affair.

I reckon it's slightly more comfortable done the regular way (I have bikes wrapped both ways).

I like the inner tube trick though. Going to have to try that next time.

Aidy

Oh, and some of mine, I suppose.

Some of those spanish coins with holes in as impromptu washers to fix rack.
Bits of plastic cup sandwiched under electrical tape to space out light brackets.
Coke can shims for a whole stack of applications.
Old (flat) handlebars over allen keys etc. for extra leverage.

flyingbanana

Aidy wrote:

I reckon it's slightly more comfortable done the regular way (I have bikes wrapped both ways).

Then you have to do it both inside to outside and back to front! It does take a bit more discipline in wrapping to reach the bar end with the correct amount of tape remaining but apart from that I haven't found any problems with it. You do need a big mallet to hammer the end plug down and once it's in it doesn't want to come out without a fight. Surely a positive though. I think any "discomfort" would be subjective, I have all my bikes wrapped the same way with the same tape.

Aidy

flyingbanana wrote:

Then you have to do it both inside to outside and back to front! It does take a bit more discipline in wrapping to reach the bar end with the correct amount of tape remaining

Surely you have the same problem both ways?

Butterd2

gtvlusso wrote:

Bar tape ends keep unwrapping?

cut up an old inner tube into 1" to 2" pieces
slide onto the bar to be re-taped
re-tape the bar
pull the ends of the inner tube over where you would put the sticky bar wrap stuff.
Holds the tape in place for life.

Now that I like. Muchos gracias