Grocery capacity

In article <[email hidden]>,

Zoot Katz said:

I was thinking of stealing a hunk of that plastic fencing stuff to
zip-tie in there but somebody suggested weaving it with willow
branches. And somebody else suggested cedar bark. Either would
certainly moderate the cow-catcher look it now has.
Sounds like a fun project and if it doesn't work out, it's entirely
reversible.

The idea of integrating organic materials into bike stuff
has much appeal to me. Kind of a mixed medium thing.

How about fixing up a liner out of mahogany doorskin?
Maybe use those pinchy, vinyl, right-angled cabinetry
thingies to hold the corners together (the black stuff
looks better than that diarrhea brown colour that tack-on
vinyl stair treads come in.) A coat or 6 of clear spray
shellac or lacquer, with some buffing between coats, to
provide some waterproofing. Or just raw linseed oil.
If you want to change the colour of the wood and bring
out the grain, some powdered, alcohol-soluble aniline dye
in the colour of your preference.

Y'know, I bet mahogany doorskin can readily be steamed
into curves.

But the woven willow branches would have a cool
Day of the Trifids effect. Reminds me of that
fedge at Trout Lake/John Hendry Park.

After a certain amount of exposure to solar UV,
snow-fencing just gets tattered and ratty looking.

cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

On Fri, 6 Jan 2006 22:01:31 -0800,

(Tom Keats) said:

After a certain amount of exposure to solar UV,
snow-fencing just gets tattered and ratty looking.

I was also thinking about taking bolt cutters to a trashed shopping
cart for some handy wire mesh but that would be too heavy.

Using door skin for a basket liner could cause too much wind
resistance. Strips of it could be woven through the existing
framework. It needs corner pieces for whatever material I choose
except steel, fabric or the fencing.

The fencing could be easily replaced when it got ratty looking. Maybe
instead of zip ties to hold the fencing* I could weave it to the steel
with inner tube rubber and have an expandable black and orange piece
of functional garbage art on my lavender 20" shopper-chopper.

There's a plastic flamingo in the closet that's going to make a fine
rear fender. A molding vent hole in the tip of the tail attaches to
the brake-bridge. The molded attachment point for the wire legs takes
the fender-stays. A blinky fits around its neck. I can fill in the
bottom part with a hunk of busted Rat-Tail.

Just like Fabrizio, bikes shouldn't be taken too seriously.

* Living so long in lotus land and I'd forgot that stuff is for
snow-fences. Here it's mostly used to protect street trees from
construction damage. and there's usually an extra unstapled flap of it
--
zk

In article <[email hidden]>,

Zoot Katz said:

There's a plastic flamingo in the closet that's going to make a fine
rear fender. A molding vent hole in the tip of the tail attaches to
the brake-bridge. The molded attachment point for the wire legs takes
the fender-stays. A blinky fits around its neck. I can fill in the
bottom part with a hunk of busted Rat-Tail.

Oooh, I like it! Pink & lavender -- what an excellent clash.
And the elegance of it. I can see it. It's like those
plastic flamingoes were designed to be made fenders out of.

After riding to the supermarket in today's Deluge of Noahic
Proportions I was thinking about rigging up a rubber bulb horn
with a duck call in it. A couple of rubber duck decoys might
make interesting toeclip covers.

Quoted message said:

Just like Fabrizio, bikes shouldn't be taken too seriously.

In Irving Stone's Freud bio-novel, "The Passions of the Mind"
he mentions how it was said: "In Berlin the situation is
serious but not hopeless. In Vienna the situation is hopeless
but not serious."

cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Zoot Katz said:

There's a plastic flamingo in the closet that's going to make a fine
rear fender. A molding vent hole in the tip of the tail attaches to
the brake-bridge. The molded attachment point for the wire legs takes
the fender-stays. A blinky fits around its neck. I can fill in the
bottom part with a hunk of busted Rat-Tail.

How about one of those swimming-swan shaped planters as a combination
front fender/basket, too?

Tom Keats said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
Zoot Katz <[email hidden]> writes:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

There's a plastic flamingo in the closet that's going to make a fine
rear fender. A molding vent hole in the tip of the tail attaches to
the brake-bridge. The molded attachment point for the wire legs takes
the fender-stays. A blinky fits around its neck. I can fill in the
bottom part with a hunk of busted Rat-Tail.

Quoted message said:

Oooh, I like it! Pink & lavender -- what an excellent clash.
And the elegance of it. I can see it. It's like those
plastic flamingoes were designed to be made fenders out of.

Quoted message said:

After riding to the supermarket in today's Deluge of Noahic
Proportions I was thinking about rigging up a rubber bulb horn
with a duck call in it. A couple of rubber duck decoys might
make interesting toeclip covers.

Don't you dare not post pictures when you (both of you) get these
projects done.

Bill

----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Arguments must therefore be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal |
| to emotions and instincts, not the intellect. Truth [is] unimportant |
| and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology. |
| -- Josef Goebbels |
----------------------------------------------------------------------

In article <[email hidden]>,

Quoted message said:

Don't you dare not post pictures when you (both of you) get these
projects done.

I'd need to first obtain a camera, and we'd both might need
a sunny (or at least non-rainy) day to take pix in.

The former is easier to accomplish than the latter.

cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Brian Huntley said:

Zoot Katz said:

There's a plastic flamingo in the closet that's going to make a fine
rear fender. A molding vent hole in the tip of the tail attaches to
the brake-bridge. The molded attachment point for the wire legs takes
the fender-stays. A blinky fits around its neck. I can fill in the
bottom part with a hunk of busted Rat-Tail.

How about one of those swimming-swan shaped planters as a combination
front fender/basket, too?

There's already a five inch plastic Halloween skull mounted between
the basket and front tire. (20" wheel, 27" fork)

There's not any sort of morbid death-cult fascination on my part. I
figure those skull tattoos, logos, mojos, belt buckles, badges, etc.
just advertise the wearer is a bone head.

All of my bikes bear such a mojo. So, consider yourselves warned.

The pink flamingo worked out well. The clip for the blinky suggests a
bow-tie. I going to strap a blinking pink latex strap-on to the stem
for Friday's ride. Let everybody know I'm a [censored] too. (|8-{)>

On last night's ride, while mulling a project unrelated to the basket,
it hit me that a net would serve the function. perfectly. A net could
be knotted around the existing framework like macrame. The materials,
tools and information are readily available. It might even look nice.
--
zk