New Years Crafting: Toe Clip Leather Protectors

It’s cold, and the nights are long, the perfect time of year for staying in and creating some awesome bike crafts!

Mauspad from the BostonFixed forum has created this amazing how to, for DIY toeclip leathers.

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I got tired of my metal toe clips scuffing up my nice shoes, so I made my own toe clip leathers of scrap leather and thought other people might be interest in what turned out to be a very quick and easy DIY project. These obviously aren’t as nice as the ones you can buy from Velo Orange, but they do the trick.

You will need:

Scrap leather, a ruler, a pushpin (or an awl, if you have one), a needle with a largeish eye (embroidery needles are great), a pen, scissors, and waxed thread. If you actually have waxed thread, great! If not, embroidery floss and a hunk of candle wax, which is what i’ve used here, works in a pinch. So does dental floss (up the punx).

Oh, and, uh, toe clips.

Step 1: Cut the leather. The dimensions will depend on what size toe clip you wear. I found that 2cm x 8.5cm rectangles fit perfectly for my medium MKS clips; You will have to add or subtract a cm or so from the length if you have larger or smaller clips.

Step 2: Turn the leather over to the sueded side. Take your ruler and measure 4-5mm from the edge and mark a dot every quarter of an inch or so down both long sides. Make sure that the dots on both sides line up– You’ll be joining them together when you sew!

Step 3: Take your push pin or awl and, pulling the leather taut, make a hole at each dot.

Step 4 (optional): If you’re using embroidery floss, take this opportunity to wax it. Embroidery floss tends to slip and waxing it helps it grip itself and stay in place. Just press the wax onto the thread over a hard surface and pull the thread through. Repeat until you have a nice coating. I couldn’t get a good picture of this step since it requires both hands, but you get the idea.

Step 5: I experimented with several stitching techniques and found that the original Velo Orange instructions are not only the simplest and easiest to follow, but also the most secure and attractive. You can find them here.

What you end up with should look something like this:

Anyway, like I said, this is a really quick and easy weekend project. If you’re not drunk like I was last night and keep having to re-cut the leather and/or stabbing yourself in the hand, it’ll hardly takes any time at all. I used a relatively thin leather cut from an old jacket my housemate gave me and it was a very easy material to work with. I’d imagine that if you’re using thicker leather (I believe Velo Orange makes theirs from upholstery leather), you might actually need an awl to perforate it.

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I Made A Bell

We all know bicycles are one of the best ways to get around, I for one can’t go a day without getting on one. Today I woke up and thought to myself, self you need a bell. So I got out the sketch pad, and went to town. Then I took a trip to the hardware store when I got home I busted out the jewelers saw and wallah, the BostonBiker.org bicycle bell.

My mic on my camera sucks pretty bad, it really does have a nice ring to it.

Might sell these if anyone wants one…the top is made of brass, and has a delightful ring to it. Still have to shine up the brass disk, and might also add some texture, or a bell shape to it (hammer it out). Also I realized there is no reason that it has to be round…next one might be a skull, cause that would be cooler.

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