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.

———–

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.

Add to Reddit.

Tweet

Using The Iphone For More Than Texting Your Friends

So you know all them cool kids with their Iphones, this has got to be the best possible use I have seen yet for one.

Using a simple ap, and a custom bag addition (more info to come soon), this intrepid biker has created what has to be one of the slickest safety lights yet.

The best part is, the ap is customizable, want it to look like a fire truck, how about a police light, maybe you just want to the light to come on while you move (it can do that as well).

I asked how it is on battery life, and apparently it is not bad. I have seen this working in real life and can tell you it is highly visible from a long ways away.

Add to Reddit.

Tweet

On Bike Air Conditioning

Man what I wouldn’t do for one of these bad boys.

<via>

In fact I think I can build one, it’s been so freaking hot out that this sort of thing would be fantastic. In the winter you can run hot water through it to keep you warm.

My first idea is something like this. Small tubes (like the kind used in a fish tank), runs ice water from a water bottle held in your bottle rack. A small pump and some batteries are stored in a small bag under the seat. Whalla on bike air conditioning!

I will let you know how it turns out.

Add to Reddit.

Tweet

Turn Signal Jacket: Wont Save You From Voracious Taxi But Looks Cool

I long ago gave up doing the whole bended arm for right, straight out for left, or was it the other way around…no matter, the reason I gave it up was cause no one else knows what they mean either. I now simply point in the direction I want to go, most often repeatedly, like a meat and bone turn signal. Even then people only pay attention half the time. I quick turn of the head, followed by a ginger and swift taking of the lane seems to be the most effective method.

But I had one of these bad boys, well things would be different.

From here, using this to build it.

I might actually try and make this, as I have had good luck with other DIY electronic projects, which I will have to show off in a further post.

Add to Reddit.

Tweet