(Photo courtesy Halley Weaver)

Here's a quick bike how-to that can save some space in a garage while minimizing drilling into the walls.

It's from Halley Weaver, who many Portlanders might know from her performances as a "zero-emissions harpist." With space at a premium in her garage, she threw together a simple plan to consolidate: hang the 12 bikes from the walls.

Weaver shares the specs on her blog:

We are renting the townhouse we’re in and can’t be drilling a ton of holes in our garage. What did we decide on doing? Due to our transportation confines, we got a 6″ x 2″ x 12′ board and had it cut in half at the hardware store. So now we have two 6′ boards. We picked up eight 4″ lag bolts (2 for each end of each board) and 12 bike hooks.

(more...)

Reader Reuben Deumling made
this wooden beauty for his little beauty.
(Photos: R. Deumling)

Reader and Portland resident Reuben Deumling recently shared a project with me that I wanted to pass along.

For the growing number of you who find yourselves needing/wanting to carry a little passenger along, he's come up with a very nice wooden child seat. I asked him to share a bit more about how and why he made it.

Reuben was frustrated at how quickly kids tend to outgrow the plastic, commercially available seats. His daughter is five, and rides her own bike, but Reuben says sometimes it's just easier to load her onto the seat and get rolling. The result looks great and from his daughter's smiles, it's darn comfortable too.

Here are some more photos... (more...)

Reader Doug C. from Beaverton just sent a few photos of an invention he calls the "Drycycle." Words can't really do it justice, so thankfully he also sent along some photos. Check it out:

"I get a lot of thumbs up when I'm riding. People aren't used to seeing it."

(more...)