Kit Modifications...
TheBigYin
Posts: 5,686 Member
I can't be the only person who gets stuff, then thinks "that'd be even better if they just...."
Case in point - around here, we have lots of shared use routes - which cyclists are recommended/obliged to use "an audible warning device" to warn other users of their presence. In short, this generally means some sort of bell...
Now either you can go totally ironic, and buy something like THIS
which really, really doesn't work on a jet-black Cannondale CaadX
or you can go posh with something like this...
which is lovely, but silly money.
or you can go cheap and stealth-black which is my usual option...
so - for the grand sum of £1 from the local supermarket I bought one of the latter ping-bell options.
trouble was - it was for narrow handlebars, with an integrated moulded attachment that wasn't really good for much in the way of modification. Then I had a brainwave - on the bar's I already have a Sram Out-Front Garmin Mount, I wonder if I could cruft the bell onto this, preferably underneath so I wouldn't have to see it, but it'd be to hand when I needed it.
Out came the Dremel and Voila...
One Functioning SRAM Audible Warning Device and Garmin Mount
My OCD Decrees that I need to source a Black anodised/coated mounting bolt asap, but other than that, I'm pretty happy with the outcome.
So - what little tweaks/modifications have you come up with to make your bike just a little it more "yours"...
Extra internet points awarded for neat, factory looking modifications rather than gaffa-tape bodges obviously...
Case in point - around here, we have lots of shared use routes - which cyclists are recommended/obliged to use "an audible warning device" to warn other users of their presence. In short, this generally means some sort of bell...
Now either you can go totally ironic, and buy something like THIS
which really, really doesn't work on a jet-black Cannondale CaadX
or you can go posh with something like this...
which is lovely, but silly money.
or you can go cheap and stealth-black which is my usual option...
so - for the grand sum of £1 from the local supermarket I bought one of the latter ping-bell options.
trouble was - it was for narrow handlebars, with an integrated moulded attachment that wasn't really good for much in the way of modification. Then I had a brainwave - on the bar's I already have a Sram Out-Front Garmin Mount, I wonder if I could cruft the bell onto this, preferably underneath so I wouldn't have to see it, but it'd be to hand when I needed it.
Out came the Dremel and Voila...
One Functioning SRAM Audible Warning Device and Garmin Mount
My OCD Decrees that I need to source a Black anodised/coated mounting bolt asap, but other than that, I'm pretty happy with the outcome.
So - what little tweaks/modifications have you come up with to make your bike just a little it more "yours"...
Extra internet points awarded for neat, factory looking modifications rather than gaffa-tape bodges obviously...
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Replies
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My audible warning device is my resonating vocal cords saying on your left. I do like the mod though if you have to have one. I would like to see someone make a dual mount for a Garmin on top and a go pro on the bottom. I have a Chinese out front go pro mount for $12 bucks versus buying the same thing in the US for $40. My mod was flipping it upside down and the reverse the pic on the go pro so it records right side up. I'd be with you and source a bolt.
I think K-edge have just announced a garmin/GoPro combi mount for the bars...
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/08/garmingopro-pioneer-aerodynamic.html0 -
Nice mod!0
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The only thing I meet round here are tankers or tractors!!!! They have got to know me now and actually slow down or even pull in and stop!!!!! Maybe I am scary or something? lol x If someone rides too close to me then I use language or a couple of fingers :laugh:0
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TBY, very nice. I would never guess that was a bell at first glance at all.
I was on a local rail trail with my daughter (7) a couple weeks ago and she has a nice little bell on her pink bike kind of like the image you posted. I had her lead and ping warnings to the walkers with that. I admit, it was far more pleasant than me saying "On your left" every so often. Might look into getting something like your mod sometime.
I don't have anything clever on my two bikes at the moment, but I am going to attempt a BB conversion on my old steel framed cup&cone based BB Fuji road bike to cartridge this weekend if I have time. But that is a relatively standard modernization thing
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oh - i'll admit that the bell is really the "secondary" audible warning device - the primary one is the squeal of the disk brakes as I pull up behind the dog-walkers on the path. But as it used to be enshrined in the "highway code" that cyclists should have a bell on their bike, all the misanthropic geriatric red-sock wearing hikers tend to wave their walking sticks at you and shout "you should have a bell on that bike you young hooligan..." after the 30th time you get told that by someone who looks like Dr. Who's Davros (only not in a bath-chair) you just think "Feck it, I'll put a bell on..."
So now, I come up behind them and brake (squeal.... Primary Audible Warning), senile old trout doesn't realise, so you ping the bell (secondary audible warning), they still don't realise, so you shout "Excuse Me Mate, Any chance of coming through..." they jump into the hedgerow, flail their walking stick at you and shout "You Should Have a Bell on that Bike, you Young Hooligan".... At which point I Stop, remove my eyeshades, walk up to them and say "Excuse me... did you not hear this (ding, ding, ding) for the last 5 minutes..." - "Oh... I didn't realise that was a bike...", "well, perhaps you could have looked over your shoulder and checked what the noise was ??? Instead of just brandishing a large pointy stick at a fellow shared usage path user and calling a 51 year old chap a 'young hooligan' ???"
But we're getting away from the Thread Topic I guess...0 -
Cool good to know. I'll wait for the Chinese rip off because K-edge is over priced
Actually, thinking about it, one of the "flat plate" GoPro mounting plates would probably fit perfectly well under the "nose" of a "normal" outfront Garmin Mount - I wouldn't use the SRAM one for this though - maybe go for one of the more solid ones seeing as it has to hold not only the Garmin but the GoPro - actually, thinking about it, seeing as it'd have maybe £600+ worth of fragile electronics hanging on it, whilst hooning down mountains at 100kph+, the K-Edge doesn't seem all that overpriced...0 -
But as it used to be enshrined in the "highway code" that cyclists should have a bell on their bike, all the misanthropic geriatric red-sock wearing hikers tend to wave their walking sticks at you and shout "you should have a bell on that bike you young hooligan..." after the 30th time you get told that by someone who looks like Dr. Who's Davros (only not in a bath-chair) you just think "Feck it, I'll put a bell on..."
LOL
When I ring my bell (a Bell-brand bell which says "Bell" on it, because it was louder than any other bells I tried, and I like Xhibit jokes) on the local trails, there's about a 50% chance that the person in front of me is listening to music and will nearly crap their pants when I pass by them, despite plenty of room. Of course, yelling "On your left!" doesn't do them any good, either.0
