Cheap Clear Lense Glasses

3 years ago working at base gym was about to leave at the ed of my shift. Noticed the wind had picked up and was snowing. Realizing I had forgotten my riding glasses at home. Checked the lost and found.. found these. There for Racquet Ball but they worked well. And still do.

Drilling Plastic

Got a new seatube mounted chain guide from Superstar Components. Of course unlike some I'm not expecting Superstar to be Kreskin and devine that I want to keep my bashguard on. So it was off to the shop for mod with a Dremel and file.


First cut off the now superflous nub where the rear nut and bolt where.

First mounting without the outer plate.




Next was to take the outer part and cut what in the pic is the upper plastic... if it was mounted the thin piece would be over the chain ring. Careful Dremel use and smoothing with the file...
And the final result is a guide that will work with my Kooka bashguard.

Dirtbag Shadow

Simple solution for dealing with that housing loop.

All it is is a standard noole from V Brakes. Solves the whole annoying loop and the shifting issues it causes.

Dirt Bag Rim Tape

After finishing the new front wheel build it was time to rim tape the rim. Some will say this doesn't work but it works fine for me. I find simple electricians tape does well for this task.

First make sure to wipe the surface down to clean out any gunk. Then just past the valve hole start.



Make 3 or four passes around the entire rim. Try to keep it as centered as possible and covering the spoke holes. If not it increases the chances of the metal cutting your tube. Which we all know makes for a long walk home. Once completed find the valve hole and with a phillips head screw diver poke a hole in the tape for the valve.




This is also the starting point for the Dirtbag Tubeless system which will be a future project.

Helmet Retention Repair

The day after my last ride I discovered that part of the Detox Retention system on my Fox Flux helmet had snapped. Fortunately this after a bit of thought was easy to fix.

At work pulled out the Gorilla Glue. Great stuff and seems to help reglue so much back together.

As you can see in the photo below the Detox had snapped on the plastic ridged piece. As I mentioned at the beginning it was fortunate that where it snapped was on one side so allowed for the potential to repair.

First had to measure and trim a bit from the part that stayed inside the Detox adjuster- That being the clear bit. Simple trim using a pair of regular electrical type wire cutters. After that drippled in a bit of Gorilla Glue. After giving it a few minutes to sit added a bit more gluile to it. Then inserted the plastic in until it clicked int place.

Then waited a few hours till the glue dried. This has fixed the broken bit and the Detox system works.

Brake Mount DIY

Got myself a set of Hope Enduro type brakes. Only issue was that the caliper mountings where for a different bracket system. So it was time for a bit of fabricating and modifying.

Dug through the brake part bin for a couple of brackets, longer 5mm bolts, nd a pile of V Brake washers. After a bit of trial and error to see how it would all fit together. Had a general idea. First proble was the upper bracket would interfere with the disc. Easy to solve by sticking the bracket in the vice. Then carefully hacksawing off the bit that was interfering. Then of course it had to be filed down to remove any sharp edges.



Remounted everything. Went together no problem. Well, it seems so initially until I spun the wheel and was met with the sound of the disc rubbing against the caliper. After a closer inspection I found out that the upper part- camera left was the problem. A swap out of the thin washer for the thicker one solved the problem.

And after work went for a post work spin. And it worked perfectly.

Headlamp Cable holder

I needed to have something on the back of the helmet to hold the cable for the helmet light. Other wise the cable to flop around every where and in general be annoying.

Solution was a piece of stretch cord cut and tied around the back of the helmet. A simple solution.