Almost a year and a half ago, the spoke protector on my rear bike wheel finished breaking I write “finished breaking” because it probably cracked a while back, and started to fall apart way earlier. After a while, I noticed a rattling sound on my 20″ wheel and noticed that it had cracked. The crack turned to a fracture, and eventually it was rattling a lot more and I decided to take it off. Made of clear plastic, they clip onto the spokes of your rear wheel behind the cassette (or they clip onto the flange of your rear hub), and it looks like the tabs had first broken, and then all the extra movement quickened its downfall. The UV light from the sun probably made it brittle too. Why did I think I needed another spoke guard? The spoke […]
Continue readingCategory: 3d printing
Designing a 105 / Ultegra ST-6510 and 5510 name plate to replace the one that cracked
My Shimano Ultegra ST-6510 shifter name plate broke and then fell off. The other one was cracked as well but didn’t fall all the way off. The rest of the left STI shifter was fine – I don’t use the front derailleur too much. The right one had some funny issues where you have to hold one of the levers as you shift, but I made it work. Anyway, regarding that name plate: I couldn’t easily find a replacement online or in local shops because Shimano doesn’t make them anymore. So I decided to 3D print a custom name plate. I wanted one for cosmetic reasons and to prevent dirt and water and so on from getting in there as I was already having some issues with shifting. Also, an Etsy customer was having a similar issue and helpfully nudged […]
Continue reading
I 3D printed a surprisingly effective bike mudflap
I’ve been having a problem with my bike in the rain for the last number of months. Some time ago I lost both of the mudflaps that were attached to my bike fenders. I don’t know when it happened. I didn’t expect to find easy replacements, and I didn’t think I’d really need them because I eventually forgot about their utility. Until it started to rain a lot again this season. I kept on getting a bunch of water spray my backside; it was the dreaded “stripe” or skunk stripe. I was surprised that this was happening because it hadn’t been an issue before, and I thought my fenders had me covered. I was getting a ton of road grit all over my panniers and rack, and it was making a mess inside when I brought my bags in. […]
Continue reading
A replacement Trail-a-bike hitch seatpost shim to help fix your trailer
Trail-a-bikes We use an Adams Trail-a-bike (aka Tag along, as some people call it) to tow our child occasionally. It is kind of like a tandem bike attachment for kids. The steel hitch slides onto a seatpost, and clamps on via 2 bolts and a hex-wrench. The other end of the hitch has a square-shaped key and a hole for adding a retaining pin to hold the trailer in place. There are spacers included that fit in there for different seatpost diameters. We have a Weehoo trailer as well, and this shim should fit that hitch as well. This may also work for other tag along bikes, like the Weeride Co-Pilot and the Kazam Co-pilot. Both of those clamp onto the seatpost of the adult’s bike. We sometimes swap the trailer between bikes. Unfortunately, the bikes have different […]
Continue reading