ReMake:: bike seat

Currently, Jessica has a hard plastic (that has been slightly consumed by mice) RED bike seat. Which when your going on bike ride that are more than an hour, more than 20 mins, really takes a toll on your rear end. So, last winter, after seeing a poorly cared for bike seat that was squishy, and my rear was just begging for it. I kept my eye on it, and as fall came and went it grew icicles, and had piles of snow on it... obviously they weren't biking, or cared about it, Wisconsin winters arn't nice to bikes... if you love your bike, you'll keep it inside. I was just offering it a safe, warm home....Six months later, it was lopping off the side of the bike, and had a big ol' hole in it... now it caused more dam

age than anything else. The squish still had some good life, it was just the outside that was causing some problems. I

was not going to throw it away.. why not just re-cover it and make it match my bike anyhow? I mean, the black never went very well with my red bike.

For the life of me, I couldn't find a tutorial how to go about doing this... so makeshifting it in hopes it works. H

heres how I did it :)

So nice big hole, and kind of saggy sac looking shape? Yeah, not working too well.

Next. Trim off black top stuff. Low and behold, the squishy stuff is falling off.. The best thing to do? Get out the gorilla glue and glue it back into place.

Now, take that flappy black thing, and trace it to transfer onto my fabric.

So now, time to assemble!!

Sew, tuck in edges, sew, drop needle,stop the dog from eating seat, feed dog pizza to keep him occupied, sew.

DONE!! Now to put on a bike!

And here it is..

Looking red, and amazing. Check out the sweet knitted handle bars that are almost done.

Knitting for Your Bike

Along with biking, knitting often takes over my life. Especially during long lulls, such as class, or work, or sitting on front step watching traffic go by (and the dog maul people.)

So as I sit and try to think of things to knit for my bike, here are some of the things that may be the newest attachment to Jessica.

Or a knitted bike seat?

(Pattern)

Bike Panniers, oh.. how I want them!

Felted Bike Bag

(Pattern)

Bike Cozy - I think they look pretty sweet, but the purpose has yet to convince me (to protect from knicks)

FINALLY....

A bicycle SWEATER!!

Look at those Tassels

Introductions and Reflectors

:::Introductions:::

I have fallen into the Blog world. At least its not about something mindless, such as my life... Its about bicycles, and how to maintain a bike on a college budget. So thats what this blog represents, that, and my love for my cheap bike and proud of my ability to maintain it. So, what I will try to accomplish, without getting too distracted on tangents, is to provide How-to guides to pimp your bike the easy (cheap) way, cool bikes I see around campus including fancy ones (that I drool over) and others that have followed the makeshift route, also the bikes that make me cry, because their obvious rust and poor care.

I go to a small town college that consists of primarily deer hunters, and about 5 minutes you can be biking through the country side. It took me roughly a week to realize I needed a bike, not only would it get me extra sleep time, I also hated spending time with my roommate. I bought a bike from a thrift store, a red, Open Road, Mont.Ward Road bike. For a total of $9.00, the bloody bike lock cost more than that. The bike was named "Jessica." Nearly Three years later, Jessica and I have been through thick and thin, covering most of the back roads, getting creamed by a car at the intersection that has the most accidents and including a death, good news, I came away uninjured, and the damn bike left a huge dent. (I love my beast) Since then I have been quite gung ho on having reflectors on my bike... problem is, reflecting tape is no good, and actual bike reflectors cost about 5$, thats an entire meal. Measuring things in meals is how I determine if anything is worth buying. So, this starts how to create reflectors.

:::Creating Reflectors:::

Reflectors keep you from getting dead more often, its one of the more proactive things you can

do to avoid being not seen by a car. That and carrying a small hammer, but thats another story.

Problem with me, is that there was no reflectors on Jessica (bike) besides on her petals which

didn't help me any. There are a few options for creating reflectors.

a. Reflector Tape ($2.50) while handy, you'll have to cover your entire bike for it to really work.

b. Convince your parents that you'll die for sure if you don't have some form of reflection, thus, getting fancy reflectors you can cover your bike, self, and bike bag and never be hit again...

or

Make your own!

1. Head out to the nearest parking lot around campus, its best to do this around thirsty thursdays or other days when the majority of students have booze in their system.Where the tendency to hit things is high. Check and try to find someone that has been hit, look for red tail lights matter. Find a piece around the size of the bottom of a soda can. DO NOT smash someone's tail light, look for someone that already has the damage... they don't need ALL the chunks.

2. Search around for some tinfoil (or you the remainder of your reflective tape) of equal size and put behind on the textured side of your fragment.

3. Find some electrical tape, if you live in the dorms, quite easy to walk door to door. Adhere the foil to fragment until all you have is a token of reflective fragment. Use the tape to adhere to bike.

4. Now you have a reflector!